May 13, 1904.] 



SCIENCE. 



769 



State University, is making to help the teach- 

 ers in the public schools of Ohio to a better 

 understanding of the larger fungi, rrom time 

 to time he issues a four-page folder under the 

 name ' Mycological Bulletin,' consisting of a 

 little test and a good deal of photographic 

 representation of the species he is describing. 

 We know of nothing like these leaflets else- 

 where, and can not too heartily commend this 

 method of popularizing the study of the fungi. 

 When it is remembered that these bulletins 

 cost the subscriber only about a cent apiece 

 one wonders that the subscription list does not 

 include every school teacher in Ohio, to say 

 nothing of those outside of that fortunate 

 state. 



FOREST FIRES IN THE ADIRONDACKS IN 1903. 



The United States Bureau of Forestry has 

 issued a circular (No. 26) on the forest fires 

 in the Adirondacks, from which we learn that 

 ' between April 20 and June 8, 1903, over 

 600,000 acres of timber land in northern New 

 York were burned over ' with an estimated 

 loss of $3,500,000. A very dry spring and 

 ' culpable carelessness ' were what brought 

 about this great loss. ' Deliberate incendiar- 

 ism ' is charged with no small number of fires, 

 while a few are due to unavoidable accident. 

 The author of the circular says after careful 

 examination that 'fully one half of the fires are 

 due to carelessness caught from locomotives ' 

 of the railroads in the forests. It is known 

 that a particular excursion train hauled by 

 two locomotives set almost continuous fires 

 for a distance of ten miles. The burning of 

 brush and other debris, the carelessness of 

 smokers, the failure to extinguish smudges 

 and camp fires contributed to the grand total 

 of carelessness. Many fires were set deliber- 

 ately, in part by those who resent the forma- 

 tion of private preserves, partly by those who 

 do not like the present timber regulations, 

 partly by those who profit by the labor afforded 

 by fire fighting, some by hunters, some by 

 those who hope thereby to increase the berry 

 crop, or the crop of ginseng, etc. A large map 

 tells the story of destruction and loss better 

 than it can be told by words. The circular 

 should serve to awaken the public conscience. 



and should result in more effective legislation, 

 and a better enforcement of existing laws. 



the bacteriological ANALYSIS OF SOILS. 



A recent bulletin of the Delaware Experi- 

 ment Station brings out an interesting rela- 

 tion of bacteria to the fertility of the soil. It 

 has long been known that certain bacteria in 

 the soil add to its available nitrogen for plant 

 growth, and now Professor Chester has ac- 

 tually made bacteriological analyses of the soil 

 for the purpose of determining the nitrifying 

 efficiency of its bacteria. In soils containing 

 respectively 4,000,000, 3,130,000 and 260,000 

 bacteria per gram of dry soil the nitrifying 

 efficiencies were 26.68, 13.T5 and 2.13. Pro- 

 fessor Chester concludes ' that while zymotic 

 efficiency is generally proportionate to the 

 total number of bacteria present in soil, it is 

 not exactly proportionate.' ' It is not only 

 numbers of bacteria but also kinds which de- 

 termine the efficiency of a soil.' Further on 

 he says ' there is a possibility that the future 

 will develop some practical means of introdu- 

 cing favorable bacterial forms into the soil, 

 and thus of raising its bacterial potential.' 

 Here is a field for the scientific agricultiirist 

 not thought of by our fathers, who, if they 

 knew anything at all about bacteria, regarded 

 them as vermin to be avoided as far as pos- 

 sible, and even now most of us think of 

 ' germs ' and ' microbes ' as dangerous things 

 to have about. Evidently we have done the 

 tribe of the bacteria an injustice, for it looks 

 as though our crops were dependent upon 

 their presence in sufficient quantity in our 

 fields. Is it possible that the farmer of the 

 future may regularly inoculate his fields be- 

 fore planting to a particular crop ? While all 

 this is quite funny. Professor Chester has 

 done a piece of good work, and it is to be 

 hoped that he may have the time and inclina- 

 tion to continue it. 



the study op our mosses. 

 Any one who has attempted to take up 

 the study of the mosses of his neighborhood 

 must have been impressed with the feeling 

 that there is a crying need of a work on the 

 systematic botany of these pretty plants which 



