280 BOTANICAL GAZETTE. [Oct., 
there is great diversity of interest in a section makes it a far more comfortable 
one to be associated with, as it does not compel a burdensome attendance, and 
gives chance to learn something of the other work of the Association, as wel 
as to cultivate friendships. As it is, the section of biology burdens no one, ex- 
cepting its officers, and yet one can hear everything he desires. Botanical pa- 
pers are good things, but botanical papers morning, noon and night for days in 
succession would rpaiee tiresome even to botanists. Then there is great ob- 
jection to excessive subdivisions in the matter of machinery and reference of 
papers. The scahlieale 3 is already eu mbersome enough, and even now papers 
on immunity from contagious diseases, would be almost impossible to refer 
properly in the proposed division. Large in attendance and diverse in inter- 
est as the section of biology is, we believe it as yet gives the most convenient and 
complete arrangement of subjects and opportunities that can be made 
THe TIME being nearly at hand for putting together and summing up the 
results of the year’s work, suggests the consideration of a class of public insti- 
se having more or less to do with botany, whose annual reports may prop- 
y be the subject of criticism: we have in mind the experiment stations deal- 
re droete agricultural and allied subjects. Their work is two-fold in character, 
hi 
— value for his labors, and the latter to the man who desires to apply it 
ard the establishment of some new principle or fact os universal ae é 
served by Lord Rayleigh, in his Montreal address, “ Sihashed and ‘u-nasietid 
facts are only raw material, and, in the absence of a theoretical solvent, have 
but little nutritive value.” It is this want of digestion which does much to- 
ward rendering the majority of experiment station reports a conglomeration of 
details, explanations, facts, deductions, illustrations and hypotheses, which 
neither the commercial nor scientific man is disposed to work over into useable 
shape. A decided advantage might be gained by placing the undigested facts 
and other separable data by themselves, which would bring the directly appli- 
cable part of the report into readable com mpass. A division of the latter into 
the commercial and the scientific could then be made. The commercial part 
uld be non-technical, and be a clear statement of the results of the year, in 
so far as they may be of value to the farmer, gardener, stock-raiser, etc. The 
scientific part should state with equal clearness and brevity the facts and de- 
ductions of permanent and universal value, and point out their relation to 
what has been previously established. Some such plan of making the material 
of these reports more available would add to the good reputation of the insti- 
tutions and to their usefulness 
