unit of dry matter was slightly more than double that of corn. In other words, a sunflower plant will consume as much water as a hill of corn. Brenchly in a recent publication states that weeds like mustards did better when they were associated with other plants, than when they were subjected to competition with their own species. Wheat is not so well able to overpower the Brassica and reduce its growth as is the case with some other weeds. Mustard would then, according to Brenchly, even in moderate amounts do considerable damage. Possibly in the majority of places, even in the agricultural areas of the middle west, there are times in which there is not enough water to supply the needs of the plant. Water is used by a plant in large quantities and practically all of it passes off in the transpiration stream. Water being an important item, its conservation is a question which we must be concerned with. From the few citations given above we conclude that weeds do considerable damage to growing crops by consuming the moisture. Knowing that transpiration or the giving off of water by the aerial portions of a plant goes hand in hand with the leaf area, a study in which the leaf area and transpiration are measured from time to time at specific intervals should give us much information concerning the effect of weeds upon the crop in which they are associated, both in the greenhouse and in the field. Some preliminary work done in plant physiological laboratory at Ames by Bakke shows that the matter of transpiration by weeds is an important item in crop production. In these experiments wheat, oats and mustard were grown together and, with one exception, it was found that the total transpiration for the mixed cultures is greater than for the pure wheat and oats cultures. The present study shows that wheat transpires during the growing season more than oats. ECOLOGICAL PROBLEMS Another phase of economic botany has interested me very much, namely the relation of plants to soil. This requires the best kind of taxonomic work if the ecological investigations are to be correctly interpreted. The national government in cooperation with various states is spending large sums of money to study soils. It is a good kind of investigation. The soils are carefully mapped on a scale as never before. The plant is an index of what the soil will produce and the aim of this work is to help the farmer. I am sure it does; and why should the botanists not cooperate with the geologist, and the soil expert make just as detailed a study of the plant life as the geologist does of the soil. In no place in the world can this problem be studied better than in the prairie states. There is scarcely anything left of the great prairie domain, except as we find it along the right-of-way of railroads. Should not a group of botanists in these prairie states study the ecological and taxonomic phases of the richest, virgin, agricultural soil in the world, as Shimek is now doing for the prairie plants of Iowa. What we need is a crop ecologist, who after a study of the problem, can tell the farmer just what crops can be grown together or what crops are best suited for his soil. Let us as botanists seek a closer cooperation with the soil expert. I am reminded that Dr. Cowles in an address before this section called attention to the use of an ecologist to settle a legal question involving a large amount of money in regard to a meandered lake in Arkansas where a study of the problem by the ecologist disclosed the truth that the so-called lakes had been covered with trees much antedating the survey made by the government. I am told that in some surveys along the Mississippi the government instructions are to include all land to the limit of apparent line of vegetation. Who should determine the apparent line of vegetation; the surveyor, who generally knows nothing about succession, or the ecologist? It would seem to me, the ecologist. EROSION In a prairie state like Iowa every available area has been brought under cultivation, or the wooded areas have been turned into 14 SCIENCE pastures. Millions of dollars worth of the on 66 Forests and Water in the Light of Scientific Investigation." Then we may also recall the work of Pearson on the "A Meteorological Study of Parks and Timbered Areas in the Western Yellow Pine Forests of Arizona and New Mexico." and the work of Hall and Maxwell, Bray and Schwartz on forests and streams flow. In order to determine the problem of water conservation and forest conservation, I. T. Bode made an investigation in one of our park areas in Iowa. The results are interesting, as showing the close relationship between forest cover and soil moisture. The results show unmistakably, even in a small area, that the forest cover keeps greater quantities of water in the upper soil layers, that these forest areas maintain a higher water level in the soil. The conclusion to be drawn from the work and some done by others of the Forest Service is that all hills subject to erosion should be covered with timber. AQUATIC FARMING an I have been more or less interested in the preservation of our lakes, not only because the community and state will receive the our lakes benefit of recreation, but streams should furnish an important sourc of food, and also a source of income from the fur-bearing animals. The botanist shoul make more study of the food for fish an It is said that the little muskrat i game. Iowa has become so depleted that it will b Much o necessary to have a closed season. this depletion is no doubt due to trapping, bu may not the food supply have some bearin on the problem? Take for instance the water lily, which has become a somewhat rare plan in Iowa. How far does this plant and th lotus minister to the food of this little rodent Sportsmen are agreed that wild rice and wil celery are very important food plants for th wild