June 9, 1899.] 



SCIENCE. 



799 



and beadquarters have been established at 

 Cheyenne, Wj'omiug. It is hoped that some 

 work may be done during the present season 

 in most of the States and Territories west 

 of tlie Mississippi River in which irrigation 

 is practiced to anj' considerable extent. Ar- 

 rangements have also been made to aid the 

 New Jersey experiment stations in continu- 

 ing their investigations, which have already 

 attracted much favorable attention in the 

 East. 



As far as practicable the cooperation of 

 the experiment stations will be sought in 

 these investigations, and it is to be hoped 

 that one result of this work will be that 

 the stations will not only be able to de- 

 velop their investigations relating to irri- 

 gation in the lines in which the Depart- 

 ment will work under this appropriation, 

 but also in other important lines involving 

 operations by different divisions of the sta- 

 tion. It is believed that, by concentrating 

 their efforts on problems based on the re- 

 quirements of agriculture under irrigation, 

 the stations in a number of States and Ter- 

 ritories may materially enhance their use- 

 fulness. 



It should be clearly understood that the 

 irrigation investigations of this Department 

 are intended to cover only a limited por- 

 tion of the field of investigations relating 

 to agriculture under irrigation which the 

 stations and the different divisions of the 

 Department may properly undertake. An 

 effort will be made to mark out a line of 

 work for these investigations which will 

 give them a distinct place between the in- 

 vestigations of the Geological Survey rela- 

 ting to the topography and water supply of 

 the irrigated region, and those of the dif- 

 ferent branches of the Department and sta- 

 tions which relate to the climate and plants 

 of that region. Aside from the studies of 

 the laws and institutions of communities in 

 which irrigation is practiced, the irrigation 

 investigations will have for their chief ob- 



ject the detei'mination of the economic and 

 profitable utilization of water in agricul- 

 ture as it is supplied to the farmer through 

 reservoirs, canals and ditches. In these 

 investigations, as in nearly all others rela- 

 ting to the complex science of agriculture, 

 there will be many points of contact with 

 investigations conducted under other aus- 

 pices, and thus many opportunities for co- 

 operative effort will be presented. With so 

 large a field of operations and so great in- 

 terests at stake, there will be abundant 

 room for all the agencies now at work for 

 the benefit of agriculture of the irrigated 

 region to fully utilize all the means at their 

 command. Besides the development of the 

 irrigation investigations, the Department 

 will, for example, continue studies of alkali 

 soils, the native and cultivated plants and 

 trees best adapted to the arid regions, and 

 other related questions. 



The people of that vast area of our coun- 

 try in which agi'iculture and the other in- 

 dustries are so largely dependent on the 

 successful practice of irrigation are to be 

 congratulated that attention was more earn- 

 estly and successfully drawn to their needs 

 during the recent session of Congress than 

 ever before, and more ample provision than 

 heretofore was made for studying the prob- 

 lems of agriculture in that region, through 

 increased appropriations for the work of the 

 Geological Survey and different branches of 

 the Department of Agriculture. 



A. C. Tetje, 

 Director. 



THE INTERNATIONAL CATALOGUE OF SCI- 

 ENTIFIC LITERATURE.— SECOND 

 CONFERENCE. 



II. 



It becoming apparent that no early con- 

 clusion would be reached, based on the 

 resolution of Professor Armstrong, it was 

 withdrawn, and Dr. Adler moved " That 

 the registration symbols used in the Cata- 



