52 
NATIONAL RESEARCH COUNCIL 
Division of Agriculture. — Considerable time has been given to the prepara- 
tion of courses for the Students' Army Training Corps, in Biology, Animals 
in Relation to Disease, Protozoa, and Economic Botany, and of a Wood Inspec- 
tors' course with a view to the preparation of men competent to inspect wood 
for various uses. 
The work of the Fertilizer Committee is progressing satisfactorily. Plans 
have been made with the cooperation of the U. S. Department of Agriculture 
to enlarge the project to include several additional states in the Mississippi 
Valley. Preliminary steps have also been taken to organize group projects in 
the eastern and southern states with reference to the use of fertilizers. 
A Salt Nutrition project, which has for its object the determination of the 
absolute salt requirements, with special reference to potash, of important 
crops, has been formulated and cooperative arrangements completed for the 
inauguration of the work. 
Considerable attention has been given by the Committee on Botanical Raw 
Products to sources of fiber supply, rubber ^nd various valuable gums and 
resins, and reports regarding these projects have been furnished to branches 
of the Government where work seemed to be most closely related. 
The work of the War Emergency Board of Plant Pathologists has progressed 
very satisfactorily and several important circulars have been issued by the 
Board for the information of plant pathologists in this and foreign countries. 
The losses to our food crops through plant diseases are enormous and work of 
this kind offers one of the best means for increasing the food supply. The 
Chairman of the Division is in Europe on special business f^r the Governm.ent 
and while there will confer with the foreign representatives A the Council and 
with representatives of some of the European Governments regarding coopera- 
tive work in the control of plant diseases. This is especially important with 
reference to potato diseases as this crop must be depended upon for supply- 
ing a large part of the starchy food for Europe as well as for our own army. 
