482 



NATURE 



[January 8, 1920 



on them. Dr. Harmer's notochord, proboscis-vesicle, 

 and heart are Dr. Masterman's subneural gland, sub- 

 neural sinus, and preoral sac respectively, and Master- 

 man has demonstrated that the subneural gland of 

 Cephalodiscus and the " Eicheldarm " of Balanoglossus 

 occupy entirely different relationships from the sur- 

 rounding organs in each case, and therefore cannot 

 be homologous. In both Balanoglossus and Actino- 

 trocha there is a large subneural sinus. The presence 

 of pleurochords in Cephalodiscus, of lateral grooves 

 in Tornaria, and of pharyngeal pleurochords in 

 Rhabdoplcura, terminating (as in Tornaria) in oral 

 grooves, which Morgan has shown grow outward into 

 serial pouches, are points of interest in connection 

 with Dr. Masterman's view. Besides, in Balano- 

 glossus there are other chordo'd parts in addition to 

 the notochord of Bateson and Harmer. Larval 

 Enteropneusta, again, have a pharynx with simple, 

 paired pleurochords terminating in lateral grooves. It 

 has to be borne in mind that Davidoff describes the 

 notochords and nervous system in certain Tunicales as 

 arising from paired rudiments, and the same observa- 

 tion has been made by Brooks in Salpa. In any 

 case, as Masterman shows, Roule's view that Actino- 

 trocha is a trochophore cannot be held, since the cavity 

 of the latter is a hsemocele, whereas the h^mocele 

 of Actinotrocha is restricted to a small space between 

 the ccelomic sacs. The whole subject is a complex 

 one, vet it mav be that further research will weld these 

 diverse views into harmony. Meanwhile, Masterman's 

 opinions have much in their favour. 



The memoir concludes with a useful synopsis of the 

 species of Cephalodiscus, and the five plates are excel- 

 lently drawn and lithographed, the map at the end 

 showing at a glance the distribution of the various 

 species, the whole forming a worthv tribute to the 

 methodical and patient industry of the author, who, 

 along with Dr. Harmer, of the same great museum, 

 has done so much to extend our knowledge of this 

 verv remarkable groiip. W. C. M. 



THE ITHACA AGRICULTURAL EXPERI- 

 MENTAL STATION.^ 



AGRICULTURAL experts visiting the United 

 -'■ *■ States always include the Ithaca Experimental 

 Station in their programme if they can possibly 

 manage to do so, for it is one of the finest and largest 

 in that country of large institutions. Incidentally 

 also, it appeals to all who read and loved Fenimore 

 Cooper in their younger days, for it is situated in 

 the lake country, and still preserves some of the 

 waterfalls and woods associated with his heroic, if 

 somewhat mythical, warriors. 



The reports before us are bulky volumes, each of a 

 thousand or twelve hundred pages; they are in keep- 

 ing in point of size with the whole institution. The 

 list of the staff occupies four closely printed pages, and 

 includes nearly two hundred names. The number of 

 printed copies of bulletins, reports, etc., sent out 

 during one year only was 3,014,000. The State grant 

 •was 450,000 dollars in 1913; it rose during the war 

 to 779,401 dollars for the year 1917-18. An English- 

 man reading these figures, and realising how greatly 

 the income of this one institution exceeds that of «11 

 English agricultural colleges and experimental .stations 

 put together, begins to gasp when he finds the acting 

 Dean declaring: — "The f?reatest single need of the 

 college at the present time is more funds for re- 

 search " ; and again, "In common with other col- 

 leges in the University, the College of Agriculture is 



^ Reports of the Agricultuial Experimental Station, Ithaca, New York, for 

 the Years 1914-17. 



NO. 2619, VOL. 104] 



suffering because of the inadequate salaries which 

 members of the staff are receiving." 



The investigations cover the whole field of agricul- 

 ture, but as no summaries are given it is not easy 

 to find one's way through them. 



A large number of the bulletins deal with diseases 

 and pests of farm and garden crops, devoting special 

 attention to practical methods of coping with them. 

 In this type of work the American investigator excels; 

 we have scarcely begun to make provision for field- 

 work in plant pathology in Great Britain, although a 

 promising start has been made with the more funda- 

 mental investigations. An extended series of observa- 

 tions on the nodule organism {Bacillus .radicicola) of 

 soybean is given in Bull. 386; the general result is 

 that nodule formation can be considerably checked or 

 stimulated by the presence or absence of certain salts 

 and by variations in the amount of soil-moisture. 

 Chlorides, phosphates, calcium salts, and certain 

 organic compounds such as sugars, starch, oxalic, 

 lactic, and citric acids, increase the amount of nodule 

 formation ; increases in moisture-content had a notable 

 effect also. On the other hand, nitrates, ammonia 

 compounds, and sulphates reduce it, though they do 

 net kill the organism. 



The direct assimilation of certain carbohydrates by 

 green plants is discussed in Memoir 9 (1916). Sac- 

 charose, glucose, maltose, and fructose are directly 

 absorbed and utilised by plants (green maize, Canada 

 field pea, timothy, radish, vetch, etc.); moreover, 

 they produce a characteristic branched-root system. 

 It is suggested that the absorbed sugar is largely 

 utilised in the root itself, but little migrating to the 

 stems and leaves ; this diminishes the downward 

 migration of the sugar produced by photosynthesis 

 and leads to increased top growth. Certain plants, 

 such as radishes, vetch, and Canada field pea, are 

 able to utilise lactose, although this sugar has not 

 been found in the vegetable kingdom. Curiously 

 enough, however, galactose is toxic to green plants, 

 although it is utilised by various fungi. The bearing 

 of the results on the old question of the source of 

 carbon for plants is obvious, and the author con- 

 cludes, as Laurent did in 1904, that the organic matter 

 of soil plays a direct part in the nutrition of green 

 plants, and in certain circumstances, notably in glass- 

 house work, this part may be very important. 



The soil survevs of Oneida County (Bull. 362) and 

 of Orange County (Bull. 351) are typical of this kind 

 of work as done'in .America. They form interesting 

 reading, and would be helpful to a young man wish- 

 ing to settle on the land but uncertain to which 

 part of the country to turn. 



Costs of production of farm crops form the subject 

 of an important investigation (Bull. 377, 1Q16). In 

 igi2 and 1913 the average costs of producing oats 

 per acre in New York State were respectively 

 23-.i;i dollars and 22-34 dollars per acre, i.e. 4I. t8s. 

 and 4I. 13.';. respectivelv. It is interesting to compare 

 these figures with the Rothamsted data, where the 

 cost in 1913 was 61. 4f. per acre. In both cases one 

 of the largest single items is labour; in New York 

 State it was 3-60 dollars per acre (155. ), at Rotham- 

 sted 2JS. 4d. per acre, althou£?h the rate of wa.tfes 

 paid in New York was double that paid in this 

 countrv. The New York yield was 33-5 bushels per 

 acre, that at Rothamsted 48 bushels. 



Bull. 338 contains an interesting studv of fertile and 

 infertile' soil otherwise similar in character: it was 

 found that the former more readily accumulated nitrates 

 than the latter. The most obvious cause was the 

 difference in compactness of the soil, the fertile beins? 

 less compact and having a smaller volume-weifht 

 than the less fertile one. An extensive bacteriological 



