Febedart 1, 1918] 



SCIENCE 



10- 



cies may have real value. If one could 

 only, for example, fill in the gaps between 

 eyeads and ferns, or between monocots and 

 dicots! But such work as is now being 

 carried on by the Office of Foreign Seed 

 and Plant Introduction, of the U. S. De- 

 partment of Agriculture, with the deliber- 

 ate purpose of discovering useful plants 

 hitherto unknown or little known, and es- 

 tablishing them in new countries will do 

 more toward winning respect and support 

 for our science from the general public 

 than will the discovery of a new lichen or 

 of a new moss, and is quite as likely to 

 result in valuable scientific contributions. 

 The world is indebted to Fortune, a botan- 

 ical explorer and collector, for the intro- 

 duction of the tea plant into farther India. 



4. SANITATION 



(o) The purification of potable water 

 from deleterious vegetable life, including 

 the microscopic examination of water; a 

 problem fairly well solved at present. 



(6) Afforestation of the watersheds of 

 city reservoirs. 



5. AGRICULTTJEE AND HOETICULTUKE 



(a) Studies of soil-fertility, crop-rota- 

 tion, ensilage, utilization of unproductive 

 soils, plant diseases. Our friends the 

 chemists have always claimed the credit 

 for most of our knowledge of soil fertility, 

 but most botanists have never been able to 

 shake off the superstition that somehow or 

 other the successful growing of crops is, 

 in part at least, a botanical problem. It now 

 turns out' that the transformation of rock 

 phosphate, the oxidation of sulfur, and the 

 oxidation of iron in soils, aU essential to 

 soil fertility, are probably accomplished by 

 physiological processes of the soil flora, 



7 Brown, P. E., ' ' The Importance of Mold Ac- 

 tion in Soils," Science, N. S., No. 46, 171-175, 

 August 24, 1917. 



partly by the bacteria, but to a larger de- 

 gree by several species of molds. "Whether 

 the formation of available potassium is 

 also dependent on the action of molds 

 remains to be determined, and a whole 

 series of problems here opens up, equally 

 important to pure and to applied science. 



(b) Plant breeding, the application of 

 the fundamental principles of genetics to 

 the production of varieties of larger yield, 

 better quality, resistant to disease and 

 drought, adapted to soils hitherto of little 

 agricultural value (as blueberry culture on. 

 the pine barrens of New Jersey and else- 

 where), or adapted to varioas climatic 

 conditions. 



For example, recent experiments of Prit- 

 chard* indicate that differences in the size 

 and sugar content of individual beet roots 

 show no evidence of inheritance. They are 

 fluctuations, and play no part in the im- 

 provement of sugar beets. Pritchard con- 

 cludes that the cost of analyzing mother 

 beets is an absolute waste of money. But 

 a certain European firm is accustomed to 

 carry out several hundred thousand an- 

 alyses annually in the selection of roots 

 for seed production.' These anah-ses en- 

 tail a very large annual expenditure. It 

 therefore becomes a problem of consider- 

 able economic as well as scientific im- 

 portance. Many other similar problems 

 could be readily mentioned. 



6. FOOD, FIBER, AND DRUG SUPPLY 



(a) The cultivation of drug plants as 

 crops, and the endeavor to secure varieties 

 superior in yield or quality. 



(6) Study of the absolute and relative 

 food value of various plants, especially of 

 those little known or little used for food; 

 the utilization for food, drink, and fibers 



8 Jour. Amer. Soc. Agron., 8: 65-81, 1916. 

 » Harris, Am. Nat., August, 1917. 



