Decembee 16, 1898.] 



SCIENCE. 



847 



■capable of turning out six hundred maps 

 per hour, are continually at work. Each 

 year there are printed and distributed 1,200,- 

 000 maps, about as many as the Coast and 

 Oeodetic Survey has published since it came 

 into existence. At Southampton, where 

 the office of the English Ordnance Survey is 

 located, the personnel consists of about 

 nine hundred persons, of which probably 

 one hundred belong to the army. The 

 map printing establishment has even greater 

 capacity than that at Paris, 3,000,000 maps 

 being delivered annually. Although the 

 ^reat trigonometric work may be considered 

 -as finished in England, nevertheless, the top- 

 ographic work goes on, and the efibrt is made 

 to cover the whole kingdom once in twenty 

 years with a new map on a scale of 1/2,500, 

 ■and once in fifteen years with one on 1/10,- 

 000. Of course, the latter is made from the 

 former by making blue prints, tracing in 

 black the detail required, and photograph- 

 ing again, which leaves out everything in 

 blue on the original sheet. 



E. D. Preston, 

 Delegate on the part of the United States. 

 U. S. Coast and Geodetic Survey. 



THE ANNUAL BEPOBT OF THE SECBETABY 

 OF AGBICULTUBE. 



The Report of the Secretary of Agricul- 

 ture for 1898, just issued, is of interest as 

 showing the growth of the technical and 

 scientific work of the Department. This 

 national agency for the pi'omotion of agri- 

 culture now consists of two bureaus, two 

 ofBces and fourteen divisions, most of which 

 are engaged in scientific inquiries. A few 

 of the more salient features of the work of 

 the Department during the last year may 

 serve to indicate the lines in which it is 

 making progress. 



The Weather Bureau has greatly in- 

 ■creased the efficiency of its forecast service 

 by the establishment of a considerable num- 

 ber of observation stations in the West In- 



dies and additional stations in the more 

 arid regions of the West. A climate and 

 crop service has also been begun in Alaska. 



The Bureau of Animal Industry has had 

 great success in its experiments for the re- 

 pression of hog cholera by the use of spe- 

 cially prepared serum. The experiments in 

 dipping cattle to kill the ticks which cause 

 Texas fever have also been successfully con- 

 ducted on a large scale. 



The work of the Division of Chemistry on 

 the composition and adulteration of foods 

 and on sugar beets has been quite exten- 

 sive. Studies of typical soils in the vege- 

 tation house by the Division have shown 

 that "Meteoric influences other than those 

 relating to precipitation have a great in- 

 fluence on crop production. The solar in- 

 fluences are evidently of great importance, 

 and the distribution of solar heat is a factor 

 not to be neglected." 



Among the more important investiga- 

 tions of the Division of Entomology have 

 been those on the Morelos orange fruit 

 worm, the Mexican cotton-boll weevil, 

 chinch bug, Hessian fly and San Jose scale. 



The Biological Survey is energetically 

 pushing its researches on the life zones of 

 the United States. 



The Division of Vegetable Physiology and 

 Pathology has made interesting investiga- 

 tions relative to increasing the sugar and 

 starch producing power of plants and the 

 eiiect of soil foods on their growtli and pro- 

 ductiveness. A large amount of hybridizing 

 has also been done with oranges and other 

 citrus fruits, pineapples, pears, wheat and 

 other crops. 



Our knowledge of the native forage plants 

 of the Great West has been considerably en- 

 larged by the recent work of the Division 

 of Agrostology, which has added nearly 

 3,000 sheets of specimens to the National 

 Herbarium during the year. 



The Division of Soils has perfected and 

 cheapened its electrical apparatus for the 



