2O0 



SCIENCE 



[Vol. XIX. No. 479 



tages and privileges should be accorded to the orally taught deaf 

 and to the maTiually taught deaf, pursuing oral methods in the 

 education of the former, manual methods with the latter. In 

 bringing up the subject, Mr. Greenberger disclaimed any un- 

 friendly feeling towards the college, and I wish to do him the 

 justice to state that he had no desire to embarrass you in your 

 noble work, but, moved by a sens? of justice, he felt that the time' 

 had come when the association should take a stand in favor of the 

 higher oral education of the orally taught deaf of the country, in 

 the college at Kendall Green if possible, if impossible, then outside 

 in a separate school. Now, while the question was disposed of, 

 for ihe time being at least, in a way that exhibited the kindliest 

 feeling toward you and your college vi'ork, I feel that sooner or 

 later it will have to be met and disposed of to the advantage of 

 the college or to its disadvantage, strengthening it if an oral de- 

 partment be added, weakening it if, refused in what they believe 

 to be just demands, the friends of higher oral instruction for the 

 deaf establish a separate college for their higher education. The 

 oral instruction of the deaf, whether wisely or unwisely, is un- 

 questionably commanding increased public attention and public 

 sympathy, and the college that seeks to provide the highest and 

 best educational facilities for the deaf as a class should stand 

 ready to meet every reasonable demand. The number of orally 

 taught deaf is constantly increasing, they are seeking higher in- 

 struction than the primary schools afford, where shall they ob- 

 tain it? 



They hesitate, and object, and refuse when directed to Kendall 

 Green, not because it is not a good school, nor because its pro- 

 fessors are not competent^ men but because of a well-founded fear 

 ■that that which they have spent much time and labor in gaining, 

 namely, their speech and their ability to read speech, may be very 

 seriously impaired. Shall this class of deaf-mutes come to Ken- 

 dall Green to proSt by instruct ion at the bauds of its able and ex- 

 perienced professors, greatly strengthening the power and influence 

 of the college, or shall they be driven to another school? 



To me, interested as I am in the success of the only college for 

 the deaf in the world, this is a most important question, and I 

 believe it will receive the careful consideration that its importance 

 demands at your hands. The formation of an oral department 

 with the means you have at your command should not present 

 any serious difficulties, nor prove seriously han-assing to your well- 

 ordered college work. For material you would have the best 

 from every school in the land, and for support you would have the 

 sympathy and active influence of every friend of the deaf through- 

 out the world. A. L. E. Crouter. 



March 5. 



NOTES AND NEWS. 



The faculty of Cornell University has been invited to -send 

 representatives to take part in the Tercentenary Festival of the 

 University of Dublin, next summer, and has accepted. Professor 

 Corson going as its representative. Dr. Thurston has received a 

 personal invitation from the University of Dublin for the same 

 occasion, and is expected, if he should he able to go, to remain 

 in Dublin as the guest of Dr. Lucius O. Button of Fitzwilliam 

 Place. 



— The second number of 1893 of the Bulletin of the Ohio Ex- 

 periment Station summarizes the experience of the station in the 

 culture of mangolds and sugar beets. Mangolds have been grown 

 on the station farm for ten or twelve years past, to serve as food 

 for the dairy cows; twelve to fifteen tons per acre being an ordi- 

 nary yield. The beets are eaten with great -relish by the cows, 

 they cause an increased flow of milk, and the milk is thought to 

 be of a better quality. The milk from this dairy is sold direct to 

 consumers, and these have claimed that they could tell when beet 

 feeding began in the fall by the improved flavor of the milk. In 

 1891 a number of varieties of sugar beets were grown alongside 

 the mangolds; it was found that the sugar beets were considerably 

 less productive than the mangolds, yielding but seven to nine tons 

 per acre, against twelve to twenty tons for the mangolds. The 

 sugar beets, however, showed on analysis about six per cent of 

 sugar, while the mangolds showed but three per cent. The labor- 



cost of producing an acre of beets is from thirty to forty dollars,. 

