886 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XIV. No. 362. 



the school, but if it proves a success it is 

 proposed to make it a cooperative enter- 

 prise, to be managed by a committee of 

 control appointed by the Association. 

 Future sessions may be held at institutions 

 in different parts of the country. This 

 plan for the school was endorsed by the 

 Association and a prospectus of the first 

 session will soon be issued. 



The Association voted in favor of exhibits 

 illustratiug the progress of instruction and 

 research in agriculture and the mechanic 

 arts, at the St. Louis Exposition in 1903, and 

 committees on these exhibits were appointed. 



The resolution introduced by Professor 

 W. A. Henry, of Wisconsin, was adopted 

 by the Association, urging upon Congress 

 " the necessity and wisdom of providing a 

 building for the accommodation of the De- 

 partment of Agriculture which in magni- 

 tude shall be sufficient to provide for its 

 future, as well as present, needs, and which 

 will properly represent in its architecture 

 the enormous importance of agriculture in 

 this country, and which will constitute a 

 worthy addition to the government build- 

 ings of the capital of the United States." 



In the section on college work a paper 

 on the relation of agricultural colleges to 

 the proposed national university, by Presi- 

 dent W. O. Thompson, of the Ohio State 

 University, was presented in which the 

 writer aflSrmed that in his judgment ''the 

 relation of the agricultural colleges to a 

 national university should be that of sym- 

 pathetic cooperation and enthusiastic sup- 

 port, as against all other measures whether 

 proposed as substitutes or stepping-stones." 

 This paper called forth a lively discussion 

 in which it appeared that there was a 

 general sentiment in the section in favor of 

 securing some agency under government 

 control for making the laboratories, mu- 

 seums, libraries, and other educational 

 facilities in Washington available to ad- 

 vanced students. 



W. M. Liggett, Dean of the College of 

 Agriculture of the University of Minnesota, 

 read a paper on the value of short courses, 

 in which he described the different courses 

 in agriculture given in Minnesota, and 

 stated that he considered the short courses 

 valuable adjuncts to the longer courses. 



Honorable J. H. Brigham, Assistant Sec- 

 retary of Agriculture, spoke of the short 

 courses as a means not only of giving 

 valuable instruction to farmers, but also 

 of bringing about more cordial relations 

 between the agricultural colleges and 

 farmers. In his judgment "the best way 

 to secure the support of farmers is to let 

 them come to the college even for a short 

 time and see that you are trying to do good. " 



In the section on agriculture and chem- 

 istry considerable time was given to a con- 

 sideration of the question to what extent 

 the Department of Agriculture and the ex- 

 periment stations may profitably cooperate 

 in the study of grass and forage plant 

 problems and the lines of work which 

 are likely to yield the most important re- 

 sults. Professor B. T. Galloway, chief of 

 the Bureau of Plant Industry, gave a brief 

 history of the cooperative forage plant work 

 of the Department and the stations. He 

 expressed his opinion that the success of 

 the movement depended on grouping the 

 stations with reference to the problems to 

 be solved in different sections of the country, 

 and devising a working plan for each group. 

 The following lines of work were suggested : 

 (1) The introduction of crops from foreign 

 countries, (2) growing and disseminating 

 introduced crops after they have become in 

 a measure established, (3) dissemination of 

 native crops of local value, (4) breeding 

 crops for certain conditions, (5) increasing 

 production by improved cultural methods. 

 Professor R. H. Forbes, director of the , 

 Arizona Experimental Station, described 

 the grass and forage crop conditions of that 

 Territory, and gave an account of the co- 



