May 9, 1913] 



SCIENCE 



709 



support an institution by the payment of taxes 

 rightly feel that it is their institution. If it 

 engages for a considerable period of time in 

 activities of which they do not approve, or 

 which they regard as useless and frivolous they 

 will either withdraw their support, or if this 

 is practically impossible, they will, by the 

 pressure of public opinion, bring about changes 

 in its management until they get it controlled 

 by men whose policy meets with their ap- 

 proval. Every experiment station worker 

 knows this obvious fact. He must govern his 

 actions in accordance with it if he desires to 

 do any useful work in this field. Because of 

 this fact, which is from one point of view a 

 great advantage, the experiment stations have 

 come to take a very important part in the 

 promotion of scientific farming. Their 

 achievements in this direction, viewed as a 

 whole, over the past twenty-five years, are 

 noteworthy in a high degree. But doing this 

 has left but little time, energy, resources or 

 brains available for fundamental research in 

 agricultural science. 



The greatest need of organized agricultural 

 development in this country at the present 

 time is, I venture to think, an endowed insti- 

 tution for agricultural research, which shall do 

 for the science of agriculture what the Rocke- 

 feller Institute is doing for the science of 

 medicine. This need the state experiment 

 stations never can entirely fill, for the reason 

 that the farmers of the country collectively 

 are not and can not be expected to be quali- 

 fied to judge either (a) what are funda- 

 mental problems or fields in which research 

 should be carried on, or (&) what lines 

 of investigation are likely to advance knowl- 

 edge, or (c) what are appropriate methods of 

 investigation in general and in particular. 

 Yet these are matters which the interested tax- 

 paying public in actual fact does, and will con- 

 tinue to pass judgment iipon in the case of 

 tax-supported institutions. I have no criti- 

 cism to offer on this attitude of mind. It is 

 human, and understandable, and has led to 

 some excellent results, and I have no quarrel 

 with it whatsoever. I merely affirm that it is 

 not one well calculated to promote the ad- 

 -vance of science. He who will endow on a 



scale in some degree commensurate with the 

 importance of agriculture in the social and 

 economic system, an institute for agricultural 

 research and place its management in the 

 hands of a board of directors, of which a ma- 

 jority shall be scientific men of standing, will 

 do the world a service of inestimable value. 

 Eaymond Pearl 

 Biological Laboeatort, 



Agricultukal Experiment Station, 

 Orono, Maine 



blocks and segments 



In the issue of Science for January 31, 

 1913, Dr. Geo. I. Adams proposes the use of 

 the word segment for a general term to be 

 applied to a minor part of the earth having 

 the dimensions of a solid. He finds that this 

 term has already been used in Chamberlin 

 and Salisbury's text-book of geology in dis- 

 cussing continental and oceanic segments and 

 asks, " If it is applicable to major elements, 

 why not to minor ones as well ? " The note 

 is not untimely, as it is evident that there are 

 some divergent practices in the selection of 

 terms to denote the categories in question. 

 A quotation is given from a prominent geol- 

 ogist who uses the word segment in the way 

 to designate a minor part of the earth's ex- 

 terior marked off by some structure. It is not 

 evident, however, if the writer of the quota- 

 tion meant to use it in as wide a sense as 

 proposed in Dr. Adams's note; for it appears 

 that Dr. Adams would apply the name seg- 

 ment to all parts of the earth's exterior 

 marked off by faults. 



It seems that a term has long been in use, 

 at least among American geologists, to denote 

 a minor part of the earth's exterior marked 

 off by faults. This term is hloch, a short, 

 clear-cut, Anglo-Saxon word, very suitable for 

 such use as is now proposed for segment. 

 The use of the word segment by Chamberlin 

 and Salisbury is, as it appears to me, for the 

 purpose of denoting parts of the earth, more 

 or less commensurate with the geosphere it- 

 self. The term seems very appropriate in 

 that sense. Smaller parts of the earth's ex- 

 terior, marked off by faults or sharp folds, 

 especially when not discussed in connection 



