adopted a resolution commending the work of the Department along the lines of irrigation and agricultural engineering. A special request was made that the report of the committee be speedily published in circular form, and it has been issued as Circular No. 53 of this Office.

The report of the committee on collective college and station exhibit at the St. Louis Exposition was presented by W. H. Jordan, chairman, who outlined the origin and history of this movement, and gave an abstract of the law making appropriation for the exhibit, details concerning the exhibit, and a list of the persons in charge of the different exhibits.

The report of the committee on cooperation between the stations and this Department, presented by E. A. Bryan, called attention to the statement of fundamental principles embodied in the two previous reports, expressed gratification at the appointment of a committee within the Department of Agriculture for perfecting the details of a system of cooperation, and reiterated its belief that a full and free consultation between the stations and the members of the Department forces in regard to the work undertaken in the several States is very desirable and would do much to remove possible sources of friction.

The standing committee on uniform fertilizer laws, of which H. J. Wheeler is chairman, called attention to the satisfactory progress which is being made in the direction of greater uniformity, the recommendations of the association having been of value in securing the recent passage or amendment of fertilizer laws in Alabama, Florida, Indiana, Missouri, North Dakota, Pennsylvania, and Tennessee. This report also included recommendations concerning the provisions of laws for feeding-stuff inspection.

The report of the standing committee on pure-food legislation, made by W. A. Withers, noted considerable progress along the line of purefood legislation during the year. New legislation was enacted in two States, and provisions made by Congress for the inspection and control by this Department of foods imported from foreign countries. This was pronounced an unusually important step in food legislation, and its execution has resulted in considerable progress in the preparation of standards of purity.

The report of the standing committee on animal and plant breeding was presented by the chairman, W. M. Hays, who reported progress and announced a meeting to be held at St. Louis, December 29 and 30, 1903, for the purpose of forming an association of plant and animal breeders.

The committee on revision of methods of seed testing recommended certain changes in the previous report, published as Circular 34 of this Office. These changes relate to an improved germinating chamber and other apparatus, instructions for sampling, etc.

The farmers' institute work, which the Department has taken up through this Office, was outlined by A. C. True, who stated clearly the policy of the Department in regard to this work. There will be no attempt to interfere with the State management of farmers' institutes in any way, but rather to cooperate with the State officials and to aid them in building up the institutes in the several States. The Department will be a general agency for coordinating and strengthening this work throughout the country. One of the main objects at present is to help to increase the efficiency of the institute lecturers, now numbering over 800, less than half of whom are connected with the work of the colleges or the stations. A corps of specially trained institute workers was recommended as eventually desirable, to relieve the college and station men of much of the burden of this work, as it is still the opinion of the Office that the prime object of college men is to teach and of the station men to investigate.

A resolution presented by C. E. Thorne commended the reviews furnished by the Experiment Station Record, and suggested an extension of these to include more full abstracts in the case of some of the foreign publications, which are accessible to only a portion of the station workers, and directed the executive committee of the association to urge upon the Secretary of Agriculture the securing of additional funds for this purpose.

The plans of the new building for the Department of Agriculture were exhibited and explained by B. T. Galloway.

The three sessions of the section on agriculture and chemistry were occupied chiefly with papers and discussions relating to soils, especially soil fertility. Throughout these discussions there were frequent references to the principles laid down in Bulletin 22 of the Bureau of Soils, and their conflict with views which have previously been held regarding soil fertility and maintenance. The papers presented included The Present Status of Soil Investigations, by C. G. Hopkins; The Chemistry of Soils as Related to Crop Production, by E. W. Hilgard; two papers on Methods of Conducting Investigations Relating to Maintenance or Increase of Soil Fertility, by C. E. Thorne and E. B. Voorhees; and a discussion of the same subject by H. W. Wiley; Differences between four Southern and four Northern Soils, and Improvements in Soil Management which these Differences Suggest, by F. H. King; Methods for the Extension and Practical Application of Soil Surveys, by R. H. Forbes; Methods and Value of Securing Irrigation Supplemental to Rainfall for Humid and Semiarid Districts, by L. G. Carpenter; two papers on Experiments in Animal Breeding, by F. B. Mumford and C. S. Plumb. There was also a discussion of Methods for the Extension and Practical Application of Soil Surveys, by Milton Whitney.

The topic of Botany and Horticulture was the main theme of a dis

cussion in the section on horticulture and botany. A. F. Woods presented, for the committee on courses in botany, an outline of a course in elementary botany, together with suggestions as to more advanced courses. Botany in the Agricultural Course, was the subject of a paper by L. H. Pammel; The Foundation of Agricultural Teaching, by H. Metcalf; and, Methods of Practical Instruction in Horticulture, by H. L. Hutt. Other topics discussed were, Desert Botanical Laboratory, by F. V. Coville; Cooperation and the Granville Tobacco Wilt, by F. L. Stevens; and Crop Rotation as a Factor in Combating Plant Diseases, by W. A. Orton. The committee on plant-breeding nomenclature reported in favor of the use of the word "clon" which has lately been proposed by H. J. Webber for plants grown from cuttings, bulbs, etc., the progeny all being members of the same individual.

