592 Lime for Agricultural Purposes. [oct., 



surveys, and a great variety of local experiments, as well as 

 for printing and disseminating the results of the experiments. 

 By this co-operation of the national and state governments in 

 fostering the stations, their operations have been greatly 

 strengthened, and the results of their work have been brought 

 more directly to the attention of farmers in every part of the 

 United States. 



The stations annually issue about 500 publications, which 

 are regularly sent to over 900,000 addresses, mainly those of 

 farmers. The practical results of station work are also widely 

 disseminated through the public press. Great progress, in 

 fact, is stated to have been made during the past decade in the 

 direction of bringing the results of experiments home to the 

 people whom they most concern. 



Less attention has been given to the publication of the 

 scientific work of the stations. This material has either been 

 combined with the practical in popular publications, or issued 

 in separate series, or published in an abbreviated form through 

 scientific journals. Recently there has been a growing ten- 

 dency to publish such material in foreign journals, in the 

 belief that thus it is more surely brought to the attention 

 of the scientific world. Having regard to the amount and 

 value of the scientific work of the stations, the present method 

 of dealing with the publication of results is not regarded as 

 very satisfactory. It is stated that "the scientific publications 

 of the stations are so fragmentary and scattered that it is very 

 difficult even for workers in similar lines in the United States 

 to obtain them in any complete way, and to the great world 

 of science they are unknown." A proposal has been made to 

 establish, under national authority, a central medium for the 

 publication of original reports of this scientific work. An item 

 for expenditure for this purpose was included in the agricul- 

 tural budget of the United States. 



A case lately came to the notice of the Board in which a grey 



lime was sold for agricultural purposes which proved on 



analysis to contain, in addition to 68 



Lime for cent, of lime and 1*33 per cent, of 



Agricultural . , , 



Purposes magnesia, as much as io"o per cent. 01 



insoluble siliceous matter. While such 



a lime would be suitable for building purposes, it would be 



