SCIENCE 



Friday, February 8, 1918 



CONTENTS 

 The American Association for the Advance- 

 ment of Science: — 



The Future of Agricultural Education and 

 Sesearch in the United States: Professor 

 Whitman H. Jordan 125 



Scientific Events: — 



Committee on the British Chemical Trade; 

 Iron Ore in 1917; The Fisheries Conference ; 

 Medical Training Camps 134 



Scientific Notes and News 138 



Ujiiversity and Educational News 141 



Discussion and Correspondence: — 

 Cycadoid Wood Structure: Dr. G. B. Wie- 

 LAND. The Eelation between Age and Area 

 in the Distriiution of Plants: E. F. An- 

 drews. Origin and Development of the 

 Photogenic Organs of Photuris Pennsyl- 

 vanica: Dr. Walter N. Hess. Joseph 

 Young Bergen: Professor Edwin H. 

 Hall 141 



Scientific Books: — 



The Caster-Counter and the Counting-Board : 

 PBorEssoR David Eugene Smith. Jones on 

 the Nature of Solutions: Professor Wilder 

 D. Bancroft 144 



Special Articles: — 

 Comparative Permeability of Fertilized and 

 Unfertilized Eggs to Water: Professor 

 Ralph S. Lillie 147 



The American Society of Naturalists: Pro- 

 fessor Bradley M. Davis 149 



MSS. intended for publication and booka, etc., intended tor 

 review should be sent to The Editor </f Science, Gamson-on- 

 HudaOD, N. Y. 



THE FUTURE OF AGRICULTURAL 



EDUCATION AND RESEARCH IN 



THE UNITED STATES i 



Education and research in the interests 

 of agriculture have become important fac- 

 tors in the dail.v thought and activities of 

 this nation. Those of us who saw the be- 

 ginnings of the great educational move- 

 ment which had its inception during the 

 Civil War now contemplate its magnitude 

 and influence with a feeling akin to that 

 of amazement. More than one hundred 

 land grant colleges and agricultural experi- 

 ment stations are now in active operation, 

 which were manned under pre-war condi- 

 tions by over 7,000 administrative officers, 

 teachers and investigators, using a com- 

 bined income of over twenty-five million 

 dollars and instructing between forty and 

 fifty thousand students, besides carrying 

 on extensive lines of research. More than 

 all this, as a by-product of the Land Grant 

 Act of 1862, a great system of popular edu- 

 cation has been organized and Farm Bu- 

 reau agents and extension teachers are now 

 in touch with a large majority of our farm- 

 ing people. 



This new movement in education, gen- 

 erally spoken of as vocational, which was 

 regarded in its earliest days as a danger- 

 ous innovation, has not only attained a re- 

 markable development, but has without 

 question exercised a modif3'ing influence 

 over the educational policy and methods of 

 the older universities and colleges. 



That these institutions have performed 



1 Vice-presidential address before Section M. 

 American Association for the Advancement of Sci- 



