SCIENCE 



A WEEKLY JOURNAL DEVOTED TO THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE, PUBLISHING THE 



OFFICIAL NOTICES AND PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION 



FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE. 



Friday, December 18, 1908 



CONTENTS 



Chemical Principles of Soil Classification: 

 Pbofessob Cyril G. Hopkins 857 



Extracts from President Roosevelt's Message 

 to the Congress 868 



Wolcott Oibls 875 



President Roosevelt's African Trip 876 



French Vital Statistics 877 



The American Society of Animal Nutrition . . 878 



Symposium on Correlation 878 



The American Society of Naturalists 879 



Scientific Notes and News 880 



University and Educational News 884 



Discussion and Correspondence: — 

 The Five Hundredth Anniversary of the 

 University of Leipzig: Professob Charles 

 H. JuDD. Malaria in the West Indies: H. 

 A. Ballon. The Odonata of Meccico: Dr. 

 Philip P. Calvert 884 



Quotations : — 

 Clerical Healing 886 



Scientific Books: — 

 Haug's Traits de GSologie: Reginald A. 

 Dalt. Barton's Text-book on Sound: Pro- 

 fessor D. W. Hering. Curtis on the 

 Nature and Development of Plants: J. E. 

 KiRKWOOD. Terry's India-rubber and its 

 Mamifacture: Professor Francis E. Lloyd 886 



Special Articles: — 



The Acclimatization of an Alfalfa Variety 



in Minnesota: Charles J. Brand 891 



The Convocation Week Meetings of Scientific 

 Societies 892 



Societies and Academies: — 



The Biological Society of Washington: 

 M. C. Marsh. The Philosophical Society 

 of Washington: R. L. Faris. The North- 

 eastern Section of the American Chemical 

 Society : Pbofessob Frank H. Thorp .... 894 



MSB. intended for pubLc^iUun uud books, etc., intended for 

 review should be sent to the Editor of Sciesce, Garrison-on- 

 liudson, N. Y. 



CHEMICAL PRINCIPLES OF SOIL 

 CLASSIFICATION ' 



It seems appropriate to preface this 

 paper with some direct quotations from a 

 recent publication of national authority 

 which deal with important questions con- 

 cerning the chemical principles of the soil. 



I read from the " Hearings before the 

 Committee on Agi-iculture of the United 

 States House of Representatives " under 

 date of January 28, 1908. 



Mr. Whitney, Chief of the Bureau of Soils. 

 The invesrtigations of the Bureau of Soils, as to 

 the causes of the deterioration of soils, and the 

 causes that limit crop production, have changed 

 the view-point of the entire world. The recent 

 investigations of the bureau in soil fertility have 

 changed the thought of the world, and several 

 foreign governments, notably the governments of 

 France, of Japan, of South Africa, and of Aus- 

 tralia, have taken up these new ideas of soil fer- 

 tility. (Pp. 428, 429.) 



The Chairman. A few years ago the bureau 

 issued a bulletin which was generally construed 

 as meaning to state the proposition that all soils 

 had all the plant food necessary for a maximum 

 growth or crop. The inference, of course, from 

 that was that, such being the case, one soil was 

 as good as another. Now, I would like to know 

 whether the popular conception of that bulletin 

 was wrong or whether the position of the bureau 

 has changed. 



Mr. Whitney. That touches on the chemical 

 side of the investigations of the bureau, and we 

 have Mr. Cameron here, who did the work, and 

 possibly he might answer that. (P. 439.) 



Mr. Cameron. I would say that the main 

 opposition to this view has been from Dr. Hop- 

 kins, from the University of Illinois. 



^ Address before the American Society of Agron- 

 omy at Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, 

 July 11, 1908. 



