270 



A paper by Dr. Ernst Friedrich, of the German commercial 

 high school at Leipzig, contains the following interesting facts : 

 The world's lumber trade amounts to ^285,600,000 annually, of 

 which the United States furnishes about 20 per cent., Austria- 

 Hungary 19 per cent., Russia 16 per cent., Canada 13 per cent., 

 Sweden 18 per cent., and Finland 10 per cent. Great Britain 

 has but 4 per cent, of forest land ; France, Switzerland, Italy, 

 Greece, and Spain each less than 10 per cent. Even the newer 

 countries, Chile, Argentine Republic, and Australia are forced to 

 import wood. 



The following abstract of a paper on "The Influence of En- 

 vironment on the Composition of Wheat" by J. A. LeClerc and 

 Sherman Leavitt, has been taken from one of the summer 

 numbers of Science : 



" Crops grown from the. same seed at three points of widely 

 different climatic conditions, such as Kansas, California, and 

 Texas, forming a so-called triangular experiment, and similarly 

 at South Dakota, California, and Texas, showed a marked differ- 

 ence in the protein content, the weight per bushel, the per- 

 centage of starchy grain, and total sugar content. Kansas 

 produced invariably a high protein and California a low protein 

 and high sugar content wheat. Wheat grown in California one 

 year was found to double its protein content when grown in 

 Kansas the next ; the reverse was found to be true when Kansas 

 seed was grown in California. These differences are due to 

 climatic conditions. The composition of the soil seems to exert 

 no influence on the composition of the crop." 



Science for August 14 states that the appropriation for the 

 Department of Agriculture for the present year is over eleven 

 million dollars. The share of this granted to the Bureau of 

 Plant Industry is larger this year, partly because of the boll- 

 weevil work now being carried on. The appropriation for the 

 introduction of rare seeds and plants from foreign countries was 

 increased to ;^56,ooo, in addition to the congressional seed dis- 

 tribution, which is to be continued on the usual basis. The 



