528 



NA TURE 



[March 29, 1900 



AUSTRALIAN EXPERIMENTAL FARMS. 

 'X'HE importance attached by the various Australian Govern- 

 •*■ ments to the encouragement of agriculture is shown in the 

 fact that in most of the colonies a department of agriculture has 

 been established, the official head of which is a member of the 

 colonial ministry. In New South Wales a site suitable for a 

 central establishment was selected at Ham Common, near the 

 town of Richmond, in the Hawkesbury district, about 39 miles 

 from Sydney, where an area of about 4000 acres was resumed 

 for the purpose. The college and farm are now in their seventh 

 year of existence. Accommodation is provided for ninety-six 

 resident students, and during 1898 there was a full roll. Theo- 

 retical as well as practical instruction is imparted by experts in 

 every branch of agriculture, and experimental work is carried on 

 with cereal and other crops. There is an orchard, 30 acres in 

 extent, and a vineyard, 10 acres in extent, and the cultivation 

 of plants for the production of scent has also been begun. 

 There are also experimental farms at Bomen, 304 miles from 

 Sydney, in the Murrumbidgee district ; and at Wollongbar, 

 366 miles from Sydney, in the Richmond River district. The 

 former is near the town of Wagga Wagga, and embraces an 

 area of 2460 acres, of which 1200 acres are in cultivation, 1000 

 acres being devoted to growing cereals, of which 500 acres are 

 for seed wheat ; 85 acres to fruit trees and grape-vines, and 80 

 acres to forage plants ; while 8 acres are under olive trees ; the 

 remaining portion being taken up by irrigation plots, nursery 

 and experimental plots. Quarters have been provided for 

 twenty-five students. At the Wollongbar Farm experiments 

 have been made with sugar-canes obtained from New Guinea, 

 sugar cultivation being a staple industry on the Clarence, 

 Richmond, and other northern rivers. Experiments with grasses 

 for the grazing of dairy caitle have been carried on, and steps 

 taken to assist the dairying industry, which is greatly on the 

 increase in the northern parts of the colony. Other trials are 

 being made with citrus fruits, pineapples, bananas, and various 

 other tropical and semi-tropical fruits. The total area of the 

 farm is 263 acres. The experimental farm at Bathurst, 145 

 miles from Sydney, is largely devoted to the cross-breeding of 

 sheep, irrigation, fruit-growing, cereal culture, and general 

 mixed farming. The area of the farm is 596 acres, to which 

 leased areas of 176 acres have been added. The area under 

 cultivation is 370 acres. There are 1000 sheep and lambs on 

 the farm ; and nine students have been enrolled. Another farm 

 is situate at Coolabah, in ihe dry country, about 424 miles from 

 Sydney, where there are about 200 acres in cultivation, trials 

 being systematicatly made with various kinds of wheat, maize, 

 sorghum, cow-peas, grasses, fodders, and so on. There is also 

 a travelling instructor, whose duty it is to visit the rural districts 

 and give personal advice and practical demonstration in all 

 matters connected with agriculture. Under the direction of the 

 Government pathologist, investigations are carried out at »he 

 laboratories at the Sydney, Bathurst, and Wagga Wagga farms. 

 At a laboratory at Pymble, a few miles from Sydney, the 

 diseases of citrus plants have formed the subject of special 

 inquiry. Operations at Bathurst are not specially directed to 

 agriculture, but are confined more to the diseases of stock ; but 

 at Wagga Wagga the work of the laboratory is mainly in con- 

 nection with wheat and other farm crops. 



UNI VE RSI TV AND ED UCA TIO NA L 

 INTELLIGENCE. 



A SCHOOL of forestry is to be established at Yale University. 

 The large estate bequeathed by the late Prof. O. C. Marsh will 

 be used as a school of botany, and will also be used for the 

 present as a school of instruction in forestry. 



Besides the degrees recognised by the State, the universities 

 of France can grant degrees exclusively scientific, but which con- 

 fer none of the rights or privileges belonging to the State 

 degrees, and which must in no case be declared as equivalent to 

 them. We learn from the Lancet that the Nancy faculty of 

 medicine is not content with its power to present candidates 

 for the university doctorate as regards medicine, but desires 

 the right to present for a degree persons who have shown their 

 especial knowledge in biological science. The council of the 

 University of Nancy has agreed to this proposition, and accepted 

 it at a special meeting. The resolution has just been approved 

 by the Minister of Public Instruction, and so, starting during 



NO. 1587, VOL. 61] 



the current scholastic year, the faculty of medicine at Nancy is 

 authorised to present candidates for the new degree, which is 

 the first of the kind to exist in France. 



