492 
says: the sleeper opens an eye. ‘Force is 
simply the expression of the rate or speed at 
which any change takes place in matter:’ the 
eye closes. 
The lecturer, building his hopes on the star- 
ing eyes of a young man in the front row and 
the rapidly running pencil of the young woman 
in the second, dilates upon the first two laws of 
motion, and approaches the third. He notices 
a frightened look in the young man’s face, and 
that the pencil has stopped, and says, ‘‘ Action 
and reaction are equal, but for present pur- 
poses it need not be here discussed.’’ 
It may be said that the book-binder’s appren- 
tice over the clock has been omitted from this 
account of the audience. That is very true; 
but it must be understood, when a popular 
lecture is given, that it passes right over the 
heads or through the heads of nearly all who 
are there ; that the results are only to be found 
in the minds of astray few. With this granted, 
one may acknowledge that the blue lights and 
red lights of the experiments may draw ap- 
plause, but that the main result of the evening 
will be a restless sleep for the majority, and a 
pleasant pastime for a few. 
With the fire of the experiments buried in 
the black and white of woodcuts, and the awak- 
ening influence of the speaker’s voice gone, 
the same half-told facts appear weak when read 
from the pages of a book. 
Mr. Carpenter states in his preface, that 
kind friends advised the publication of his lec- 
tures ; but the lectures being of the class which 
hint at rather than discuss the problems of 
physics, and intended to lead the listener to 
think he is learning when he is only listen- 
ing to pleasant chat, it would seem that this 
advice must have been of the kind which is 
not meant to be followed. 
SOME STATE AGRICULTURAL EXPERI- 
MENT-STATIONS. 
Annual report of the Connecticut agricultural experi- 
ment-station for 1883. Printed by order of the 
~ legislature. New Haven, Tuttle, Morehouse, & 
Taylor, pr., 1884. 120p. 8°. 
Fourth annual report of the New Jersey state agricul- 
~ tural experiment-station for the year 1883. Vine- 
land, Wilbur pr., 1888. 112p. 8°. 
Tue report of the Connecticut station for 
1883 presents a good illustration, both of the 
value of experiment-stations and of the rather 
narrow limits within which their activity has 
been in most cases thus far confined. This 
oldest of the American stations owed its origin 
to the demand for an efficient control of the 
SCIENCE. 
quality of commercial fertilizers. It was in 
its inception, and has remained to a large 
extent, a fertilizer-control station; and this, 
not from any lack of interest in the problems 
of agricultural science, nor from any incom- 
petence on the part of its officers to solve 
them, but simply from force of circumstances. 
During the winter of 1882-83 the station 
was without laboratory facilities, and the pres- 
ent report covers about nine months of work. 
Of its hundred and twenty pages, about sev- 
enty are devoted to fertilizers, two hundred 
and nineteen analyses of which are reported. 
‘¢ Nearly one-half of them are samples of com- 
plex composition, each one requiring six de- 
terminations in duplicate.’’ The amount of 
work which this involves can be fully appre- — 
ciated only by a chemist, but its effect in 
limiting the amount of other work done is 
obvious. 
Aside from fertilizer analyses, we find in 
this report’ numerous tests of the vitality of 
seeds, together with a description of a new and 
convenient form of apparatus for the same; 
analyses of feeding-stuffs, and a table of the 
composition of American feeding-stuffs com- 
piled exclusively from American analyses by 
Dr. E. H. Jenkins; analyses of the milk of 
Ayrshire cows, and of market milk; analyses 
of oak and chesnut leaves at different periods 
of growth; and divers minor matters, includ- 
ing notes on some analytical processes. 
It will be seen, that, while considerable work 
other than fertilizer analysis has been done, 
it is all, so far as reported, laboratory work. 
Of experiments with living plants or animals, 
or even with the soil from which they draw 
their sustenance, we find no mention. As we 
have already said, this fact is largely, if not 
entirely, the result of unavoidable circum- 
stances. We mention it here, not to find fault, 
but to express the hope, that, with its new 
equipment and increased income, the Connect- 
icut station will find means and opportunity 
to enlarge the scope of its work, and attack 
some of the numerous problems in what we 
might call applied biology, which are waiting 
solution. 
The report of the New Jersey station shows 
points of resemblance to, and of difference 
from, that of the Connecticut station. As in 
the former case, the largest draught upon the 
resources of the station has been for the anal- _ 
ysis of fertilizers, a hundred and ninety-four — 
of which have been examined. Unlike the 
Connecticut station, the New Jersey station 
had ready to its hand tolerably good facilities — 
for conducting field and feeding experiments ; 
[Vou III., No. 63. : 
