May 5, 1911] 



SCIENCE 



711 



dred on one of the streets over -which a part 

 of the course was laid. This, if it constituted 

 any large part of the whole, would naturally 

 increase the work performed, but apparently 

 the greater part of the course was over streets 

 with very little grade. 



Since accurate data regarding the grade of 

 the entire course are not accessible, it has 

 seemed best to compute the results in detail 

 without trying to take it into account. The 

 organizers of the contest were of the opinion 

 that the grade mentioned made the 10-mile 

 course equivalent, in its demands upon the 

 men, to a level course of 15 miles. If such an 

 assumption be made, it would mean an average 

 energy expenditure of 1,706 calories for those 

 who completed the test. 



As a result of the Department of Agriculture 

 experiments with the respiration calorimeter, 

 it has been calculated that a man at ordinary 

 work, such as that of a mason or a carpenter, 

 expends in the performance of his daily work, 

 at least 1,200 calories. This means that the 

 average energy expenditure of the man in per- 

 forming the work of a contest which lasted 

 four hours was greater than the above value 

 for a day's work. 



From a single test and so limited data it 

 would be manifestly unfair to draw sweeping 

 deductions regarding the character of the food 

 in its relation to endurance. It is neverthe- 

 less a fact that the four successful candidates 

 who furnished data lived on the ordinary 

 mixed diet of the average citizen, and from all 

 the information collected the same was true 

 of all who entered the contest. This contest 

 is of interest on this account and also because 

 the endurance feat undertaken is comparable 

 with the ordinary forms of muscular work 

 which pertain to usual vocations, and so may 

 be fairly considered as furnishing some indi- 

 cation of the fitness of the subjects for suc- 

 cessfully engaging in occupations involving 

 manual labor. 



The total number completing the trial of 

 strength is small (6 out of 48) in proportion 

 to the total number of entries, but the number 

 (44) of those who carried the 100-pound 

 weight for nearly one mile is large, while it 



was not until the men had passed the judges' 

 stand four times that the number of contest- 

 ants dropped below 20. 



It seems fair to conclude that the men who 

 engaged in the contest were, as regards their 

 food, their occupation and their general living 

 conditions, representative of the very large 

 group of our population who are living com- 

 fortably and meeting their daily obligations 

 in a creditable manner, who are, in fact, living 

 the average life of the average man, with its 

 varied activities and interests. 



In so far as the recorded data throw light 

 on the subject, they indicate that the average 

 man living the average life is capable of meet- 

 ing body demands of considerable severity — a 

 conclusion which perhaps few would question, 

 but which it is interesting to consider in the 

 light of numerical data. 



C. F. Langwoethy 



U. S. Department of Agrictiltdke, 

 Office of Expeeiment Stations 



r 



THE USE OF ACID SOIL FOR RAISING! SEEDLINGS OF 

 THE MAYFLOWER, EPIGAEA REPENS 



Mayflower or trailing arbutus (Epigaea 

 repens), probably the best beloved of all the 

 wild flowers of the eastern United States, is 

 rarely seen in cultivation. It usually does not 

 survive transplanting. No evidence has yet 

 been found that flowering plants have ever 

 actually been raised from the seed. 



The development of a system of cultivating 

 the swamp blueberry (Vaccinium corym- 

 hosum), by the use of acid soils,' suggested 

 that a similar method might succeed with 

 trailing arbutus, because the two plants have 

 the same natural habitat, and because a sym- 

 biotic root fungus similar to the beneficial and 

 probably indispensable root fungus of the 

 blueberry was found to occur on trailing ar- 

 butus. 



Seeds were procured in New Hampshire in 

 July, 1909. They were sown in a mixture of 

 kalmia peat, sand, and sphagnum. They 

 germinated in August. After successive trans- 



^ " Experiments in Blueberry Culture," 1910 

 (Bulletin 193, Bureau of Plant Industry, Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture). 



