November 30, 1906.] 



SCIENCE. 



681 



means of advancing the purposes of the 

 society which now are entirely beyond our 

 reach. The question of publication, for 

 example, might present quite a different 

 aspect under such conditions. The offer- 

 ing of prizes for the investigation or lit- 

 erary discussion of specified topics, the 

 recognition by medal or otherwise of spe- 

 cially deserving investigations, even small 

 grants in aid of research, loom up dimly 

 on the horizon of possibility, but can not 

 be further discussed here. 



I am well aware that these suggestions 

 may appear revolutionary. I have little 

 faith in revolutions as a means of progress, 

 but they have occasionally been unavoid- 

 able. We may as well frankly face the 

 fact that for several years our society has 

 been groping for a mission and that its 

 meetings have been supported more or less 

 from a sense of duty. I am not so pre- 

 sumptuous as to assume that I have found 

 that mission. If my words serve to stimu- 

 late discussion and reflection concerning 

 the functions of the society, they will ac- 

 complish all that I have any right to hope. 

 True, we should beware of losing the sub- 

 stance while grasping the shadow, but, on 

 the other hand, tradition should not blind 

 us to the changed conditions confronting 

 us. Are we not imperatively called upon 

 to attempt in some way to make the work 

 of this society such that the leaders of 

 agricultural progress shall feel it worth 

 their while to contribute to it liberally of 

 their time and energy? If we can solve 

 this problem we need have no apprehen- 

 sions regarding the promotion of agricul- 

 tural science. 



Henry Prentiss Armsby. 



The Pennsylvania. State College. 



SCIENTIFIC BOOKS. 



Soils. Their Formation, Properties, Composi- 

 tion and Relation to Climate and Plant 

 Growth, in the Humid and Arid Regions. 



By E. W. HiLGARD, Ph.D., LL.D., Professor 

 of Agriculture in the University of Cali- 

 fornia and director of the California Agri- 

 cultural Experiment Station. The Mac- 

 millan Company. 1906. 8vo. Pp. xxvii 

 + 593 ; 89 figures, including 37 photographic 

 illustrations. $4.00 net. 

 In the production of this volume on soils 

 Dr. Hilgard has enriched agricultural science 

 throughout the domain of its most basal prob- 

 lems, and to a very notable extent. Moreover, 

 its appearance at this time is extremely op- 

 portune, coming as it does with the initiation 

 of more rigid research work by the agricul- 

 tural experiment stations, before the Bureau 

 of Soils has been able to fully discern what 

 should be its own precise problems, and when 

 the materials for agricultural education have 

 yet to be definitely brought together in proper 

 pedagogic form. It is now more than fifty 

 years since Hilgard begari the application of 

 rigid research methods to the elucidation of 

 the processes and principles which underlie 

 and determine the productive power of soils. 

 During most of this long period soil problems 

 have been uppermost in his mind and have 

 drawn from him, to their illumination, a 

 large measure of his research effort. With 

 mental traits of the highest research type; 

 broadly and thoroughly trained at Zurich, 

 Freiberg and Heidelberg before the days of 

 extreme specialization in education, he entered 

 upon this, his life study, with the best of 

 equipment. Thrown directly into the field 

 upon the humid, washed and leached soils of 

 the south, from 1856 to 1872, in his agricul- 

 tural and geological survey of Mississippi; 

 then transferred to the glacial soils of Mich- 

 igan from 1873 to 1875; and finally, for more 

 than thirty years, studying the arid soils of 

 the Pacific slope, during which time he was 

 also attached to the agricultural division of 

 the Northern Transcontinental Survey, and 

 again brought back to reconsider the humid 

 soils of the south when making his extended 

 report upon cotton production for the tenth 

 census, it is doubtful if any man living has 

 been brought so persistently, widely and in- 

 timately to the personal study of soil types 

 and soil conditions as he. And when it is 



