520 
York and California produce less than 
formerly. 
The crops following wheat in impor- 
tance are hay, oats and potatoes; there 
is then a drop to tobacco and sugar, 
and a further drop to barley, flax, rice, 
rye and hops. The crops for 1909 were 
valued at $5,700,000,000, in increase | 
over the preceding year of $869,000,- 
000. These values are, however, in 
large measure due to increased prices, 
which have affected agricultural prod- 
ucts even more than other commodi- 
ties. The cost of corn, for example, is 
more than double what it was ten 
years ago. 
The animal products of the country 
in 1909 were valued at over $3,000,- 
000,000. The prices here too have in- | 
creased, but contrary probably to the 
general belief, much less rapidly than 
in the case of the cereals. Cattle at 
the farm have not increased in price in 
the course of ten years; the wholesale 
price of beef in New York City has_ 
increased 20 per cent. and the retail 
price 30 per cent. 
It will surprise most people to note | 
on the chart that there are in British 
India more cattle and more dairy cows 
than in the United States. 
followed by Iowa as a cattle-producing 
state, and New York by the same state 
in the number of dairy cows. Both the 
per capita consumption and the ex- 
ports of meat are decreasing. 
SCIENTIFIC ITEMS 
WE regret to record the deaths of 
William Harmon Niles, emeritus pro- | 
fessor of geology at the Massachusetts 
Texas is | 
THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 
Institute of Technology; of Dr. Zdenko 
Ritter von Skraup, professor of chem- 
istry at Vienna, and of M. Maurice 
Lévy, professor of mechanics in the 
Collage de France. 
A BRONZE statue of Lord Kelvin by 
Mr. Bruce-Joy is to be erected at Bel- 
fast——A monument in memory of Dr. 
Niels Finsen, to whom we owe the light 
treatment of lupus and other diseases, 
was recently unveiled at Copenhagen.— 
The original laboratory of Liebig in 
Giessen is to be purchased and pre- 
served as a memorial to the eminent 
chemist. An anonymous donor has 
guaranteed 60,000 Marks for this pur- 
pose. 
Stir Wirr1AM Ramsay has_ been 
elected president of the British Asso- 
ciation for the meeting to be held next 
year at Portsmouth, The meeting of 
1912 will be at Dundee. The meeting 
of 1914 will be held in Australia in the 
cities of Adelaide, Melbourne, Sidney 
and Brisbane. The commonwealth gov- 
ernment has voted £10,000 toward the 
expenses of the meeting, and the sev- 
eral states will make additional con- 
tributions. 
Ar Yale University the salaries of 
professors and assistant professors 
“have been increased by $49,000 from 
‘the alumni fund. The salaries of full 
professors are to be $4,000 to $4,500 
and $5,000, based mainly on length of 
service, but modified somewhat by uni- 
versity responsibility and personal dis- 
‘tinction. In the case of assistant pro- 
fessors the maximum salary is in- 
creased to $3,000. 

