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the Geological Society was held at the same time elsewhere. The Association of University Professors met on Saturday at the Hopkins Club.

In the Botanical Laboratories in Gilman Hall there was displayed an exhibit showing the use of sphagnum moss in the preparation of surgical dressings, as prepared by Dr. Geo. E. Nichols, Botanical Adviser on Sphagnum for the American Red Cross. Some of the most noticeable features of the Baltimore meeting were the tendency towards cooperation and team-work among investigators, attacking problems jointly under well-developed plans, and the considerable number of notable addresses, often given by men of large responsibilities in governmental or war work and relating the problems of reconstruction. The experiences of the past two years have had an important bearing on methods of research and an important address was that given by Dr. George E. Hale, entitled "The National Research Council," in which the future organization and functioning of that institution were discussed. Altogether it is probably safe to state that about four hundred addresses and shorter papers were presented at the various meetings.

The addresses of the retiring vice-presidents were as follows:

Section A.-Henry Norris Russell, on

"Some problems of sidereal astronomy. Section B.-W. J. Humphreys, on "Some

recent contributions to the physics of the air."

Section C.-William A. Noyes, on "Valence."

Section D.-Henry Sturgis Drinker, on "The need of conservation of our vital and natural resources as emphasized by the lessons of the war."

Section E.-George Henry Perkins, on "Vermont physiography."

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As honorary associates of the Baltimore meeting the council elected Dr. Professor Fabio Frassetto, of the University of Bologna and now of the Royal Italian Embassy at Washington, and Dr. Georgio Abetti, vice-secretary of the Italian Society for the Advancement of Science, both of these men being in attendance at the meetings.

The next meeting of the association will be held in St. Louis, beginning the first Monday after Christmas, 1919. The results of elections of officers for the ensuing year were as follows:

President: Simon Flexner, director of the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research, New York City.

Vice-Presidents:

Section B.-Theodore Lyman, Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass.

Section C.-B. F. Lovelace, The Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Md.

Section E.-C. K. Leith, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wis.

Section F.-Wm. M. Wheeler, Bussey Institution, Boston, Mass.

Section G.-L. H. Pammel, Iowa State College, Ames, Iowa.

Section H.-R. M. Yerkes, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minn.

Section L.-V. A. C. Henmon, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wis.

Section M.-A. F. Woods, Maryland Agricultural College, College Park, Md.

Secretary of the Council: J. F. Abbott, Washington University, St. Louis, Mo.

General Secretary: Geo. T. Moore, Missouri Botanic Garden, St. Louis, Mo.

Nine men were elected members of the committee on grants, as follows: N. L. Britton, Louis I. Dublin and J. McK. Cattell for one year; G. N. Lewis, W. B. Cannon, and R. T. Chamberlin for two years; and Henry Crew, Joel Stebbins, and G. H. Parker for three years.

To fill vacancies in the council of the association Drs. N. L. Britton and J. McK. Cattell were reelected and Dr. J. C. Merriam was elected as a new member. Dr. E. F. Buchner was appointed to represent the association in the American Council of Education, and J. C. Merriam, H. B. Ward, and Stewart Paton were elected to serve for three years on the Committee on Policy.

The report for 1918 of the treasurer of the association, Dr. Robert S. Woodward, showed total cash receipts of $7,747.27 and disbursements $7,786.00, including the purchase of $4,000 Liberty Bonds. The total funds of the association are now $116,605.45.

The financial report of the permanent secretary, L. O. Howard, for the period November 1, 1917, to October 30, 1918, showed receipts $43,784.49 and expenditures of $36,209.04, leaving a balance of $7,575.45.

The two financial reports will be printed in full in a later issue of SCIENCE.

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the largest of which the National Geographic Society, which explored it in June, 1917, named the "Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes."

The two features are intimately related. Rock strata superheated since the great eruption underlie Katmai near enough to the surface to turn to instant steam the spring and drainage waters of many a surrounding mile of foothills. Thus originates the steam which bursts from the myriad valley vents. The phenomenon is familiar in the neighborhood of most volcanoes which still are classed as active. Steaming springs, a later stage of the vents in this valley, are found upon the flanks of several of the most prominent of our Cascade volcanoes, and are numerous around the base of Lassen Peak.

The comparison, however, between Katmai's steaming valleys and the geyser basins of Yellowstone is especially instructive because Yellowstone's basins once were what Katmai's steaming valleys are now. The "Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes " is probably a coming geyser field of enormous size. The explanation is simple. Bunsen's geyser theory, now generally accepted, presupposes a column of water filling the geyser vent above a deep rocky superheated chamber in which trickling spring water is being rapidly turned into steam. When this steam becomes plentiful enough and sufficiently compressed to overcome the weight of the water in the vent, it suddenly expands and hurls the water out. That is what makes the geyser play.

Now, the difference between the Yellowstone geyser fields and Katmai's steaming valleys is just a difference in temperature. The entire depth of earth under these valleys is heated far above boiling point, so that it is not possible for water to remain in the vents; it turns to steam as fast as it collects and rushes out at the top in continuous flow. But when centuries or hundreds of centuries enough elapse for the rocks between the surface and the deep internal pockets to cool, the water will remain in many vents as water until, at regular intervals, enough steam gathers below to hurl it out. Then these valleys will become

basins of geysers and hot springs like Yellow

stone's.

The crater of Katmai is very large. Its circumference, says Robert F. Griggs, who headed the expeditions which explored the entire area, is 8.4 miles, measured along the highest point of the rim.

