NOVEMBKR 27, 1003.] 



SCIENCE. 



687 



agricultural college of the present clay must 

 not only teach the students whom they can 

 draw into their class-room, but they must 

 also gather out of the realms of the un- 

 known the materials to complete the new 

 science of agriculture on which the scheme 

 of education rests; they must organize and 

 bring into successful operation a whole sys- 

 tem of education from the common schools 

 to the university department of research ; 

 they must overcome the prejudices and tra- 

 ditions of a most conservative constituency ; 

 they must create and develop into active 

 and permanent life a public sentiment 

 which shall result in the adequate equip- 

 ment and maintenance of a comprehensive 

 system of agricultural education. It is, 

 indeed, a great burden which rests upon the 

 shoulders of this board of trustees, this 

 youthful president and this learned faculty. 

 But the encouragements to strenuous ac- 

 tivity in this cause are also great, for al- 

 ready mighty forces are allied to push on 

 this enterprise. The United States govern- 

 ment has pledged itself to the permanent 

 financial support of the agrieultm-al col- 

 leges and experiment stations, and is giving 

 them besides the active aid of its great De- 

 partment of Agriculture. The state of 

 New Hampshire is backing this work with 

 its public revenues, and this building testi- 

 fies that the state regards the agricultural 

 college as one of its permanent institutions. 

 The workers in the cause of agricultural 

 education here have also those incitements 

 to high endeavor which come from the ccm- 

 sciousness of belonging to a great system 

 of institutions, that throughout the length 

 and breadth of the union, and in all the 

 civilized countries of the globe, are com- 

 peting in generous rivalry for the advance- 

 ment of fundamental interests of mankind. 

 And what is most significant and stimula- 

 ting is the sympathetic and active aid of 

 rapidly increasing hosts of intelligent farm- 

 ers and other public-spirited citizens who 



individually and through their organiza- 

 tions are helping to make the agricultural 

 college what it should be, and develop a 

 system of agricultural education which 

 shall erelong reach every man, woman and 

 child on the 5,000,000 farms of the United 

 States. 



A. C. True. 



U. S. Di;P.\RTME.NT OF AgRICUI-TIKE. 



SCIEXTII-IC JOURNALS AND ARTICLES. 



The American Naturalist for October opens 

 with the first of a series of papers on ' Adapta- 

 tion to Aquatic, Arboreal, Fossorial and Cur- 

 sorial Habits in Mammals,' the present one 

 being on ' Aquatic Adaptations,' by Ray- 

 mond C. Osburn. Edwin G. Conklin has a 

 paper on ' Amitosis in the Egg Follicle Cells 

 of the Cricket,' concluding that it is an ac- 

 companiment of cellular senescence. Edward 

 W. Berry describes ' New Species of Plants 

 from the Matawan Formation ' and O. P. Hay 

 has ' Some Remarks on the Fossil Fishes of 

 Mount Lebanon, Syria.' The concluding 

 paper, by R. W. Shufeldt, is ' On the Osteol- 

 ogy and Systematic Position of the King- 

 fishers.' The number contains the Quarterly 

 Record of gifts, appointments, retirements and 

 deaths. 



The Popular Science Monthly for November 

 has articles on ' The Renaissance of Science,' 

 by Edward S. Holden; ' Life in Other Worlds,' 

 by F. J. Allen; 'The New West Point,' by 

 William J. Roe, and a plea for ' A Laboratory 

 for the Study of Marine Zoology in the Trop- 

 ical Atlantic,' by Alfred G. Mayer, the 

 Tortugas being the locality suggested with 

 Jamaica as a possible alternative. David 

 Starr Jordan discusses ' The Parent Stream 

 Theoi-y of the Return of Salmon,' showing 

 that the evidence is not in favor of it, and 

 J. A. Fleming contributes the si.xth of his 

 papers on ' Hertzian Wave Wireless Teleg- 

 raphy.' Allan ifcLaughlin shows ' The Bright 

 Side of Russian Immigration,' and Norman 

 Lockyer treats of ' The Influence of Brain- 

 power on History,' presenting arguments for 

 the national support of universities. 