 as grown at the station, where they are planted in rows sufficiently 

 wide to admit of horse culture. By planting in rows only half a* 

 far apart the crop might largely be increased, but the cost of 

 cultivation would also be increased. In a bulletin issued a year 

 ago by the Chemical Division of the United States Department of 

 Agriculture, a table is given showing that the average cost of 

 manufacture in 113 German beet sugar factories in 1889-90 was 

 nearly $3 per ton of beets. If it were possible to raise an average 

 crop of fifteen tons per acre of sugar beets in Ohio at a cost of $30 

 per acre, or |3 per ton, or to manufacture them at a cost of $3 

 per ton, the total cost for production and manufacture would be 

 $75 per acre. Such a crop would yield 1,800 pounds of sugar, at 

 the rate shown by the station analysis, worth |?3 at four cent'j 

 per pound, thus leaving no margin whatever to either productr or 

 manufacturer to cover the losses from bad seasons on the farm 

 or in the factory. It is true the present bounty would afford this 

 margin; but the bounty ends with 1895, unless renewed, and it& 

 future is very uncertain. Sugar beets grown in the dry climate 

 and on the rich soils of Nebraska and Iowa show an average of 

 about thirteen per cent sugar, or more than twice that found at 

 the Ohio station, thus following the well-known law that the sugar 

 beet reaches its highest development in northern latitudes. Brels 

 grown in noi'thern Ohio would probably show a higher per cent 

 of sugar than has been found at the station, but it is extremely 

 doubtful if the culture and manufacture of sugar beets can be 

 made profitable in any part of Ohio in competition with the more 

 favored regions of the North-west and of California, and the Ex- 

 periment station would advise Ohio farmers to be very cautious 

 about entering upon any large undertaking in sugar beet culture. 

 There are probably spots in northern Ohio where spring wheat 

 could be grown, and it is possible cotton might mature in sheltered 

 coves in Lawrence County; but it would hardly be advisable for 

 the farmers of either section to enter into competition with the 

 spring wheat growers of the North-west or the cotton planters of 

 the Gulf States. 



— The Oriental History Society of Altenburg will celebrate in 

 the autumn of 1892 the seventy-fifth anniversary of its establish- 

 ment, and will take advantage of this opportunity to pay tribute 

 to three of the honorary members of the Society, by the erectiorj 

 of a simple, worthy monument :n the capital city of Altenburg. 

 They are Christian Ludwig Brehm, his son, Alfred Brehm, and 

 Professor Schlegel, who died at Leyden. The researches of these 

 three men in zoology, and particularly in ornithology, are known, 

 not only among their associates, but throughout the world, and 

 deserve that their memory should be honored. A committee, con- 

 sisting of Prince Moritzof Saxe-Altenburg; Professor Dr. Blasius, 

 Braunschweig; Dir. Professor Flemming, Altenburg; Major A. v. 

 Homeyer, Greifswald; Hugo Koehler, privy-councillor of com- 

 merce, Altenburg; Dr. Keopert, Altenburg; Professor Dr. Liebe, 

 privy-councillor, Gera; Professor Dr. Pilling, Altenburg; Dr. 

 Reichenow, Berlin ; Dr. Rothe, privy-councillor of medicine, .Alten- 

 burg; Chevalier von Tschusi zu Schraidhoffen, Hallein; Dr. 

 Voretzsch, Altenburg; and Dr. Leverkuhn, Munich, under the pat- 

 ronage of His Highness, Prince Moritz of Saxe-Altenburg, also an 

 honorary member of the society, solicits contribution.s from the 

 friends of these eminent scientists, for the purpose of aiding in 

 the erection of the proposed memorial. It is respectfully requested 

 that contributions be forwarded to Hugo Koehler, privy-councillor 

 of commerce, in Altenburg, and that inquiries and letters be ad- 

 dressed to Dr. Koepert, in Altenburg. 



— Mr. R. H Scott delivered a lecture at the Royal Institution 

 on March 18, on a subject of much importance to England, viz.: 

 '■ Atlantic Weather and its -Connection with British Weather." 

 He pointed out, says Nature, that less than a quarter of a century 

 ago, before synchronous charts were in vogue, it would have been 

 impossible to have traced a storm across America and the Atlantic 

 to Britain's coasts; but this can now be done with considerable 

 certainty. The broad principles which govern the weather system 

 of the Atlantic were shown on two diagrams exhibiting the mean 

 pressure, and the regions of greatest disturbance of temperature^ 

 on the globe in our winter. The latter chart showed that, at that 



