Apbil 5, 1907] 



SCIENCE 



545 



of peach trees may be delayed by injecting 

 ■with saturated solutions of ether in water 

 from an inverted bottle supported above. 

 Etherization should be begun just a few days 

 hefore the buds begin to open. In the writer's 

 experiments blossoming was delayed eleven 

 days. The trees were not injured by the 

 treatment. Ripening was retarded by two or 

 three days, but the fruit was materially in- 

 creased in size. 



Leafy shoots set in bottles of solutions are 

 far more sensitive to the effect of ether than 

 is the leafless tree, one half of one per cent, 

 causing transpiration almost to cease in less 

 than twenty-four hours. Opening flower buds 

 are more sensitive still, being overcome by one 

 tenth of one per cent, of ether. 



V. A. Clark 



Experiment Station Farm, 

 Phcenix, Arizona 



AN ILLINOIS state ACADEMY OP SCIENCES 



The time seems ripe for the formation of a 

 State Academy of Sciences in Illinois, which 

 may aid scientific work throughout the state 

 by banding together the leaders in the various 

 departments of science, by stimulating stu- 

 dents in the more isolated communities, and 

 by forming a center for all scientific interests. 



The demand for such an organization is 

 great and the opportunity promising. It is 

 hoped that every leader and every worker in 

 science in the state will help the cause by 

 becoming charter members. 



Will those interested write to the under- 

 signed suggesting the best time for the first 

 meeting. A. E. Crook 



MtrsEtJM OF Natubat, History, 

 Springfield, III. 



the uinversity of maine and the state 

 legislature 



To THE Editor of Science: There appeared 

 in Science for March 29, 1907, the reprint of 

 an article in the Boston Evening Transcript 

 regarding the University of Maine, which con- 

 tained a few misstatements that should be 

 corrected : 



First The committee appointed by the 

 legislature presented a majority report favor- 



ing the discontinuance of the liberal arts 

 course, not retaining it as stated by the Tran- 

 script. The minority report recommended its 

 retention. 



Second. The vote in the senate was 17 to 

 13 in favor of discontinuing the liberal arts 

 course instead of retaining it as reported by 

 the Transcript. 



As the house favored retaining the liberal 

 arts course by a vote of 123 to 12 the result is 

 a deadlock between the two bodies and no 

 knowledge of a settlement has reached the 

 writer at this date. 



On several occasions during the discussion 

 before the legislative committee the leaders of 

 the opposition to the University of Maine 

 resorted to personal abuse of the president of 

 the university; on one occasion he being ac- 

 cused of being ' a freebooter, with an ignoble 

 desire to be president of a university.' Such a 

 method of procedure by the opposition cer- 

 tainly does not tend to increase the respect of 

 the people of the state of Maine for the op- 

 posing institutions and for their representa- 

 tives. Such political methods should be be- 

 neath the dignity of the representatives of 

 Maine's oldest educational institution, and we 

 hope will receive the censure of its alumni. 



P. L. E. 



We are informed that the senate of the 

 State of Maine passed on March 25, the appro- 

 priation for the University of Maine without 

 withdrawing the right to confer the degree of 

 bachelor of arts. — Editor. 



the associated press and newspaper science 

 To the Editor of Science : My attention is 

 directed to a communication signed " C. A." 

 in your issue of March 22. I am certainly 

 amazed that so reputable a paper as Science 

 should lend itself to such a statement with- 

 out the slightest investigation. 



The story respecting Matteucci and the 

 Marchette's comet appeared originally in the 

 London Daily Mail and was cabled to the 

 New York Sun on February 22. It was 

 denied in the New York Sun on February 

 25. The Associated Press never at any time 

 cabled it to this country or anywhere elsa 



