SCIENCE 



FRIDAY, JULY 20, if 



When the systematic study of Indian pictographs was be- 

 gun by the Bureau of Ethnology years ago, it was supposed by 

 those who collected the material that the carvings on rocks and 

 wood, on barks and skins, when they were interpreted, would tell 

 something of the history of the people who made them, as the 

 hieroglyphics of the East have enabled modern scholars to con- 

 struct the history of ancient dynasties and empires. This expecta- 

 tion has been disappointed. The Indian pictographs are either 

 mythological, or, if they relate to events, it is to incidents in the 

 lives of individuals who are not identified, such as his hunts, the 

 number of scalps he took in battle, etc., or to such events in the 

 history of the tribes as the great religious festivals. They throw 

 no direct light upon the origin, age, or migrations of the tribes that 

 made the pictographs. Indirectly, by the comparative study of the 

 characters made by different tribes, the relations of those tribes 

 may be determined. It is by this comparative study that the In- 

 dian pictographs are likely to prove most valuable to science. 



There have occasionally been assembled, at intervals of 

 from five to seven years, international congresses for the discussion 

 of questions relating to crime and penal discipline. At those hitherto 

 held, as at Frankfort, Brussels, London, Stockholm, and Rome, 

 there has been a union of both official and non-official members- 

 with similar privileges of voting on the questions at issue. The 

 next congress is appointed to be held some years hence, at St. Pe- 

 tersburg. It would appear as if the spirit of Russian despotism 

 had taken alarm at the proposal, although unwilling to prohibit 

 such a meeting. But certain influences have been brought to bear 

 upon the committee of arrangement, who have intimated a desire 

 to restrict future decisions on the various questions to official dele- 

 gates or State functionaries. These, in Russia and some other 

 continental countries, are obsequious servants of the bureaucracy. 

 Hence, if this intention is carried out, the congress may in such 

 hands tend to become a mere clique, or the creature of conditional 

 patronage of northern military despotism, and, as such, rather 

 likely to meet with ridicule than respect from the free public opin- 

 ion and intelligence of western Europe and America. The French 

 Prison Society, Paris, has already issued a timely protest against 

 this project. That society consists of some of the ablest and most 

 intelligent members of the legislature and scientific bodies of 

 France, and is highly respected at home and abroad. Its objec- 

 tions to the proposed change in the constitution of these congresses 

 will doubtless obtain acceptance in Great Britain and America, and 

 in free nations generally. If, in defiance of such opinion, the St. 

 Petersburg congress is to be manipulated as proposed, its proceed- 

 ings will be entitled to comparatively little consideration. 



The bill to provide for the eleventh and subsequent censuses 

 has been passed by the House of Representatives, and will no 

 doubt be adopted by the Senate before the adjournment of the 

 present session. The salient features of the bill are similar to those 

 of that which provided for taking the tenth census, except that the 

 number of subjects of investigation are reduced to seven. These 

 are population and social statistics relating thereto, manufactures, 

 mining, agriculture, mortality and vital statistics, valuation, and 

 public indebtedness. The statistics on other subjects included in 



the tenth census, and which swelled its publications to twenty-two 

 large quarto volumes, although very useful for general information, 

 political discussion, and social science, are omitted because the 

 same information may be gathered by and published from other 

 bureaus of the government more satisfactorily and more econom- 

 ically. They are of continuing importance, and are not limited to 

 the precise period when the census is taken. The number of vol- 

 umes to be printed will probably be reduced to seven, and their 

 publication will not be delayed as formerly. 



There will be held next year, during the Universal Exhibi- 

 tion in Paris, a large number of scientific congresses, — of zoology, 

 anthropology, physiology, electricity, dermatology, and hygiene, — 

 besides the literary congresses and those devoted to economics and 

 the arts. The exhibition will draw to Paris a large number of 

 strangers, and will therefore be a favorable occasion for these in- 

 ternational re-unions. It is to be hoped that the scientific congresses 

 of 1889 will be as satisfactory in their results as those previously 

 held. As an admirable model, we would call attention to the In- 

 ternational Electrical Congress of i88i. This congress decided upon 

 a reform in electrical measures. Up to that time, each experi- 

 menter had employed that system of measures which best served 

 his purpose. Thanks to the electrical congress, these variations 

 are now at an end. In order that the congresses of 1S89 may accom- 

 plish all that may be expected of them, it is desirable that pro- 

 grammes should be arranged well beforehand, and the scientific world 

 will look to the organizers of the congresses for this needed guid- 

 ance. In large part the proper organization of the congresses will 

 depend upon the local scientific societies of Paris. 



The large amount of light sandy soils in some of the north- 

 ern counties of Michigan which do not appear to respond favorably 

 to ordinary methods of tillage, seems to call for investigation and 

 experimental inquiry. Some persons doubt the possibility of their 

 successful cultivation, and are disposed to scoff at all attempts in 

 that direction. The fact that many persons have settled on these 

 lands for homesteads, and after a few years have abandoned their 

 claims and gone elsewhere for permanent homes, seems to counte- 

 nance the doubt about their agricultural value. The hundreds of 

 abandoned homesteads give sad evidence of misdirected labor and 

 disappointed hopes. The question is, how to bring these lands 

 into profitable cultivation by such methods of tillage and the use of 

 such manurial materials as are within the reach of every farmer of 

 moderate means. It does not include the use of stable-manure, 

 for the reason that this cannot at present be obtained in sufficient 

 quantity to supply the needs of the plains. No one need doubt the 

 capacity of these sandy soils to produce crops if a sufficient supply 

 of stable-manure can be obtained. The first question is. how to 

 raise the crops on these lands that shall furnish the stable-manure. 

 The problem briefly stated is this : with a light sandy soil of very 

 porous quality, in a northern climate, subject to late frosts in spring 

 and early frosts in autumn, and liable to midsummer drought, with 

 no fertilizers except marl, salt, and plaster, can any methods of til- 

 lage or kinds of crops bring these plains into profitable cultivation 

 for ordinar)' farming, stock-raising, or fruit-production ? For many 

 years Prof. R. C. Kedzie of the Agricultural College of Michigan 

 has given thought and study to this problem, and in lectures and 

 articles called attention to the subject. When the Hatch Bill be- 

 came a law. it was felt that the time had come to take up this sub- 