duck. Schofield has given us a practica method of germinating wild rice, yet we kno almost nothing about the maximum yield this plant and how it might be increase There are millions of acres of land suitab for the growing of wild rice in the Unite States, especially in the northern Mississip valley. It should be used more extensive for human food than it is to-day. We kno little about the uses of aquatic plants animals. May we not breed a variety of wil rice which will cling somewhat more tenac ously to the rachis? Some plant breed should undertake the selection of plants wi this in mind. of research. Cooperation seems to be the slogan to-day and the National Research Council, created as a war measure, is functioning to stimulate research in all of these institutions of the country in a cooperative way. Botany certainly has not been neglected as evidenced by the fundamental physiological work on fertilizers and the growing of wheat, and the fundamental work in connection with the treatment of plant diseases which will be taken up by the Research Council through the Crop Protection Institute in a cooperative way. Cooperation in every line is desirable, but is it not a fact that all great discoveries are made by individuals? These individuals should have plenty of equipment and help, and each should have a free hand to work out his or her problem. In conclusion the plea I desire to make is that the botanist should enter more vigorously into the exploitation of fields of agronomic work, ecology and taxonomic work, as it is related to horticulture and agriculture. We have allowed some splendid fields of work to slip away from us, largely because we were indifferent to the problems of agriculture. This is not true of plant pathology which has made itself felt along economic lines. It is true that some phases of plant breeding, physiology and soil relations of plants are masquerading under various forms of agriculture and horticulture. It is not my aim to belittle much that has been accomplished by horticulturists and agriculturists, but this work, when botanical, should finds its place under the head of botany. Let us look for a new era in botanical work. Then the various phases of the work will find their rightful place, not only in our teaching, but in our research as well. IOWA STATE COLLEGE L. H. PAMMEL SCIENTIFIC EVENTS THE BOWDOIN MEDICAL SCHOOL THE Bowdoin Medical School, established a century ago by Maine's first legislature, will be closed as a department of Bowdoin College at the end of the current year next June, un less by that time it receives financial support. The following announcement has been made by President Kenneth C. M. Sills by authority of the boards of trustees and overseers. By action of the board of trustees and overseers the Bowdoin Medical School will be finally closed as a department of Bowdoin College at the end of the current year, June, 1921, unless by that time some way shall be found to meet the requirements necessary to keep the school in Class A of American medical colleges. It has been conservatively estimated that for this purpose there must be an addition to the resources of the school of $25,000 for immediate equipment of laboratories and of at least $50,000 yearly income for more teachers and for up-keep. Unfortunately at the present time the college sees no way of procuring such funds; the need of such an endowment has often been placed before the people of Maine, but the appeals have never received an adequate response. The college will not apply for state aid for the school. But if the citizens of Maine and the friends of medical education who believe that the maintenance of a medical school is properly a state function, desire to have the medical school reestablished as a state institution under state control and adequately supported by the state, Bowdoin College will be glad to give all assistance possible to that end, and would doubtless offer for such a purpose for temporary use, if desired, such part of the buildings and apparatus of the college as might be available. The trustees and overseers of the college believe that there is a place for a medical school in Maine and are hopeful that the people of the state, despite the great demands on the incoming legislature, will establish such a school as a state institution, around which all the medical and public health work of the state would be centered. THE DIRECTORSHIP OF THE BUREAU OF MINES DR. F. G. COTTRELL, director of the United States Bureau of Mines, on December 31, handed his resignation to the President, through Secretary of the Interior Payne. He leaves the bureau to take up his duties as chairman of the Division of Chemistry and Chemical Technology of the National Research Council. Dr. Cottrell recommends as his successor H. Foster Bain, of California, whose 16 name was formally presented to the President. I hereby tender you my resignation as director In so doing, may I recall to your mind that, in accepting this position upon the resignation of Director Manning last June, I explained to the secretary of the interior that I had previously made all my plans to resign from the position I then occupied as assistant director and to give my undivided attention to the position of chairman of the Division of Chemistry and Chemical Technology of the National Research Council, which I had accepted as successor to Professor W. D. Bancroft, who was retiring July first. I accepted appointment as director of the Bureau of Mines on the understanding with Secretary Payne that I would continue therein until an available successor should be found who was thoroughly acceptable to him and to the mining industry. The time having now arrived when Secretary Payne is ready to recommend a successor, I am placing my resignation in his hands for transmittal to you. It is with the pleasantest recollections that I