104 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



The circular also relates the part' played by the Experiment Stations 

 and Demonstration Farms in dispelling ignorance and introducing im- 

 proved methods. The prejudice against so-called book-learning and 

 theory is fast disappearing. The circular says that over 24,000,000 

 bulletins are distributed annually. 



Page 28 gives a list of the agricultural colleges and elementary 

 schools set aside for negros and Indians. — W. W. 



Agricultural Education at Purdue Experiment Station 



(Purdue University, Circ. 24, p. 48; 41 plates, 1 fig., 1 map). — 

 This is a brief outline of the work of the above station since its 

 organization in 1887. It is drawn up on the lines of an English 

 University calendar, but its illustrations and clearness make it much 

 more interesting than these generally are. An account of the work 

 in each department is given, together with a list of the staff. The work 

 is chiefly extension work. The State Chemists' Department is one 

 of the most interesting. The legislature of Indiana passed laws to 

 ensure the farmer good, correctly stated fertilizers and foodstuffs, and 

 to the manufacturer freedom from dishonest competition. The law, 

 however, does not seem to be general throughout the U.S.A. For full 

 results of the inspection of fertilizers and feeding- stuffs readers are 

 referred to Bulletins 148 and 141. — W. W. 



Agriculture in the Central Part of the Semi-arid Portion of 

 the Great Plains. By J. A. Warren [U.S.A. Dep. Agr., Bur. PI. 

 hid., Bull. 215, July 1911; 4 figs.). — The most serious feature of the 

 climate of this vast region is the variability of the rainfall, while its 

 general insufficiency for the needs of crops is accentuated by the pre- 

 valence of strong winds and intense sunlight, experiments having shown 

 that with a wind at twenty miles an hour evaporation is 5 "9 times as 

 rapid as during a calm (p. 16). In South-E astern Colorado the 

 evaporation from an open water surface is 50 inches during the grow- 

 ing season, and loss at this rate where the average annual rainfall 

 is between 10 inches and 20 inches a year often means very critical 

 periods for crops, even though they are sometimes of only a few 

 hours' duration. As an instance of this, investigation made on one 

 day, which was by no means exceptional in its character, showed 

 that a single corn-plant standing in a field of com lost 9^ lb. of water 

 in 8-1 hours (p. 15). 



The bulletin deals with the general aspect of farming in these 

 States, both present and future, and the general methods adopted. On 

 account of the dryness of the climate there is usually a large store of 

 mineral plant food in the soil but no large quantity of organic matter, 

 and it is thought that the addition of humus would so change the 

 water-holding properties of the soil as to enable a crop to be produced 

 with less rainfall (p. 19). See Abstract on " Dry-Farming in Eela- 

 tion of Eainfall and Evaporation" on p. 457 of the Journal for 

 December 1911 (vol. xxxvii. p. 457). 



The country is now being resettled after the disastrous failures in 



