120 



SCIENCE 



[Vol. LV, No. 1414 



poultry products, silk culture, game, fish, diseases 

 of animals, etc. 



6. Agricultural Machinery, tools and appli- 

 ances used in agriculture. 



7. Sural Engineering, under which are placed 

 all subjects relating to farm buildings, construc- 

 tion of granaries, etc. 



In the organization of the museum provision 

 is made for the holding of agricultural con- 

 gresses or meetings for the purpose of discus- 

 sing subjects relating to agriculture, and for the 

 issuing of publications and making exchanges. 

 Up to the present time the publications include 

 twenty-five titles, most of which have been pre- 

 pared by Sr. Girola. Among the subjects 

 treated are : "Studies of Cotton," "Observations 

 on samples of wheat from the Territory of 

 Pampa," "The Cultivation of Wheat in Argen- 

 tina," "Spineless Cactus," "Cultivation of Flax 

 in Argentina," "Cultivation of Indian Corn in 

 Argentina," "Notes on Argentine Fruit Cul- 

 ture," etc. For the most part these papers are 

 based on the collections of the museum. 



The supervision of this museum is under the 

 directors of the Argentine Rural Society. The 

 museum staff consists of the honorary director, 

 curator, assistant curator and two caretakers. 



The museum building is located on the 

 grounds of the Rural Society, in a very at- 

 tractive section of Buenos Aires, overlooking 

 Plaza Italia. It is 300 feet long by 90 feet 

 wide and originally cost $100,000.00. The in- 

 terior which is well lighted, consists of a main 

 floor surrounded by a broad balcony. 



The annual attendance at the museum, which 

 is open to the public two days each week, ex- 

 ceeds 100,000 not including the 30,000 students 

 which visit it from the schools of Buenos Aires. 

 These figures demonstrate the interest which 

 the museum has aroused and the need for such 

 an institution. 



The illustrations in the pamphlet before us 

 include the museum building, its floor plan and 

 twenty full page views of the interior, showing 

 many of the exhibits and the manner in which 

 they are installed. The collections have far 

 outgrown their present accommodations, and 

 plans have been prepared for additional build- 

 ing to take care of the agricultural machinery 

 and other new material. 



Besides the agricultural museum at Buenos 

 Aires there are the Danish Agricultural Mu- 

 seum at Lyngby, near Copenhagen, established 

 in 1888 ; the Agricultural Museum at Petrograd, 

 about which little is known at the present time ; 

 the large and well-equipped museum at Berlin, 

 and the attractively located and wonderfully 

 interesting museum at Budapest. The buildings 

 of this museum at Budapest, constructed at a 

 cost of $480,000.00, are so designed as to il- 

 lustrate the Renaissance and medieval periods 

 of architecture of Hungary. Their interiors 

 are superbly flnished, and the collections, which 

 may be said to include the agricultural features 

 of museums of art, history and anthropology, 

 natui'al history and commerce, are appropriate- 

 ly and beautifully installed in the many well- 

 lighted rooms into which the Renaissance and 

 Gothic buildings are divided. 



The museum at Buenos Aires should not be 

 compared with those institutions which have 

 been built and liberally supported by the state. 

 Great riches are not indispensable. An agri- 

 cultural museum properly located for meeting 

 its purposes would, by well directed effort and 

 with the friendly cooperation of those engaged 

 in agricultm-al industries, quickly secure collec- 

 tions. With such collaboration an equipment 

 may be acquired that will equal or possibly 

 excel in practical importance that which money 

 could buy. 



Like Argentina in South America, Hungary 

 in Europe is essentially an agricultural coun- 

 try, and it is interesting to note that in the one 

 case the material and exhibits that foi-med the 

 basis of its collections were assembled for an 

 exposition commemorating the hundredth anni- 

 versary of the country's existence as a nation — 

 in the other instance the collections commem- 

 orated its thousandth anniversary, the National 

 Millennial Exposition held at Budapest in 1904. 

 Our hundredth anniversary, commemorated by 

 the exposition held at Philadelphia in 1876, has 

 passed. Argentina has outstripped us in its 

 agricultural development by the establishment 

 of a permanent agricultural museum. Without 

 any reflection upon the progress and present 

 status of agiiculture in Hungary, which is most 

 commendable, let us hasten to follow the ex- 

 ample of our sister Republic in South America 



