SCIENCE 



Friday, October 21, 1910 



CONTENTS 



Conservation of the Purity of Soils in Cereal 

 Cropping : Pbofessob H. L. Boliey 529 



The Fourth Conference of the International 

 Union for Cooperation in Solar Research . . 541 



Sessions of the International Commissions for 

 Terrestrial Magnetism, Atmospheric Elec- 

 tricity and Meteorology in Berlin: Db. 

 Feank H. Bigelow 546 



Lectures on Public Health 549 



Lowell Lectures 549 



The Biological Building of the University 

 of Wisconsin 550 



Scientific Notes and Neios 550 



University and Educational News 553 



Discussion and Correspondence: — 



An Open Letter to Mr. Carnegie: Pbo- 

 fessob Joseph Jastbow. Men of Science 

 and Practical Life: R. C. Benneb. The 

 Reform of the Calendar: T. G. Dabney . . 554 



Soientifio Books: — 



Merriam's The Dawn of the World: De. 

 Edwabd Sapib. Armstrong on the Simple 

 Carbohydrates and the Glucosides: Pbo- 

 fessob Lafatette B. JIe>T)EL. Lacroix's 

 Mineralogie de la France et de ses Colonies: 

 Waldemab T. Schaliee 557 



Scientific Journals and Articles 559 



aotes on Meteorology and Climatology: An- 

 DEEW H. Palmee 560 



Publications on the Indians of the Northern 

 Plains: Db. Clabk Wisslee 562 



Discovery of Fossil Mammals in Cuba and 

 their Great Geographical Importance: Db. 

 J. W. Spencee 564 



Special Articles: — 



The Permeability and Cytolysis of Eggs: 

 E.Newton HAB\-Ey. Comparative Analyses 

 of Water from the Great Salt Lake: W. C. 

 Ebaugh, Wallace Macfablane. A Rare 

 Fish from the New Jersey Coast: Pbo- 

 fessob Raymond C. Osbuen 565 



MSS. intended for publication and bookB, eto., Intended for 

 review should be se:!t to the Editor of Science. Garrison-on- 

 Hodson. N. Y. 



CONSERVATION OF THE PURITY OF SOILS 

 IN CEREAL CROPPING 

 This seems to be the day of "conserva- 

 tion." Having suddenly caught the idea 

 that our natural resources are rapidly be- 

 ing wasted through careless methods, and 

 largely because of the intense desire of our 

 . people to accumulate riches, many of the 

 best minds are concentrating their efforts 

 toward husbanding natural resources. 

 With the rapid increase in population and 

 the numerous new desires which go with 

 civilization the drain upon natural re- 

 sources becomes apparent to every one. 

 Almost every magazine and daily paper 

 bears a message upon some new phase of 

 conservation: As the conservation of hu- 

 man health and energy, conservation of 

 forests, mines and water power; and the 

 essentials of soil fertility; and there are 

 even those who are crying for the conser- 

 vation of capital, perhaps not unwisely. 



The greatest asset of the human race is 

 the earth and its products, and it is a view 

 of the necessity of conserving a certain 

 feature of crop productivity of the soil 

 that I wish to bring before you. While we 

 all talk freely of conservation, it must be 

 recognized that there is no feature of it 

 that is easy to carry out in a theoretically 

 correct manner. Human interests and hu- 

 man understandings are so diverse that 

 what is fact to one man is theory to 

 another. In dealing with so simple a mat- 

 ter as the cropping of the soil to a particu- 

 lar crop, it is only when a great majority 

 of our best educated agriculturists agree 

 upon a feature, that it seems possible to get 

 it accepted by the farming public, and 

 often then it is only a comparatively small 



