July 29, 1910] 



SCIENCE 



153 



parently be no difficulty in filling it, to the 

 great advantage of all branches of the com- 

 munity. An influential committee was 

 formed, and the motion was carried unani- 

 mously. 



It is stated in Nature that a committee 

 appointed by Earl Carrington to advise the 

 Board of Agriculture on all scientific ques- 

 tions bearing directly on the improvement of 

 agriculture will deal especially with the meth- 

 ods to be adopted (a) for promoting agricul- 

 tural research in universities and other scien- 

 tific schools; (&) for aiding scientific workers 

 engaged in the study of agricultural problems, 

 and (c) for insuring that new scientific dis- 

 coveries are utilized for the benefit of agricul- 

 turists. The committee will consist of the 

 Duke of Devonshire, Lord Eeay, Sir Edward 

 Thorpe, C. B., F.E.S., Mr. David Davies, M.P., 

 Dr. J. J. Dobbie, F.E.S. (principal of the 

 government laboratories), Professor J. B. 

 Farmer, F.R.S., Dr. S. F. Harmer, F.E.S. 

 (keeper of zoology at the Natural History 

 Museum), Dr. E. Stewart MacDougall (tech- 

 nical adviser in zoology to the Board of AgTi- 

 culture and Fisheries), Mr. T. H. Middleton 

 (one of the assistant secretaries to the Board 

 of Agriculture and Fisheries), Mr. Spencer 

 P. Pickering, F.E.S. , Lieutenant Colonel 

 David Prain, CLE., F.E.S. (director of the 

 Eoyal Botanic Gardens, Kew), Mr. H. S. 

 Stavely-Hill, M.P., Mr. Stewart Stockman 

 (chief veterinary officer of the Board of Agri- 

 culture and Fisheries), Dr. J. J. H. Teall, 

 F.E.S. (director of the Geological Survey and 

 Museum) and Dr. David Wilson. Mr. Mid- 

 dleton will act as chairman of the committee, 

 and one of the officers of the Intelligence Divi- 

 sion of the board will act as secretary. A 

 meeting of the Society for Extending the 

 Eothamsted Experiments was held at Eoth- 

 amsted on June 16 under the presidency of 

 the Duke of Devonshire. The society has been 

 incorporated with the object of obtaining addi- 

 tional funds for the development of the agri- 

 cultural investigations which have been car- 

 ried on so long under the late Sir John Lawes 

 and the Lawes Agricultural Trust which he 



afterwards founded. The immediate object of 

 the society is to obtain a sum of £5,000 in 

 order to secure about 200 acres of land adjoin- 

 ing the present experimental fields, and erect 

 thereon the buildings required for feeding ex- 

 periments with the crops under investigation. 

 An appeal for subscriptions towards thus 

 securing a small self-contained farm for the 

 Eothamsted Experimental Station is now be- 

 ing circulated, and at this meeting of the 

 society a first list of donations was reported. 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL NEWS 

 The additional sum of £21,000 for the Scot- 

 tish universities is included in the supple- 

 mentary estimates of the British government, 

 bringing the total for the year to £63,000. 

 This is an instalment of a grant recommended 

 by a treasury committee presided over by Lord 

 Elgin. The total addition recommended was 

 about $40,000. 



Lord Steathcona, chancellor of Edinburgh 

 University, has given the university £10,000 

 for the endowment of a chair of agriculture. 



Here Gustav Ebbinghaus, of Bonn, has 

 given $25,000 toward a new physical laboratory 

 for the university. 



More than 2,600 students are attending the 

 summer session of Columbia University, about 

 700 more than last year, which established a 

 new record. The registrations since the be- 

 ginning have been as follows : 1903, 993 ; 1904, 

 961; 1905, 1,018; 1906, 1,041; 190Y, 1,392; 

 1908, 1,532; 1909, 1,971; 1910, 2,624. 



The department of plant pathology of the 

 New York State College of Agriculture as 

 organized for 1910-11 shows the following 

 staff, together with the fellows on research 

 work. The line of investigation which each 

 has under way is also indicated. H. H. 

 Whetzel, professor in charge. Dr. Donald 

 Eeddick, assistant professor and expert on the 

 diseases of grapes, will have charge of all the 

 field laboratories. Mr. M. F. Barrus, in- 

 structor, expert on the diseases of beans, wiU 

 have a general charge of the extension work 

 of the department. H. W. Anderson, regular 



