EDITORIAL. 
with heat greater than 160 degrees F., and the butter-fat globules are 
not broken up. Consequently, the resulting powder will keep indefi- 
nitely. The process retains all the food elements of the original milk, 
and the reconstituted milk does not have a “cooked” *taste. Colonel 
Wright stated that butter of good quality had been made from milk 
powder which had been kept for two years. Dried milk is not germ- 
proof, but the number of bacteria is small compared with the number 
in ordinary cows’ milk. 
Samples of newly reconstituted milk were handed round for the 
examination of the chemists. 
‘CARBON DIOXIDE AND INCREASED CROP PRODUCTION. 
In 1912, at the International Congress of Chemists, held in New 
York, a suggestion was made that crop production might be increased 
by increasing the concentration of carbon dioxide in the air. Of course, 
the idea underlying such a suggestion is that since the carbon dioxide 
of the air is a necessary constituent in the synthesis of carbohydrates 
by the plant; and since, furthermore, the percentage of the gas in the 
air is comparatively small, any increase in the amount of carbon dioxide 
may tend to increase the amount of carbohydrate produced. 
That such is actually the case is stated by a writer in Science (7th 
May, 1920). According to a Berlin correspondent of the New York 
Tribune, a number of German chemists have carried out experiments 
in greenhouses attached to one of the large iron companies in Essen, 
utilizing carbon dioxide, freed from impurities, obtained from blast 
furnaces. In this way, the yield of tomatoes was increased 175 per 
cent., and cucumbers 70 per cent. \ Further experiments in the open air 
on plots round which punctured tubes were laid, and through the latter 
of which the carbon dioxide was sent, are reported to have given increases 
of 150 per cent. in the yield of spinach, 140 per cent. in tomatoes, and 
100 per cent. in barley. 
SCIENTIFIC DEVELOPMENT OF PACIFIC ISLAND RESOURCES. 
As the result of various informal conferences in America, a Scientific 
Congress has been organized to meet at Honolulu, from the 2nd to 20th 
August, 1920. The purpose of the Congress is to- outline scientific 
problems of the Pacific Ocean region and to suggest methods for their 
solution, to make a critical inventory of existing knowledge, and to 
devise plans for future studies. I+ is anticipated that this Congress 
will formulate for publication a programme of research which will 
serve as a guide for co-operative work for individuals, institutions, and 
governmental agencies. 
Representative scientists from the countries whose interests*in whole 
or in part centre in the Pacifie will be present; and a number of men, 
whose researches demand a knowledge of the natural history of the 
Pacific Islands and shore lands, have expressed their intention to attend. 
The programme of the conference is inthe hands of the Committee on 
Pacific Exploration of the U.S.A. National Research Council. Mr. 
H. E. Gregory, Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum, Honolulu, Hawaii, 
has been appointed Chairman of. the Congress. 
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