Febeuakt 12, 1915] 



SCIENCE 



229 



enee of gold is impossible, so countless 

 amounts of time and money have been 

 squandered in agricultural experiment on 

 land whose natural vegetation, if studied, 

 would have directed other uses. One of 

 the best applications of ecology is afforded 

 by the work of Coville, on the culture of 

 the blueberry, of which we are to learn 

 something more to-day. The utilization 

 of acid lands by the growth of crops that 

 thrive in the presence of certain organic 

 acids is a large conception and will doubt- 

 less prove to be one of the great utilitarian 

 discoveries of our day. 



I will not trespass on your time by indi- 

 cating further practical applications of my 

 chosen field, ecology. Others will suggest 

 themselves, as will similar applications in 

 various lines of botany, particularly in 

 physiology. If we are to keep botany alive 

 and abreast of the time, we who are in 

 academic botanical departments must give 

 more attention than formerly to the eco- 

 nomic aspects of our subject. "We must 

 offer more courses in the practical phases 

 of botany. In our research we must not 

 avoid practical problems, but look for 

 them, and we must emphasize the practical 

 possibilities of our theoretical problems. 

 Our sister science, zoology, which perhaps 

 is in a more serious plight than we, gives 

 evidence at this meeting of an at- 

 tempt to meet the situation by choosing 

 for its symposium the significant topic, 

 "The Value of Zoology to Humanity." 

 Above all we must treat the economic re- 

 lations of our subject, not as an annex, a 

 thing apart, a "sop to Cerberus," but as 

 the vital and essential thing, the very ker- 

 nel of it all. By pursuing such a course 

 we shall keep in close relationship with 

 our practical modern life, and we shall 

 justify ourselves to our fellows. "We shall 

 then have ample opportunity to continue 

 our researches along theoretical lines. 



And one may never know how soon a 

 purely academic study may come to be a 

 factor of the first importance in the better- 

 ment of the human race. 



Henry C. Cowles 



Univeesity of Chicago 



CONSESVE TSE COLLECTOB 



It is with considerable apprehension that I 

 have observed an unmistakable decrease in 

 the niimber of collectors during the past six 

 or eight years. Matters of precision and 

 accuracy in the field of ornithology are, I 

 have no doubt, suffering as a consequence of 

 this forsaking of the " shotgun method." Our 

 faunistic literature to be of the highest scien- 

 tific character must be based on the surest 

 means of establishing the identification of 

 species. The " skin record " is essential, and 

 the availability of this is dependent upon the 

 existence and activity of the collector. 



The type of field observer who depends solely 

 on long-range identification is becoming more 

 and more prevalent. But the opera-glass stu- 

 dent, even if experienced, can not be depended 

 upon to take the place of the collector. Accu- 

 racy in identification of species and especially 

 subspecies rests for final appeal upon the actual 

 capture and comparison of specimens. Ornith- 

 ology as a science is threatened, and it 

 should not be allowed to lapse wholly into the 

 status of a recreation or a hobby, to be in- 

 dulged in only in a superficial way by amateurs 

 or dilettantes. 



It is to be doubted whether authoritative 

 and expert systematic and field ornithologists 

 can be developed through any other process 

 than by personal collecting of adequate num- 

 bers of specimens in the field. The processes 

 of hunting, and personal preparation of bird 

 skins, bring a knowledge of the characters of 

 birds, both in life and as pertaining to their 

 structure and plumage, which can be secured 

 in no other way. 



The present tendency toward extermina- 

 tion of the collector bears obvious close rela- 

 tionship to the increasing number of extreme 

 sentimentalists. The latter, beginning in a 