The unsatisfactory condition of the teaching of geography in 

 this country should afford plenty of scope for the work of the 

 Geographical Association, which aims "to improve the teaching 

 of geography by spreading the knowledge of all such methods as 

 call out the pupil's intelligence and reasoning powers and make 

 geography a real educational discipline, instead of merely loading 

 the memory with names and isolated facts." The membership 

 of the Association has hitherto been limited to teachers in 

 secondary schools and others interested in public school educa- 

 tion. At the recent annual meeting, its boundaries were ex- 

 tended, and the Association is now open to all teachers of geo- 

 graphy, and to other persons desirous of encouraging improved 

 methods of geographical instruction. Geography as it is usually 

 taught ought to be banished from our schools, for it is of no 

 scientific value whatever, and benumbs a child's intellect instead 

 of developing it. When the authorities which supervise and 

 examine the work done in primary and secondary schools take a 

 wider view of geography than at present exists, when, in fact, 

 they make geography mean physiography, there will be hope for 

 the rational methods of teaching which the Geographical Asso- 

 ciation seeks to encourage. 



A SHORT time ago it was proposed to form a Bureau or 

 School of Research in Washington, under the supervision of the 

 Smithsonian Institution. The Regents of the Institution are in 

 sympathy with the scheme, but they consider that their present 

 powers are scarcely broad enough to embrace the work pro- 

 posed. They may, however, decide to ask Congress to provide 

 the means for organising the scientific work of the various 

 Government departments, and for co-operating with the uni- 

 versities and colleges of the United States in systematic research 

 work. The Bureau would be in connection with the proposed 

 National University, upon which subject a sub-committee of the 

 National Educational Association has just presented a report. 

 The committee suggests that if the Smithsonian Institution is 

 unable to take the initiative in the matter, the Bureau of 

 Education shall become the administrative centre of the Bureau 

 of Research. Under the terms of either of the plans proposed, 

 it is assumed that the persons admitted to carry on research will 

 be graduates of a college or university in good standing, or will 

 have had an equivalent training. The committee point out that 

 such a bureau of research, whether it be placed under the care 

 of the Smithsonian Institution or under that of the Department 

 of Education — which would supersede the existing Bureau of 

 Education — would be a source of strength to the higher educa- 

 tion of the United States and a great advantage to the Govern- 

 ment in its work of promoting the progress of science and the 

 useful arts, and in applying the result of scientific investigation 

 to the development of the natural resources of the country, of 

 agrif ulture, of manufactures, and of commerce. 



SCIENTIFIC SERIALS. 



American Journal of Science, March. — Hot water and soft 

 glass in their thermodynamic relations, by C. Barus. Glass 

 shares the property of colloids, of being soluble in a liquid when 

 the latter is hot enough. Glass is dissolved in water heated 

 under pressure to 210°. Every glass at a sufficiently high tem- 

 perature must eventually show complete solubility in water. 

 Such solutions are, however, unstable at ordinary temperatures. 

 The solubility of silicates in very hot water has an important 

 bearing upon natural phenomena. Sea- water more than 200 

 metres below the surface of the ocean will remain liquid at 

 200°. If, therefore, water from anywhere below that depth 

 penetrates into the earth as far as the isotherm for 200°, the 

 rock there, if of the character of glass, will become liquefied, 

 apart from pressure. The hydrated silicate is thus virtually 

 fluid 8 kilometres below the surface, and the level of aqueous 

 fusion is five times as near the surface as that of igneous fusion. 

 — An electrical thermostat, by W. Duane and C. A. Lory. 

 The thermostat, which is of very high efficiency, consists of a 

 wooden trough containing an ordinary salt solution, which is 

 heated by an electric light current introduced through zinc 

 plates at the ends of the trough. The regulating device is a set 

 of brass tubes filled with alcohol, whose expansion depresses a 

 thread of mercury in one arm of a U-tube, and thus makes 



