650 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXVIIL No. 984 



eiency of their work is stimulated by the 

 requirement of the Adams Fund that ap- 

 propriation shall be confined to definite 

 projects. The number of such projects dur- 

 ing 1910 was 335 and during 1911, 290. 

 The reduction in number in no way implies 

 diminished activity, and is due to more 

 careful selection and preparation, with 

 elimination of trivial and merely demon- 

 strational projects. While the work of the 

 stations necessarily covers a wide range of 

 subjects, many of which would not be re- 

 garded as chemical in nature, a notable 

 proportion has to do directly with chemical 

 projects. Only the briefest reference can 

 be made to a few of these: 



At Connecticut, Osborne's studies of pro- 

 teins and their feeding values have devel- 

 oped differences as great in their assimila- 

 bility as those existing between the differ- 

 ent carbohydrates. 



Kansas has a department for the study 

 of problems in handling and milling grain 

 with an experimental baking plant for test- 

 ing the bread-making capacity of fiours. 

 The millers are actively cooperating. 



Minnesota has a similar thoroughly mod- 

 ern baking and testing laboratory for stud- 

 ies in wheat and flour chemistry and tech- 

 nology. 



Arizona finds that date ripening may be 

 so hastened by spraying the immature fruit 

 with acetic acid that choice varieties are 

 caused to ripen in that region. 



The Cornell Station has demonstrated 

 that the growth of a legume with a non- 

 legume gives the latter a greater protein 

 content than when grown alone. 



Wisconsin has established the significance 

 of sulphur as a plant food ; grain crops, for 

 example, remove nearly as much sulphur 

 as they do phosphoric acid, whereas the soil 

 supply of sulphur is far less. 



Vermont is studying the forcing of plants 

 by means of carbonic acid gas. 



Idaho has raised the protein content of 

 wheat by 50 per cent. Kentucky has de- 

 veloped a method for the detection of Ba- 

 cillus typhosus in water, and North Da- 

 kota is conducting very extensive field tests 

 on the durability of paints and oils. 



These are, of course, mere surface refer- 

 ences which hardly touch the real work of 

 the stations. An enormous amount of re- 

 search and routine work on fertilizers is 

 constantly carried on by methods standard- 

 ized by the Association of Official Agricul- 

 tural Chemists. The theory of the action 

 of fertilizers engages the effort of many re- 

 search workers who find the problem far 

 more complex than the old plant food 

 theory assumed. 



It may be said without fear of contradic- 

 tion that through the combined efforts of 

 the Department of Agriculture, the ex- 

 periment stations, the agricultural colleges 

 and our manufacturers of agricultural ma- 

 chinery there is devoted to American agri- 

 culture a far greater amount of scientific 

 research and effort than is at the service of 

 any other business in the world. 



No other organic substance occurs in 

 such abundance as wood, and few, if any, 

 are more generally useful. About 150,000,- 

 000 tons of wood are still wasted annually 

 in the United States. The Forest Products 

 Laboratory which is maintained by the 

 Forest Service in cooperation with the 

 University of Wisconsin has for its pur- 

 pose the development and promulgation of 

 methods for securing a better utilization of 

 the forest and its products, and its research 

 work is directed to that end. The labora- 

 tory is splendidly equipped with appa- 

 ratus of semi-commercial size for work in 

 timber physics, timber tests, wood preser- 

 vation, wood pulp and paper and wood dis- 

 tillation and chemistry. 



In the United States Patent Office, Dr. 

 Hall has developed a remarkably eompre- 



