April 2, 1886.] 



SCIENCE. 



315 



of thermal relations in the matter of classification 

 regarded as only supplementary, and even the 

 1 law of maximum work ' degraded to a mild 

 assertion of the general probability of the occur- 

 rence, under physical conditions as nearly con- 

 stant as possible, of that one of conceivable 

 operations which shall evolve the greatest quantity 

 of heat. Fortunately in the measure of relative 

 affinities the effect of physical disturbance is at a 

 minimum ; and it is on this line that the author 

 predicts, and rightly, as it seems, the surest 

 advance. Mr. Muir has laid his audience under 

 obligations ; and, in view of the excellence of the 

 work, some few depreciatory (perhaps quixotic) 

 references to the baleful influences of structural 

 chemistry and the bond theory will doubtless be 

 passed over lightly. 



NEW YORK AGRICULTURAL EXPERI- 

 MENT-STATION. 



The fourth report of the New York experiment- 

 station contains the results of a vast amount of 

 work upon various branches of agricultural in- 

 quiry ; and, if the first impression which it 

 makes is of a certain vagueness and lack of defi- 

 niteness in its conclusions, a further study shows 

 that much of this effect is due to the magnitude 

 of the problems attacked, and the consequent in- 

 complete character of the work at present. 



As in former years, the work of the station has 

 been largely botanical and horticultural in its na- 

 ture, although other subjects have also received 

 considerable attention, particularly stock-feeding 

 and related subjects. 



The work of the chemist upon the relative 

 volume of the fat-globules in milk from different 

 sources, and rpon the structure of these globules, 

 is full of interesting and suggestive results. By 

 means of an ingenious method of his own 

 devising, he has been able to determine micro- 

 scopically the number of fat-globules in a given 

 bulk of milk, and, by combination with the re- 

 sults of chemical analysis, their average volume. 

 By this method he has shown, that, when milk is 

 churned at a temperature above the melting-point 

 of butter-fat, the number of fat-globules is in- 

 creased : in other words, the fat-globules can be 

 divided. He has thus, it would seem, disposed 

 finally of the theory of a membrane surrounding 

 the fat-globules, and completed the proof that 

 milk is an emulsion, and behaves essentially like 

 any other emulsion. 



Fourth annual report of the Board of control of the 

 New York agricultural experiment- station, for the year 

 1885 ; with the reports of the director and officers. Roch- 

 ester, N.Y., E. R. Andrews, pr., 1886. 8°. 



But it is on the botanical and horticultural 

 sides, as already intimated, that we find the great- 

 est amount of work expended, and the most com- 

 prehensive plan of operations. There are, among 

 other things, a botanical description and provis- 

 ional classification of forty-three varieties of 

 wheat, and a description of the leading varieties of 

 lettuce (eighty-seven in number, according to the 

 station's classification, and gleaned from at least 

 two hundred differently named lettuces by the 

 labor of three seasons). There is also a descrip- 

 tion of the products of a hundred and forty-eight 

 varieties of maize, planted under such conditions 

 as to insure extensive cross-fertilization, and tend- 

 ing to show that the variations thus produced can 

 be referred to named varieties. All this, it will 

 be observed, is in the line of agricultural botany ; 

 and the report contains the records of a large 

 amount of other work, with many species of 

 plants which may sooner or later be available in 

 the same direction. 



We shall watch with interest this attempt to 

 reduce to system the present chaos in the nomen- 

 clature of agricultural varieties. The director of 

 the New York station is confident that these 

 varieties are much more persistent than is usually 

 supposed ; and, in the interest of both science and 

 practice, it is to be hoped that his confidence will 

 be justified by the outcome of his own and his 

 assistant's labor. 



The report of the botanist deals largely with 

 plant-diseases, the most interesting portion being 

 the demonstration that pear-blight is due to the 

 activity of a bacterium. 



The student of agricultural science may be in- 

 clined to regret the time which has been spent 

 upon numerous side-issues and single experiments 

 of no scientific value, and to wish that the large 

 resources of the station had been expended in 

 more extended and thorough scientific work upon 

 a few problems ; but he will not forget that a 

 public experiment-station is not a purely scientific 

 institution, but has duties to the man of practice 

 as well, which are often best subserved by experi- 

 ments, in which the purely scientific man can see 

 no value. We have before now taken occasion to 

 express freely our belief in the greater ultimate 

 value of scientific investigation ; but we desire to 

 record also our appreciation of the value of care- 

 fully performed and conscientiously reported 

 ' practical ' or • empirical ' experiments, such as 

 are to be found in this report. The New York 

 station appears to us to be doing excellent work 

 in both directions, and it is to be hoped that the 

 liberality of the state in providing means for its 

 prosecution will serve as an incentive to other 

 commonwealths. 



