Febbuaby 7, 1919] 



SCIENCE 



143 



Pittsburgh 2,224 2,760 



Portland 1,185 146 



Providence 1,022 475 



Richmond 657 285 



Rochester 969 236 



St. Louis 2,084 1,192 



St. Paul 855 171 



San Francisco 3,088 538 



Seattle 1,160 157 



Spokane 449 39 



Syracuse 821 168 



Toledo 538 280 



Washington, D. C. 2,217 694 



Worcester 866 286 



Total 78,238 49,265 



SALT REQUIREMENTS OF REPRESENTATIVE 

 AGRICULTURAL PLANTS 



The Division of Biology of the National 

 Research Council has organized a nation-wide 

 cooperation among plant physiologists and 

 agricultural chemists, concerning the general 

 problem of the physiological requirements of 

 certain representative agricultural plants. 

 This project is in charge of a special com- 

 mittee consisting of B. E. Livingston (Johns 

 Hopkins University), K. F. Kellerman (U. S. 

 Department of Agriculture), and A. F. Woods 

 (Maryland Agricultural College). 



It is planned that the cooperation will carry 

 out experimental work, by water and sand 

 cultures, on wheat and soy bean, for a begin- 

 ning. The first problem is to determine the 

 best total concentrations and the best sets of 

 salt proportions with 3-salt mixtures, each 

 plant studied being considered in several 

 phase of its development. For wheat these 

 phases are : (1) the germination phase (till 

 plantlets are 4 cm. high). (2) the seedling 

 phase (for 4 weeks following the germination 

 phase), (3) the vegetative phase (from end of 

 seedling phase to appearance of flowers), and 

 (4) the reproductive phase (from end of vege- 

 tative phase to the ripening of grain). Each 

 phase is to be treated separately, the plants 

 having been grown with the best 3-salt solu- 

 tions for the preceding phases, respectively. 

 Twenty-one different sets of salt proportions 

 are to be tested with each of the six types of 

 possible 3-salt solutions. 



It is hoped that these tests may bo made by 

 a large number of experimenters in different 

 places, all using the same methods so that the 

 results may be comparable, and that many 

 different climatic complexes and seasons of the 

 year may be thus included. The general prob- 

 lem falls naturally into convenient portions, so 

 that any worker or group of workers may con- 

 fine attention to a certain more or less re- 

 stricted field. All seeds will be supplied from 

 the same source. Of course each worker will 

 publish his results as he may desire, with 

 whatever interpretation may seem warranted. 

 It is hoped that out of this cooperation may 

 result a clear and definite advance in our 

 knowledge of this aspect of nutritional physiol- 

 ogy, which not only may be valuable in a sci- 

 entific way but also may furnish valuable sug- 

 gestions to those who are experimenting with 

 the fertilizer treatment of crop plants in the 

 field. It is suggested that the results of this 

 correlated set of researches may become a 

 definite national contribution to knowledge 

 about one of the most important and funda- 

 mental of all physiological problems. The co- 

 operation was planned in war-time, but is is 

 as much needed in time of peace as in time 

 of war, and it is being pushed forward with all 

 reasonable haste. 



The Special Committee on Salt Require- 

 ments of Representative Agricultural Plants 

 has prepared a comprehensive plan for the 

 project, which may bo obtained on request, 

 and has made arrangements for special lots of 

 chemicals for this work, also for the special 

 cork supports needed in water cultures. Cor- 

 respondence regarding this project is earnestly 

 requested, and all experimenters in this field 

 are asked to join in this national undertaking 

 in one way or another. CoiTespondence should 

 be addressed to the chairman of the special 

 committee, at the laboratory of plant physiol- 

 ogy of the Johns Hopkins University, Balti- 

 more, Md. 



MEETING OF THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE OF 

 MINING ENGINEERS 



Lessons learned from the war by the Ameri- 

 can mining world will be applied toward 



