December 1, 1905.] 



SCIENCE. 



719 



dition of the soil, failure to rotate crops where 

 clean cultivation is not followed, lack of proper 

 trimming, failure to control injurious insects, 

 fungus diseases, etc., or that there is insuffi- 

 cient plant food available. Orchards are 

 sometimes seen, however, in which all these 

 external conditions have been carefully at- 

 tended to, the trees are thrifty, and still the 

 fruit lacks color and quality. This condition 

 involves a chemical problem and usually indi- 

 cates, as proved in numerous instances, that 

 the supply of available potash is insufficient 

 for the tree's needs — a lack which must be 

 supplied by rendering available the unavail- 

 able potash already in the soil, or by the appli- 

 cation of further material in an available 

 form. 



Another important problem arises at this 

 point, that is, the relation, if any, which exists 

 between diseases of various kinds to which the 

 apple tree or its fruit is subject and the con- 

 ditions, as related to the soil, under which 

 the trees are grown. Mr. G. H. Powell, of the 

 U. S. Department of Agriculture, stated in 

 an address to the Western ISTew York Horti- 

 cultural Society, in 1903, that ' at the present 

 time we would say that the practical control 

 of the scald is primarily an orchard problem 

 and depends on cultural conditions that de- 

 velop the best and most highly colored fruit.^ 

 This being the case, it appears that this mal- 

 ady may be avoided, in some measure at least, 

 by selecting soils which, with other things 

 equal, tend to produce ' the best and most 

 highly colored fruit.' It thus seems possible, 

 and indeed probable, that soils in themselves 

 may have a most direct influence upon the 

 character of the tree growth and fruit growth 

 which shall the better enable these to resist 

 certain forces of disease besides the scald. 



That the highest quality of fruit should be 

 obtained on a soil which produces a tree 

 neither stunted nor too rank in growth, but 

 normal, well developed and hardy, and conse- 

 quently productive of fruit the most attractive 

 in appearance, is a natural inference. Suffi- 

 cient proof of this point, however, is not at 



^ See Proceedings of the 48th Annual Meeting 

 of the Western New York Horticultural Society, 

 1903. 



present available, but a field of investigation 

 is opened which will become steadily more 

 important as the already noticeable demand 

 for a higher quality of apples increases. 



Henry J. Wilder. 



A CORRECTION OF THE GENERIC NAME (dINO- 



CHCERUS) GIVEN TO CERTAIN FOSSIL REMAINS 



FROM THE LOUP FORK MIOCENE OF 



NEBRASKA. 



While in the field during the past summer 

 (1905) the writer sent to Dr. W. J. Holland 

 (director, Carnegie Museum) a preliminary 

 note on certain fossil remains of the family 

 Suidas from the Loup Fork Miocene of Sioux 

 County, Nebraska. I proposed Dinohyus hol- 

 landi as the name and asked Dr. Holland if 

 he would kindly look to see if that generic 

 name was preoccupied before publishing the 

 note. In reply Dr. Holland wrote me that 

 Dinochcerus ' appears to be a better word,' and 

 that it was not preoccupied. I agreed to the 

 change, but find that the name Dinochoerus 

 has been used by Gloger, for a South African 

 hog (Hand- und Hilfstuch Naturgeschichte, 

 I., pp. xxxii, 131, 1841), and, therefore, pro- 

 pose my original name Dinohyus hollandi for 

 the fossil remains, which was published in 

 Science, K S., Vol. XXIL, No. 555, pp. 211- 

 212, August 18, 1905. 



O. A. Peterson. 

 Carnegie Museum, 

 October 24, 1905. 



QUOTATIONS. 



ACADEMIC FREEDOM IN JAPAN. 



Professor Tomizu, most eminent of Japa- 

 nese authorities on Roman law and professor 

 in the Imperial University, Tokio, has lost his 

 chair, arbitrarily removed by the minister of 

 education, owing to his passionate denuncia- 

 tion of the ministry for the terms which it 

 authorized Japan's representatives at Ports- 

 mouth to accept. He is one of a group of 

 seven professors in the university who have 

 been critical of the ministry ever since the 

 war with Russia began. 



Professor Tomizu's eminence together with 

 the radical nature of the government's con- 



