OCTOBEB 28, 1910] 



SCIENCE 



593 



labor involved in setting it. It is true that 

 in both cases no money outlay may be in- 

 volved, for he may set the posts himself, after 

 getting them from his own wood-lot. Of the 

 posts used last year in Iowa, seventy per cent., 

 it is estimated, were grown on the farms 

 where they were used, or were obtained from 

 other farmers or wood-lot owners, and only 

 thirty per cent, were bought from lumber 

 dealers. Nevertheless, the farmer is out his 

 labor and the part of the product of his wood- 

 lot which is used up, even though he does not 

 pay out any cash. The facts concerning the 

 use of fence posts in Iowa were brought out 

 by an investigation which the Department of 

 Agriculture has been making through in- 

 quiries sent to farmers. Several thousand 

 replies have been used in compiling the fig- 

 ures, which, combined with statistics issued 

 by the Iowa State Board of Agriculture as to 

 the number of farmers and the acreage, fur- 

 nished the totals. According to these totals 

 about 10,000,000 posts are called for yearly to 

 build and repair fences on 209,163 farms, of 

 an average size of 158J acres each. The aver- 

 age life of a fence post is stated to be fourteen 

 years and the average cost 13.7 cents. There 

 is, however, great difference in the lasting 

 properties of different woods. Osage orange 

 lasts more than five times as long as willow 

 does, and for length of service it heads the 

 list of post timbers in the state. The com- 

 parative life of other posts is shown in the 

 following list ranging from the longest period 

 to the shortest : red cedar, locust, white oak, 

 northern white cedar (or arborvitas), catalpa, 

 black walnut, butternut, red oak and willow. 

 The average cost of posts varies for different 

 woods, and for the same woods in different 

 localities. Red cedar is most expensive, at -an 

 average of 26| cents each, and willow the 

 cheapest, at 6 cents. Taking into considera- 

 tion the time a post will last, and the cost 

 of buying it and setting it in the ground, the 

 conclusion must be drawn that the osage 

 orange post is the most economical in Iowa, 

 followed by white oak, locust, catalpa, red 

 cedar, black walnut, butternut, willow, white 

 cedar and red oak, in the order named. 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL NEWS 



By will of Ezra J. Warner, '61, Middlebury 

 College will receive $25,000 as an endowment 

 for the care and maintenance of Warner Sci- 

 ence Hall and the purchase of apparatus and 

 supplies for the departments which are housed 

 in that building. 



A sCHOLARsriip valued at $1,000 per year for 

 advanced work in architecture has been offered 

 to the trustees of the University of Illinois 

 by Mr. Francis John Plym, of Niles, Mich. 



The trustees of Princeton University have 

 accepted the resignation of President Wood- 

 row Wilson and have elected John A. Stewart, 

 senior trustee, to be acting president. Dr. 

 Wilson retains the McCormick chair of juris- 

 prudence and political history. 



Dr. John B. Elliott, Jr., has been made 

 chief of the department of medicine of Tulane 

 University, to succeed Dr. George Dock; Dr. 

 J. Birney Guthrie has been made professor of 

 clinical medicine, and Dr. E. Clyde Lunch, 

 professor of oto-rhino-laryngology in the post- 

 graduate department. 



Dr. Egbert W. Hegener has been promoted 

 from instructor to assistant professor of zool- 

 ogy in the University of Michigan. 



Henry E. Kreider, Ph.D. (Hopkins), has 

 been appointed assistant professor of Chem- 

 istry at the Baltimore Medical College. 



The department of botany at Syracuse Uni- 

 versity is enlarged by the addition of Assistant 

 Professor L. H. Pennington, recently of 

 Northwestern University. Laboratory equip- 

 ment is being installed for work along the 

 lines of physiology and plant pathology. 



At Princeton University there have been 

 appointed to instructorships, Eichard L. Cary 

 in mathematics and Mr. K. K. Smith in 

 physics. 



Mr. W. L. Upson, of the Ohio State Uni- 

 versity, has been appointed professor of elec- 

 trical engineering in the University of Ver- 

 mont. 



Professor Payr, of Griefswald, has been 

 called to Konigsberg as director of the surg- 

 ical clinic to succeed Professor Lexer, who 

 goes to Jena. Payr's successor is Professor 