look back over my decade of service in various capacities within the bureau, and as the greater part of this time has fallen within your own administration, it gives me particular pleasure to tell you of the uniform courtesy and high standard of public service which I have always encountered in my contact with both associates and superiors throughout the whole department. It would be with very deep feelings of personal regret that I should take the present step were it not that the position in the Research Council will still permit me to cooperate very closely with those particular aspects of the bureau's work for which I feel myself best fitted. At the same time Secretary Payne handed Mr. Bain was educated and trained as a geol- England. He made some important min INTERNATIONAL EUGENICS CONGRESS IN 1912 there was held in London, u the auspices of the Eugenics Education ciety, an International Eugenics Cong A second congress was planned to be hel New York City in 1915 but, on accoun the war, plans for the congress were a doned. In the autumn of 1919, at a n ing of the International Committee of genics held in London, it was agreed to the second International Congress in York City in 1921. A general committe arrange for this congress was selected by National Research Council in the sprin 1920, and it is now announced that the liminary announcement of the Second I national Congress of Eugenics will be hel New York City, September 22-28, 1921 Of this Congress Dr. Alexander Gra Bell is honorary president; Dr. Henry field Osborn, president; Mr. Madison G treasurer; Mrs. C. Neville Rolfe (Mrs. Gotto) honorary secretary; and Dr. C Little, secretary-general. The vice-presi include Dr. Cesare Arton, Cagliari Italy Kristine Bonnevie, Institute for Heredity vestigation, University of Christiania, way; Major Leonard Darwin, London; V. Delfino Buenos Aires; Dr. E. M. Harvard University; M. Gamio, Director Archeology and Anthropology, Mexico; Sir Auckland Campbell Geddes, British Ambassador to the United States; Dr. Corado Gini, Rome; Hon. Mr. Justice Frank E. Hodgins, Supreme Court of Ontario; Dr. Frédéric Houssay, Paris; Dr. H. S. Jennings, Johns Hopkins University; G. H. Knibbs, Melbourne; Dr. Herman Lundborg, Upsala; Dr. L. Manouvrier, Paris; M. L. March, Paris; Dr. Jon Alfred Möjen, Christiana; Dr. T. H. Morgan, Columbia University; Dr. R. Pearl, Johns Hopkins University; Dr. Edmond Perrier, Paris; Dr. Ernesto Pestalozza. Rome; Dr. V. Guiffrida-Ruggieri, Italy; Professor R. Vogt, University of Copenhagen; and Professor Wille, University of Christiania. The Finance Committee has been selected consisting of Messrs. Madison Grant, John T. Pratt, Austin B. Fletcher, and Dr. John H. Kellogg. Of the Exhibits Committee Dr. H. H. Laughlin is chairman; of the Publicity Committee, Dr. Lothrop Stoddard; and of the Executive Committee, Dr. C. C. Little. A general committee of ninety-five members has been appointed. There are to be two classes of members, sustaining members paying one hundred dollars and active members paying five dollars. Further information and a copy of the preliminary announcement can be obtained from Dr. C. C. Little, SecretaryGeneral, American Museum of Natural History, New York City. THE AMERICAN ENGINEERING COUNCIL THE Engineering Council, formed in 1917 as an emergency body to place at the disposal of the government in war the organized engineering talent of the nation, has been formally merged into the American Engineering Council of the Federated American Engineering Societies. Mr. Herbert Hoover, who becomes president of the amalgamated organizations, and the four vice-presidents, Calvert Townley, of New York; William E. Rolfe, of St. Louis, Dean Dexter S. Kimball, of Cornell, and J. Parke Channing, of New York, have issued a statement in which it is said that the new council will immediately enter upon a campaign of public service, involving cooperation with chambers of commerce, labor organizations and other bodies in an effort to solve pressing social, industrial and political problems. The appointment of several committees to handle national problems is announced. One on military affairs is headed by Colonel William Barclay Parsons, chairman of the trustees of Columbia University. D. L. Hough, of New York City, has been named to head a Russian-American committee, which, it was explained, is in no sense political, but will aim to bring the engineers of the United States and Russia closer together. A patents committee, which will work for an increase in both the pay and personnel of the United States Patent Office, has been appointed, with E. J. Prindle, of New York as chairman. Other committees chosen thus far are: Classification and Compensation of Engineers, Arthur S. Tuttle, of New York, chairman; National Board of Jurisdictional Awards in the Building Industry, Rudolph P. Miller, of New York, chairman; Cooperation with American Institute of Architects, S. H. Senehon, of Minneapolis, chairman; Payment for Estimating, Ralph Modjeska, of Chicago, chairman; Types of Government Contract, Arthur P. Davis, of New York, chairman. These committees, with others to be appointed, will start at once to carry out a constructive program of national progress. SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS IN 1816, John Scott, a chemist of Edinburgh, bequeathed the sum of $4,000 to the City of Philadelphia, the interest upon which was to "be laid out in premiums to be distributed among ingenious men and women who make useful inventions." The Board of Directors of City Trusts of Philadelphia, has awarded $800 together with a bronze medal to Dr. Hideyo Noguchi, of the Rockefeller Institute, for Medical Research in New York, "in recognition of his eminent work in the discovery of disease-producing organisms and the means of combating their action." A similar award has been made to Dr. Edward |