934 ACRICl'LTTTRAL MKTKOROLOGY 



4) Chemistry. — Analysis of soils, fertilizer and agricultural products; 

 not only those originating in the Station but those sent from without. This 

 Department also has certain well-defined fertility problems for investiga- 

 tion. 



5) Pathology and Entomology. — This is one of the most important 

 Departments, since it has to deal with the difficult problems of the study 

 of insect and plant diseases and proper methods for eradicating them. 

 The problem has been more difficult owing to the fact that the tropics offer 

 ideal conditions for the development of plant enemies, both insect and 

 fungoid, and since so little work of this kind has been done in the tropics. 



6) Animal diseases. — The laboratory carrying on investigations 

 in animal diseases, and engaged in preparing vaccines and serums, was estab- 

 lished under the direct supervision of the office of the Secretary of Agricul- 

 ture and was transferred to the Station in March 1914. While it has the 

 stud}^ of animal diseases in general, its principal work at the present time 

 is the preparation of vaccines used in combating anthrax, black-leg, and 

 hog cholera. 



7) Veterinary Medicine and Animal Husbandry. — This Department 

 is charged with the introduction and breeding of the best breeds of domestic 

 animals, the stud}' of butter and cheese making, the feeding values of various 

 Cuban-grown feeds, and also the study of animal diseases. 



While each Department has its own apparatus and problems, yet there 

 is no fine line of demarcation between them and the closest cooperation among 

 all officers is fostered. 



CROPS AND CUIvTlVATION. 

 AGRicDLTURAL 723 " TemperatuFe Changes due to Terrestrial Radiation and Relation of the Latter 



METEOROLOGY tO Plant GrOWth. — roster Oiorgio, ill Atti ddlii Rcalc Accadcmia dci Cn'or-otili di 



Firenze, 163rd Year, Part I, pp. 1-27. Florence, January 1916. 



The altitude chosen for meteorological observatories, their inevitable 

 northerly exposure, and the arrangements for protecting the instruments 

 from local influences, create an artificial environment differing too much 

 from that of plant life Consequently the information gained hardly admits 

 of application to such life. The proper course would be for all determina- 

 tions made for purposes of agriciilture (such as mean temperature of seasons, 

 months and days, mean and absolute extremes, heat variaticns at short 

 intervals causing variabilit}^ of climate) to be conducted under heat, light, 

 wind and moisture conditions as near as possible to those of plant life. 



Maximum and minimum thermometers are best placed ih the open air. 

 If there is only one instrument it should be put at a height of 3 ft. 3 ins.; a 

 second, if available, at a height of 6 ft. 6 ins. A third might very usefully 

 be put under high timber trees at a height of 4 ft. 11 ins., in order to 

 ascertain what amount of protection from terrestrial radiation these trees 

 afford to plants under cover of them. In his garden of Otonella, island of 

 Elba, Italy, the writer found that a thermometer placed under the dense 



