270 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. LIV. No. 1395 



pathological Conference, whicli was peripatet- 

 ic, ending at Lancaster, Ohio. By means of 

 a sketch-map Mr. Brierley showed a com- 

 plicated personal itinerary, from Quebec as 

 a point of arrival, reaching to the southern 

 limits of the United States, and including 

 all the principal universities and biological 

 stations. He then indicated the most striking 

 and individual feature of American agricul- 

 ture, which he described as the main source 

 of wealth of the country. This was the almost 

 complete concentration in wide areas of a 

 single crop, so that there were 500 miles 

 together of maize, of cotton, or of rice, and 

 not much smaller areas of fruit or vegetables 

 for preserving. One consequence of this was 

 that plant disease ran riot through a whole 

 area, and the field problems confronting the 

 American agricultural biologist were so vast 

 and menacing as almost to destroy the pos- 

 sibility of academic research, except in the 

 eastern industrial regions, and to force the 

 whole available scientific personnel into the 

 field to stem a tide of disaster. In the in- 

 dustrial area, containing the older universities, 

 the biological work approximated closely to 

 that done in this counti-y in subject and mode 

 of attack, but in the state universities in the 

 newer agricultural regions — each with its own 

 single crop presenting urgent problems for 

 solution — certain feaures were noticeable: 

 (1) An early and extreme specialization, 

 subjects which were here studied after a 

 degree course in botany (such as plant pathol- 

 ogy), being themselves degree courses, and 

 the graduates, almost all of whom, from 

 economic pressure on individuals and the 

 crying need in the field, were unable to take 

 post-graduate training, immediately devoting 

 themselves exclusively to the study of a single 

 type of disease. (2) There was almost no 

 gradation between the academic biologist of 

 real eminence and national or international 

 reputation and the ordinary worker dealing 

 with a limited field of applied science. For 

 this reason the science on which their special- 

 ized practise was founded was apt to be too 

 much in the background. Coming back, he 

 felt Europe and England to be somewhat old. 



sophisticated, and contemptuous of youth. 

 America is young, and has all the boundless 

 energy of adolescence and its unique fervor. 

 Sir D. Hall, before opening the discussion, 

 pointed out that America was not a country 

 of farmers, but of industrialists working upon 

 the land. Consequently they were less tied 

 by tradition, and more ready to look to science 

 for help. On the other hand, the state legisla- 

 tures, which supported the biological work, 

 were very apt to demand immediate results, 

 and some promising work was spoiled by 

 premature publication. England should take 

 warning of the danger of allowing the legisla- 

 ture to get direct control of scientific research. 

 He wecomed such a visit as Mr. Brierley's as 

 a help towards counteracting the tendency in 

 all civilized countries to erect quarantine 

 walls against the entry of plants from abroad, 

 for fear of disease. This fear was easily ex- 

 ploited by commercial firms for their own 

 ends. The only way to get over the difficulty 

 was to establish such mutual confidence be- 

 tween biologists in different countries as to 

 render a guarantee of health given by the ex- 

 perts in any country absolutely trustworthy. 



THE RETIREMENT OF DR. W. H. JORDAN 



The faculty of Cornell University has 

 adopted the following resolutions : 



On the oeoasion of the retirement of Dr. Whit- 

 man Howard Jordan from the professorship of 

 animal nutrition in Cornell University and from 

 the directorship of the New York Agricultural Ex- 

 periment Station at Geneva, the members of this 

 faculty desire to record their appreciation of the 

 inestimable service which Professor Jordan has 

 rendered to science and to the scientific agriculture 

 of the state and of the nation. 



Professor Jordan assumed the directorship of 

 the esperiment station in 1896, a critical time for 

 agriculture and for the new experiment stations. 

 He brought to his work true scientific training, 

 gained as an undergraduate student at the Uni- 

 versity of Maine, as a postgraduate student at 

 Cornell University under the guidance of Professor 

 Caldwell, and as an assistant to Dr. Atwater at 

 the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station; 

 and long experience as a teacher of agriculture and 

 agricultural chemistry at the University of Maine 



