
24 
tion of which will be the breeding and distributing of improved 
varieties of agricultural crops. The plan in question was very 
fully described by Mr. Lawrence Weaver, of the Board of Agri- 
culture, at a meeting of the Agricultural Seed Association held on 
July 15. It appears that the new institute will be modelled on the 
famous Swedish plant-breeding station at Svalof, and that its 
activities will follow two distinct lines, one of which will be purely 
scientific, while the other will have a commercial outlook. More 
precisely, the scientific wing will be concerned with the producing 
of pure cultures of new varieties on the field-plot scale; the eco- 
nomic wing will deal with the growing and distribution on a large 
scale of these varieties. It is announced that subscriptions 
towards the establishment of the new institute, amounting in the 
aggregate to upwards of £30,000 have already been received, in- 
cluding a sum of £10,000 down and £2,000 a year for five years 
from a commercial firm, and that the Board of Agriculture will 
provide the necessary buildings and equipment. (Science N. S. 
48: 572. D6’18.) 
A correspondent of the American Rose Society, who was at the 
very front in Belgium on November 11, reports that the next 
day, November 12, the roads were crowded with Belgians return- 
ing home, bringing their few remaining home possessions with 
them, on wheelbarrows, in baby coaches, and on their backs, 
Of beasts of burden they had none, nor of ordinary wheeled 
vehicles. The retreating Huns had stripped them after four 
years of continual oppression. The same correspondent reports 
that he was moved to tears as he saw these folks returning home, 
all carrying flower s, wherever they could find a blossom to bedeck 
themselves. 

