August 9, 1895.] 



SCIENCE. 



151 



bibliography of the native languages of Mex- 

 ico, which is nearly ready for publication. 

 Among his friends and associates Mr. 

 Pilling was highly esteemed for integrity, 

 industry, kindly disposition and strong 

 sense of justice. By reason of these quali- 

 ties he was a successful administrative offi- 

 cer, contributing much to the accomplish- 

 ment and prestige of the scientific bureaus 

 with which he was connected. 



W J McGbe. 



AGROSTOLOGY IN THE DEPABT3IENT OF 

 AGEICULTUBE. 



The Secretary of Agriculture recom- 

 mended to the last Congress the establish- 

 ment in his Department of a division to be 

 known as the ' Division of Agrostology.' 

 This recommendation was approved by 

 Congress, and the law establishing the new 

 division went into effect the first of July. 

 This law authorizes investigations relating 

 to the natural history, geographical distri- 

 bution, and uses of the various grasses and 

 forage plants and their adaptability to 

 special soils and climates. It also author- 

 izes the preparation of special reports, illus- 

 trated circulars of information, bulletins 

 and monographic works on the grasses and 

 forage plants of North America. From 

 this it will be seen that both the practical 

 and scientific sides of the grass and forage 

 questions are to be considered, and in the 

 organization of the division force the Sec- 

 retary endeavored to cover and provide for 

 all the possible lines of work. The farmer 

 and the botanist are alike interested in it. 

 Tlie Department of Agriculture has always 

 recognized the importance of the investiga- 

 tion of our forage resources, which, at a 

 conservative estimate, have a money value 

 of more than one billion of dollars; and, 

 while the establishment of the new divi- 

 sion may not introduce new lines of work, 

 it can not fail to effect a better organization 

 of this work and at the same time demon- 



strate to the citizens of this and other coun- 

 tries that the United States Government 

 fully appreciates and recognizes the primary 

 importance of the grasses in the rural econ- 

 omy of the Nation. It gives to the work 

 a recognition which its vast importance un- 

 questionably mei'its. 



No country in the world possesses so great 

 and varied forage resources as the United 

 States, and there is none where the main- 

 tenance and improvement of these resources 

 is of greater importance. There are over 

 3,500 different kinds of grasses in the 

 world, more than 700 of which grow within 

 our territory ; and besides these grasses 

 there are many useful forage plants which 

 are native to the countiy, or which have 

 been introduced here from abroad, such as 

 the clovers, alfalfa, the vetches and cow- 

 peas. It will be the function of this new 

 division to instruct and familiarize the 

 people with the habits and uses of all these 

 plants, and to introduce into cultivation 

 promising native and foreign kinds, as well 

 as to identify all grasses and forage plants 

 submitted to the department for identifica- 

 tion, and to answer all correspondence rela- 

 tive to these plants. 



When the bill for establishing the Divi- 

 sion of Agrostology was before the Senate, 

 one Senator remarked : " It is only neces- 

 sary to state that the grass crop of the 

 country is the foundation of the life of all 

 the animals of the country, to show how 

 important the subject is. What farmers 

 have been doing in past years has been 

 simply to run out the grasses which they 

 had. No attention has been paid to the 

 cultivation and development of grasses, and 

 I am glad to see that the Department of 

 Agriculture is turning its attention to this 

 subject, the most important subject within 

 its purview." Another Senator said, in 

 reference to improving the forage resources 

 of many parts of the semi-arid regions of 

 the West : "It seems to me that in the line 



