322 • Kansas Academy of Science. 



1. The writer would show the origin of the several soils by- 

 printing small geological maps of the several counties sur- 

 veyed. 



2. He would drop from the names of the several soils such 

 meaningless terms as Oswego, Selby, Osage, Boone and Craw- 

 ford. These terms cannot, from the nature of the case, apply 

 to soils of several counties east or west. 



3. The writer believes that the small maps of the Illinois 

 soil surveys are more serviceable. 



RESPIRATION. 



It is now well understood by all physiologists that plants as 

 well as animals need a constant renewal of the supply of oxy- 

 gen in every living protoplasmic cell to release the energy 

 locked up in the sugars, oils and proteins for the cell activities, 

 or they die. But it is not so generally understood that the 

 stem and root cells get their supply of oxygen from the soil; 

 hence the need of thorough aeration of the soil through deep 

 and frequent cultivation. The sandy loams and the silt loams 

 are naturally more porous and better aerated than the clay 

 loams ; hence the need of more humus and more thorough cul- 

 tivation of the last. 



PLANT AND ANIMAL FOODS. 



Foods are now defined as those substances which can be so 

 changed by enzymes (usually from colloids to crystalloids, or 

 from oils to soaps or emulsions) that they may be taken 

 through the walls of living protoplasmic cells, and in the cells 

 be used for the increase of protoplasm, or be oxidized for the 

 release of energy. The starch and gluten of kernels of com, 

 wheat, rice, barley, etc., are as truly foods, under this defini- 

 tion, for the embryos of these seeds as they are for animals 

 when they eat them. Much of the oil of most seeds is already 

 in the embryos while these are in a resting condition, and may 

 have been manufactured in the cell where found, but these oils 

 still possess an essential quality of food — they may be oxidized 

 for energy. The indefensible practice of calling certain min- 

 eral substances plant foods is being rapidly abandoned by 

 scientists, and only lingers in textbooks of agriculture and in 

 the advertisements of dealers in fertilizers. 



