Mat 8, 1914] 



SCIENCE 



685 



Apaet from the governments and govern- 

 ment departments whicli will be represented 

 at the International Congress of Tropical 

 Agriculture to be held at the Imperial Insti- 

 tute, London, from June 23 to 30, a number 

 of societies, chambers of commerce and asso- 

 ciations, foreign as well as British, have indi- 

 cated their intention to support the congress, 

 and most will send delegates. It is already 

 known that the congress will be attended by 

 members from the following countries : Aus- 

 tria, Egypt, France, Germany, Holland, Italy, 

 Japan, Portugal, Russia, the United Kingdom, 

 the United States, Ceylon, East Africa, Gold 

 Coast, Honolulu, India, Jamaica, Java, Lee- 

 ward Islands, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Straits 

 Settlements and Federated Malay States, 

 Trinidad and Uganda. 



It is announced that arrangements are being 

 made for the holding in Edinburgh, in Sep- 

 tember next, of a conference on the various 

 aspects of the physical sciences in their appli- 

 cation to the study of the phenomena of 

 weather. Sir John Murray had consented to 

 act as president, but now new arrangements 

 must be made. It is planned to open the con- 

 ference on September 8, and to continue its 

 work during the four following days. Those 

 interested should send their names to the 

 secretary of the organizing committee at the 

 Meteorological OfBce, South Kensington, 

 London, S. W. 



The thirteenth general meeting of the As- 

 sociation of Economic Biologists was held at 

 the Imperial College of Science and Technol- 

 ogy, London, on April 10 and 11. Professor 

 Robert Newstead presided. According to the 

 report of the London Times Mr. A. G. L. 

 Rogers, of the Board of Agriculture, com- 

 municated the results of the International 

 Phytopathological Conference lately held in 

 Rome with the object of considering how 

 united action may be taken for checking 

 the importation of plant diseases. There 

 are two ways of dealing with a center 

 of plant infection. The first is to forbid the 

 entry of plants from the infected district or 

 country. The alternative is for the adminis- 



trative authorities in the infested country to 

 take the necessary steps for extirpating the 

 pest within their borders ; and to issue a guar- 

 antee of freedom from infection with all lots 

 of the suspected produce. This procedure is 

 an impossibility in the case of the bulky crops 

 of what in France is called " La Grande Cul- 

 ture," as no staff of specialists could deal with 

 the amounts grown. The international dele- 

 gates therefore unanimously agreed to exclude 

 these (including all grains) and the grape 

 vine from their provisions, the various nations 

 being left to protect themselves from diseases 

 of staple crops by individual action as at 

 present. The recommendations, however, pro- 

 vide for including such produce as fruit, flow- 

 ers and bulbs in the proposed convention, 

 which at present awaits ratification, all the 

 powers except the United States having pro- 

 visionally agreed to the principle of united ac- 

 tion. Certain powers, while not prepared to 

 relinquish the right of inspecting imported 

 produce included in the provisions of the con- 

 vention, intimated their willingness to let 

 these rights be in abeyance so long as export- 

 ing countries fulfilled their obligations. 



It is planned to take the biological work of 

 the University of Utah Summer School to a 

 mountain laboratory during the last three 

 weeks of the course. Animal ecology and some 

 systematic study of flowering plants will be 

 the parts of the work best adapted to this 

 plan. The regular session will begin on June 

 8 and close on July 17, the change of base for 

 biology to be made on June 26. Silver Lake, 

 at the head of Big Cottonwood Canyon, thirty 

 miles from Salt Lake City, altitude 8,728 

 feet, has been chosen as the spot for begin- 

 ning mountain station work in Utah. Here 

 in a setting of rugged peaks lie a half dozen 

 small gems of mountain lakes, one at an alti- 

 tude of 9,920 feet, and a beautiful little moun- 

 tain valley in which rise from innumerable 

 sources the headwaters of Big Cottonwood 

 Creek, a typical mountain stream. From the 

 tops of these peaks to the warm and hot 

 springs, the sulphurous and salt waters, the 

 desert and the Great Salt Lake itself in the 

 valley near the university, stretches a wide va- 



