I."iO 



NATURE 



[December 8, 1898 



-scope and variety of its contents. Making every allow- 

 ance for the fact that the functions of the United States 

 Minister of Agriculture extend over an area practically 

 as large as that of Europe, and for the circumstance 

 that much of the agricultural practice of the western 

 hemisphere is still in the tentative stage, the volume is 

 nevertheless impressive on account of its encyclopaedic 

 character. Precedence is given to the annual report of 

 the Secretary, who is the political head of the Depart- 

 ment, his position being comparable with that of the 

 President of the Board of Agriculture in Great Britain. 

 This document, of which a preliminary issue was made 

 at the close of last year, occupies 50 p:ige5, and deals 

 •comprehensively with the whole work of the Department. 

 A section of 220 pages is next taken up by articles, nine- 

 teen in number, written by the heads of the several 

 -divisions of the Department, and setting forth the relation 

 •of the work of each division to the farming industry. 

 This, we may remark, is a special feature of the current 

 volume, and is the outcome of an express wish on the 

 part of the .Secretary, who took over the reins of otifice 

 for the first time last year. The third section, extending 

 to 340 pages, is one with which readers of the Year-book 

 are familiar, as it has been a feature of previous volumes. 



It consists, on this occasion, of a series of papers by ac- 

 knowledged authorities on such subjects as the fruit 

 ndustry, birds that injure grain, lawns and lawn-making, 

 utilisation of hybrids in plant-breeding, soil problems, 

 seed testing, leguminous forage crops, danger of im- 

 porting insect pests, and the utilisation of by-products 

 -of the dairy. An appendix of 140 pages is well filled 

 with a variety of useful matter, mainly statistical ; but 

 we do not observe at p. 7 14, where the area under wheat in 

 1897 is given as 39,465,066 acres, any reference to the fact 

 ^thai this represents a deviation of nearly 5,000,000 acres 

 form the true extent of surface thus occupied, the under- 

 estimate being apparently the result of an accumulation 

 of errors for a series of years. Lastly, the volume is 

 furnished with an admirable index of 32 pages, which 

 adds greatly to its value as a work of reference. 



A few examples, selected at hazard from different parts 

 of the year-book, will serve to indicate the nature and 

 value of the information which it conveys. .Attention has 

 been bestowed upon the investigation of certain crops, 

 the produce of which is largely imported, but which could 

 probably be grown with profit in the United States. 

 Chicory is a case in point ; the whole of this material 

 required for consumption has hitherto been imported, but 

 it is believed that in the course of ten years the country 



NO. I 5 19. VOL. 59] 



will be growing enough to entirely meet the honj 

 demand. Ten years ago the United States importil 

 annually about 130,000 dollars' worth of insect powdel 

 but the experimental cultivation of pyrelhrum in Ca 

 fornia proved a success, the result being that the impol 

 trade referred to has dwindled away. The loss in \.\\ 

 United States from the diseases affecting cereal crops 

 estimated to amount to 25,000,000 dollars or 30,000,0:1 

 dollars annually. Cotton, tobacco, potatoes and othil 

 staple crops are correspondingly damaged. In one yeji 

 the loss arising from diseases of orange, lemon and oth«l 

 citrus fruits was estimated at more than 450,000 doUail 

 in Florida alone. From plant-diseases of all kinds till 

 loss to the entire country is put at 150,000,000 dollars tj 

 200,000,000 dollars annually. Against such calamitiel 

 the work in the division of vegetable pathology is makin 

 steady progress, and significant examples are given c 

 the benefit that has thus already accrued to the grape 

 grower, the nurseryman and the orchardist. Thj 

 diversification of crops is advocated as a check upuj 

 '"the marked geographic concentration of agricultural 

 productions," which has resulted in twenty-five States, 1 

 just half the total number, producing 98 per cent, of t 

 cotton, 95 per cent, of the maize, 95 per cent, of ti 

 barley, 93 per cent, of the oat^. a 

 from 80 to 90 per cent, of the u ' e 

 rve, buckwheat, tobacco, potatoe- ,11 

 hay grown in the entire coliiVj 

 Soils are being studied with a •.!■. ■ 

 roughness that is probably unpn. '. 

 leled. The classification of soiN . : 

 a geological basis, their texture, the 

 structure, and their relation to water 

 are receiving the fullest attention 

 With regard to the cause of the movi' ; 

 ment of water in soils, " it was unde 1 

 stood that it was the contractile powi 

 of the film of water around the so;. 

 grains that caused the movement n, 

 water to the plant. It appears no\' 

 from a minute study of this problem 

 that the movement is dependent upor 

 the curvature of this film rather thar 

 upon the total area of its surface 

 .Many an English traveller on the 

 western prairies has been struck bv 

 the seemingly harsh and innutritiou- 

 herbage upon which cattle anl 

 horses nevertheless live and thrivi 

 A discussion of the value as forage of so-called weeci> 

 permits a reference to various plants which are drought 

 resisting, or thrive on alkali lands, and are valii- I 

 able as forage. They include white sage {ArUmisit 

 spp.), green sage {Bigel(n'ia spp.), sweet sage or 

 winter fat {Eiirotia lanala), salt sage {Atriplcx spp., 

 and grease wood {Sarcobatus vermiculalus). It is 

 probable that these could be profitably grown under 

 cultivation, and thus made to yield a much larger amount! 

 of forage than is now obtained. The contention that 

 every farm is an experiment station cannot be contro- 

 verted, and it would be advantageous to farmers in all 

 countries were thev more habituated to the regular iisf 

 of the note-book. The cultivation of catch crops to main 

 tain a supply of nitrogen in the soil, is a headline thai 

 cannot fail to attract the eye of English agriculturists. If 

 catch-cropping is understood and intelligently practisei. 

 anywhere, it is on the light arable lands of England, 

 where the system may almost be said to h.ave originated 

 — at a time, moreover, when practice was in advance ol 

 science, for farmers had approved and adopted tne system 

 before the extension of our knowletlge of the nitrogen 

 problem had supplied the theoretical justification. The 

 work of the chemical division with regard to the develop- 

 ment of cane and beet, and other sugar-producing crops. 



