July, 1912.] 



61 



MISCELLANEOUS. 



THE STATUS AND FUTURE OF 

 THE AMERICAN AGRONOMIST. * 



(From Science, Vol. XXXV., No. 890, 

 January 19, 1912.) 



On the occasion of this fourth annual 

 meeting of the American Society of 

 Agronomy it is of interest to note that 

 our membership has now grown to more 

 than two-hundred and that our publish- 

 ed proceedings are finding their place 

 not only in the private libraries of 

 American Agronomists, but also on the 

 shelves of the libraries of the leading 

 colleges and universities of the country. 

 Indeed the time seems to have arrived 

 when this society should seriously con- 

 sider supporting a journal. We have 

 definitely put our hands to the plough. 

 It behoves us, therefore, to be diligent, 

 to push this society into the front rank 

 of the scientific societies of the land and 

 to guard jealously against any and 

 all influences which may interfere with 

 the highest development of its indivi- 

 dual members and thereby restrict its 

 opportunity for public usefulness. 



It must be recognized that no scientific 

 body can be brought to its highest plane 

 nor be made of the greatest service to 

 our American people unless the ideals 

 of its individual members are high. The 

 future of agronomy in this country is, 

 however, not only dependent upon such 

 ideals, but also, in a very great degree, 

 upon the administrative attitude of the 

 institutions which we serve. 



To the professor who, a generation 

 ago, was covering in his way the whole 

 range of agricultural science, the field 

 of the present day agronomist may seem 

 narrow ; but those who have kept pace 

 with the march of recent events must be 

 impressed with its breadth and by the 

 fact that even greater specialization is 



* Presidential address before the American 

 Society of Agronomy, November 13, 1911, 



foreshadowed in the near future, when 

 the subject of agronomy may readily 

 resolve itself into several distinct fields 

 of effort. 



The student of farm crops can no 

 longer be content with a knowledge of 

 what belongs to the art of crop produc- 

 tion, but must now be well grounded in 

 systematic botany, especially in its 

 relation to the bacteria and fungi and 

 to the plant families which embrace the 

 weeds, grasses and the common farm 

 crops. He should understand and follow 

 the work in breeding which is being 

 done throughout the world. 



In order to deal with many of the pro- 

 blems with which he will be confronted 

 as an investigator and which he should 

 be able to fully grasp as a teacher, 

 fundamental training in physiological 

 botany becomes essential. Indeed, this is 

 osnly the beginning, for the agronomist 

 has not only to deal in detail with the 

 plants which contribute directly to the 

 food supply of man and of our domestic 

 animals, but also with an extensive soil 

 flora almost undreamed of a half century 

 ago, upon the study and control of which, 

 for the furtherance of agriculture, the 

 world is to-day barely entering. The 

 agronomist of the future must not only 

 deal with the effect of these soil plants 

 upon each other and upon the higher 

 plants in their parasitical and symbiotic 

 relations, but also as producers of am- 

 monia and nitrates, and as destroyers of 

 compounds of sulphur and of nitrogen 

 within the soil. 



As suggested by the recent investi- 

 gations of soil amcebsa by Hall and his 

 co-workers at Rothamsted, he musk also 

 deal with microscopic animal denizens 

 of the soil which may militate against, 

 or, as perhaps may yet be found, aid 

 in the growth of certain beneficial fungi, 

 and other microscopic flora. In fact, 

 the end is not yet, for chemistry now 

 plays its r61e in furnishing the agrono- 

 mist carbon bisulfide, and other sub- 

 stancea for combating unfavourable 



