Mabch 11, 1910] 



SCIENCE 



377 



Hebrew, as well as French, German and Eng- 

 lish. He is a graduate of the Agricultural 

 School of Grignon, France, and has attracted 

 the attention of the scientific world through 

 his discovery of the long-sought wild proto- 

 ts^pe of wheat. His discoveries in Palestine of 

 drought-resistant stocks and dry land grains 

 and forage plants, as well as the possibilities 

 of American breeders utilizing his wild wheat, 

 have led Dr. Galloway, the Chief of the 

 Bureau of Plant Industry, to request Mr. 

 Aaronsohn to prepare a bulletin, which is now 

 in print, giving in some detail the bearing of 

 his studies in Palestine on the many agricul- 

 tural problems of the United States. 



While the special aim of the institution 

 will be to put the Jewish colonists and farm- 

 ers of Palestine and the neighboring colonies 

 in a position to carry on agriculture in a 

 rational and progressive manner, Mr. Aaron- 

 sohn's idea is to assemble as complete an 

 equipment of the official agricultural publi- 

 cations of the United States as possible. 

 Through the liberality of the Office of Experi- 

 ment Stations and the directors of various 

 state stations, supplemented by private gifts 

 and purchases, Mr. Aaronsohn has already 

 assembled what will be the most complete set 

 of American experiment station reports and 

 bulletins to be found anywhere in the Old 

 "World. It is his earnest desire to make this 

 set of American experiment station reports 

 absolutely complete and he will keenly ap- 

 preciate any help given him towards this end. 

 As the study of plant pathology is quite 

 unknown in Palestine, Mr. Aaronsohn has 

 purchased as a nucleus of pathological work 

 the collection of the late Professor W. A. 

 Kellerman of about 24,000 specimens of fungi, 

 and the Department of Agriculture has of- 

 fered to supplement this with about a thou- 

 sand other numbers. To these American 

 numbers Mr. Aaronsohn proposes to add his 

 own personal collections of agronomic, botan- 

 ical and geological material, and altogether 

 they will prove of invaluable assistance in the 

 comparative studies which he proposes shall 

 be carried on at the station. 



The buildings will be of stone and practi- 



cally fireproof, but to give further guaranty 

 against loss Mr. Aaronsohn proposes to install 

 steel shelving for the books and metallic cases 

 for his collections. 



It is also Mr. Aaronsohn's purpose to have 

 a visitors' laboratory, with proper facilities, 

 which will be placed at the disposal of prop- 

 erly accredited visitors from abroad. Those 

 who have taken advantage of the marvelous 

 facilities of the Naples Zoological Station will 

 appreciate how much this means in a country 

 like Palestine, where there are few facilities 

 for scientific investigation. 



It is Mr. Aaronsohn's intention to publish 

 at least the annual reports of his station in 

 English, although naturally his circulars and 

 bulletins containing the practical results will 

 for the most part be published in Hebrew, 

 Turkish and Arabic. 



The founding with liberal financial support 

 of this new station in the eastern Mediter- 

 ranean region will go far towards introducing 

 American methods in the study of agricultural 

 problems throughout the whole Mediterranean 

 region and facilitate the exchange of plant in- 

 dustries between that region and the United 

 States, which has been already begun by the 

 agricultural explorers of the department, and 

 by such men as Dr. L. Trabut, the government 

 botanist of Algeria, and which has proved of 

 such mutual aid to both regions. 



David Fairchild 



U. S. Department of Agricultuke 



THE CARNEGIE INSTITUTION OF 

 WASHINGTON '■ 



The Carnegie Institution of Washington 

 has just issued its eighth " Year Book," a 

 volume of about 250 pages, containing a 

 resume of the work accomplished under the 

 auspices of the institution during the year 

 1909. The " Year Book " comprises the an- 

 nual reports of the president, the executive 

 committee and the directors of various de- 

 partments of research, together with reports 

 upon the progress of other investigations car- 

 ried on by individual grantees and associates 

 of the institution. There is also included a 



'■ Statement supplied by the Institution. 



