86 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XL VI. No. 1178 



Institution of Washington. 

 Director Frederic A. Lucas, of The American Mu- 

 seum of Natural History. 



The income from this gift to the academy 

 will be sufficient to award the first medal and 

 honorarium at the April meeting, 1918. Dr. 

 Henry Fairfield O shorn has been designated 

 by the president of the academy to act as chair- 

 man. 



WESTERN AGRONOMIC WORKERS 



The second annual meeting of western 

 agronomic workers will be held at the Wash- 

 ington State Agricultural College, Pullman, 

 Washington, and the University of Idaho, 

 Moscow, Idaho (only nine miles apart), on 

 July 31 and August 1 and 2, inclusive. The 

 geographic scope of the gathering is the eleven 

 western states occupying the territory from 

 the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific Ocean. 



The following topics will be discussed dur- 

 ing the session : 



1. Where and to what extent is it possible to 

 eliminate summer fallow? 



2. Potation systems for irrigation sections. 



3. Potation systems for coast and intermedi- 

 ate sections. 



4. Rotation systems for dry land. 



5. Organic matter and nitrogen content of 

 soil as aiiected by cropping systems. 



6. Irrigation and alkali studies. 



Y. Methods and organization for supplying 

 and distributing superior seed. 



8. Possible extended use of new crops and 

 the production of crops in the United States 

 formerly supplied from other countries. 



9. Cooperation among the states for investi- 

 gating new problems. 



10. The practical application of our investi- 

 gations. 



11. Petter marketing, a factor for increas- 

 ing food supply. 



12. Collegiate courses in agronomy. 



SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS 

 The Albert medal of the Royal Society of 

 Arts for the current year has been awarded to 

 Orville Wright, " in recognition of the value of 

 the contributions of Wilbur and Orville 

 Wright to the solution of the problem of me- 



chanical flight." The report of the council 

 says : " The largest share in the honor of hav- 

 ing invented the aeroplane must always be 

 given to the two brothers, Wilbur and Orville 

 Wright." 



M. Leclainche has been elected a member 

 of the section of agriculture of the Paris 

 Academy of Sciences, to succeed M. Chauveau. 



Dr. William J. Mayo, of Rochester, Minn., 

 has been summoned to Washington to confer 

 with the government officials relative to the 

 formation of a central medical staff in Wash- 

 ington, the purpose of which will be to obtain 

 the best medical service for American soldiers 

 while in the field. 



Dewell Gann, Jr., of the medical depart- 

 ment of the University of Arkansas, secretary 

 of the Arkansas Academy of Sciences, has been 

 commissioned a first lieutenant in the Officers' 

 Reserve Corps, and expects assignment to a 

 medical unit in France. 



Me. Pareington Moore, associate curator of 

 woods and forestry in the American Museum 

 of Natural History, has gone to France to give 

 his services in a forestry regiment. 



Professor Eliot Plaokwelder, of the Uni- 

 versity of Illinois, is at present in California 

 as a geological member of an advisory com- 

 mission appointed by the governor of Cali- 

 fornia to investigate the petroleum resources 

 of the state. 



Mr. Karl P. Schmidt, assistant in herpetol- 

 ogy in the American Museum of Natural His- 

 tory, has been appointed a member of the New 

 York State Food Commission. 



The Geographical Review gives information 

 concerning field work by botanists as follows: 

 Professor F. E. Clements, who has accepted a 

 position in the department of botanical re- 

 search of the Carnegie Institution, is in the 

 west and will devote the summer largely to 

 grazing problems in connection with the na- 

 tional emergency. Incidentally he hopes to 

 complete the task of securing material for a 

 monograph he is planning to write on the bad 

 lands. Dr. O. E. Jennings, of the Carnegie 

 Museum of Pittsburgh, is spending the sum- 

 mer in botanical exploration and collecting 