In the section on entomology a number of interesting and instructive papers were read, including the following: Problems of Forest Entomology, by A. D. Hopkins; Keeping Entomological Notes, by C. M. Weed; The Necessity of Uniform Methods of Inspection of Nursery Stock, by A. J. Burgess; The New Jersey Ideal in the Study and Report upon Injurious Insects, by J. B. Smith. The latter argued that the farmers desired practical information and did not care for technical details. The entomological bulletins should be educational, but should not contain material relating to synonymy, or even descriptions of new species. The feeding habits of insects should be described, likewise the nature of injury caused by them and the reason for the application of the recommended treatment. Attention should also be called to the relation of the treatment of agricultural methods and the life history of the insects.

The attention of the section on college work was given to two subjects: The Mission of the Land-Grant Colleges, and Short Courses. The first subject was introduced by W. O. Thompson, of Ohio, in a paper setting forth (1) the history of the movement bringing the landgrant colleges into existence, and (2) the writer's interpretation of the first and second Morrill acts, based partly on the discussions in Congress bearing on those acts. Briefly stated, the writer's conclusions were that those favoring the establishment of the land-grant colleges were of the opinion that some other form of education than the classical may be liberal; that it was the intention of these men to give a liberal as well as a practical education, implying that industrial education is liberal; that precedence was to be given always to agriculture and the mechanic arts, and that military instruction was intended to occupy a subordinate position.

A round-table discussion of short courses was participated in by nearly a dozen speakers, who presented the various conceptions of the scope and function of the short courses in the agricultural college.

Ex-officio: The PRESIDENT and the SECRETARY-TREASURER.

EIGHTH ANNUAL MEETING.

The eighth annual meeting of the American Association of Farmers' Institute Workers was held in the Parliament Buildings, Toronto, Canada, June 23-26, 1903. Seventeen of the States of the Union and four of the Provinces of the Dominion of Canada were represented by their institute officials.

The association was welcomed to Canada by the Hon. G. W. Ross, premier of Ontario, who spoke of the remarkable progress which agriculture had made in recent years, both in the United States and in the Dominion of Canada, and of the friendly competition that exists between the two countries.

The president, W. C. Latta, in his annual address, reviewed the scope and growing importance of the farmers' institute work, dealing particularly with the means of making it more effective for good. Referring to the training of the institute worker, he said that this should be special and "should include a boyhood spent on the farm, a common and high school education, a thorough technical training at an agricultural college, and, after graduation, several years of experience in some line of practical agriculture." The qualifications of the workers and the organization of farmers' institutes were discussed at length.

The programme included the following papers, most of which were quite freely discussed: Training for Institute Work; Prime Qualifications; Should the Worker have Special Training? How may it be

Secured? Franklin Dye, Trenton, N. J. Organization for Institute Work-Should it be a Permanent Organization or should we work through other Farmers' Organizations? L. R. Taft, Agricultural College, Michigan. Accessories in Institute Work-Demonstrations, Judging Contests, Field Experiments, F. H. Rankin, Urbana, Ill. How far is it Practicable to Conduct a Season's Campaign in some Agricultural Interest? What Interests may be Appropriately and Successfully Advanced, such as Roads, Homes, Reforesting, Agriculture in High Schools, or Agricultural Education? F. E. Dawley, Fayetteville, N. Y. How to Advertise Institute Meetings, Geo. McKerrow, Madison, Wis. The Evening Session How to make it Interesting and Instructive: (a) The Romance of Agriculture, C. C. James, Toronto, Canada; and (b) Local Help, Wesley Webb, Dover, Del. Some Essentials to the Permanency of Farmers' Institutes, E. B. Voorhees, New Brunswick, N. J. How the Farmers' Institutes and the Agricultural Colleges may be mutually helped, Dr. James Mills, Guelph, Canada. How the National Department of Agriculture may through its Institute Office assist the State Institute Meetings, John Hamilton, Washington, D. C. Women's Institutes, Miss Laura Rose, Guelph, Canada, and Miss Agnes Smith, Hamilton, Canada. How the Institutes can Bring the Most Good to Our Girls, Miss Blanche Maddock, Guelph, Canada. How to Enlist the Interest of Our Boys in Agriculture, Hon. John Dryden, Toronto, Canada.

There was a discussion of problems and methods in institute work, participated in by delegates selected from different sections of the country; and the institute work from the standpoint of the worker was discussed by D. C. Anderson, Andrew Elliott, and Henry Glendinning, of Ontario.

The reports of the directors giving account of the institute work in the several States all indicated that progress had been made during the year, and that appreciation of the work is becoming more general as the public becomes better acquainted with what is being done for the benefit of agriculture through this method of instruction and with what is possible to be accomplished.

Expressions with regard to the quality of the work required showed that the people were not satisfied with anything but the best. The problem now confronting the institute directors is that of securing a sufficient number of capable instructors to meet this need. Two of the State directors reported that they were about to introduce into their system a normal school plan for training lecturers, the instructors in these schools to be selected from the forces of the agricultural college and experiment station and the school to continue from one or two or three weeks, as the necessities in each case seem to justify.

On Thursday the members of the association and their friends were given a complimentary trip to the Ontario Agricultural College, at