The area is 4.6 miles. The precipitous abyss, which does not extend to the rim of the southwest side, is somewhat shorter, measuring 2.6 miles in length, 7.6 miles in circumference, and 4.2 square miles in area. The milky blue lake at the bottom is 1.4 miles long and nine tenths of a mile wide, with an area of 1.1 square miles. The little cresentshaped island in the lake measures 400 feet from point to point. The precipice from the lake to the highest point of the rim is 3,700 feet.

Mr. Griggs estimates the capacity of the hole at 4,500,000,000 cubic yards. If this hole were filled with water, there would be enough to supply New York City for 1,635 days. The great eruption blew out 11,000,000,000 cubic yards of material, more than forty times the amount removed in the construction of the Panama Canal.

AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTION IN THE UNITED STATES

How American farmers responded to the food needs of the United States and the countries with which it was associated in the war is described in detail in the annual report of the Secretary of Agriculture, David F. Houston, just made public.

For wheat and other leading cereals and for potatoes, tobacco and cotton, farmers in 1918 planted 289,000,000 acres, an increase over the preceding record year of 5,600,000. It is especially noteworthy, the secretary points out that, while the acreage planted in wheat in 1917 was slightly less than for the record year of 1915, it exceeded the five-year average (1910-14) by 7,000,000; that the acreage planted in 1918 exceeded the previous record by 3,500,000; and that the indications are that the acreage planted during the current fall season will considerably exceed that of any preceding fall planting.

Notwithstanding adverse climatic conditions. in 1917, especially for wheat, and in 1918 espe

cially for corn, the secretary reports that only 1915 has exceeded either 1917 or 1918 in the aggregate yield of wheat and other leading cereals.

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"The estimated total for 1917," he explains,

was 5,796,000,000 bushels and for 1918, 5,638,000,000 bushels, a decrease of approximately 160,000,000 bushels. But the conclusion would be unwarranted that the available supplies for human food or the aggregate nutritive value will be less in 1918 than in 1917. Fortunately, the wheat production for the current year918,920,000 bushels-is greatly in excess of that for each of the preceding two years, 650,828,000 in 1917, and 636,318,000 in 1916, and is next to the record wheat crop of the nation. The estimated corn crop, 2,749,000,000 bushels, exceeds the five-year pre-war average by 17,000,000 bushels, is 3.4 per cent. above the average in quality and greatly superior to that of 1917."

Turning to live stock, the secretary notes that the number of pounds of beef for 1918 is given at 8,500,000,000 pounds, as against 6,079,000,000 for 1914, the year preceding the European war; and that the total for 1918 of beef pork and mutton is given at 19,495,000,000 pounds, as against 15,587,000,000 pounds for 1914.

On the basis of prices that have recently prevailed, the secretary says, the value of all crops produced in 1918 and of live stock on farms on January 1, including horses, mules, cattle, sheep, swine and poultry, is estimated to be $24,700,000,000, compared with $21,325,000,000 for 1917 and $11,700,000,000, the annual average in the five-year period 1910 to 1914. This greatly increased financial showing, the secretary explains, does not mean that the nation is better off to that extent, or that its real wealth has advanced in that proportion. Considering merely the domestic relations, the true state is indicated rather in terms of real commodities. The increased values, however, do reveal that monetary returns to the farmers have increased proportionately with those of other groups of producers in the nation and that their purchasing power has kept pace in the rising scale of prices.

Yields in 1918 of the major food crops were as follows, according to unrevised estimates: 2,749,198,000 bushels of corn; 918,920,000 bushels of wheat; 1,535,297,000 bushels of oats; 236,505,000 bushels of barley; 76,687,000 bushels of rye; 18,370,000 bushels of buckwheat; 41,918,000 bushels of rice; 61,182,000 bushels of kafirs; 390,101,000 bushels of Irish potatoes; 88,114,000 bushels of sweet potatoes; 17,802,000 bushels of commercial beans; 40,185,000 bushels of peaches; 10,342,000 bushels of pears; 197,360,000 bushels of apples; 6,549,000 tons of sugar beets; 29,757,000 gallons of sorghum sirup; 52,617,000 bushels of peanuts.

The estimated 1918 production of all the cereals, 5,638,077,000 bushels, compares with 5,796,332,000 bushels in 1917, and 4,883,819,000 bushels, the annual average in the five-year period 1910-14. On January 1, 1918, it is estimated there were on American farms 21,563,000 horses, compared with an average of 20,430,000 in the five years 1910-14; 4,824,000 mules, compared with 4,346,000; 23,284,000 milch cows, compared with 20,676,000; 43,546,000 other cattle, compared with 38,000,000; 48,900,000 sheep (an increase, for the first time in many years, over the preceding year), compared with 51,929,000; 71,374,000 swine, compared with 61,865,000.

The estimated 1918 production of beef, 8,500,000,000 pounds, compares with 7,384,007,000 pounds in 1917; 10,500,000,000 pounds of pork compared with 8,450,148,000; 495,000,000 pounds of mutton and goat meat compared with 491,205,000; 8,429,000,000 gallons of milk produced in 1918 was 141,000,000 pounds more than the 1917 production; 299,921,000 pounds of wool, 18,029,000 pounds more than 1917; 1,921,000,000 dozens of eggs, 37,000,000 dozens more; 589,000,000 head of poultry, 11,000,000

more.

THE EDWARD K. WARREN FOUNDATION AND TWO WILD LIFE RESERVATIONS IN

MICHIGAN

Ir will be of interest to zoologists and botanists, particularly ecologists and those interested in the fauna and flora of the Middle West, to learn what two areas in southwestern

Michigan have been set aside as wild life preserves. The tracts comprise 300 acres (150 or more of the original forest) situated two and a half miles north of Three Oaks, in Chickaming Township, Berrien County, and over 250 acres in the sand dune region on the shore of Lake Michigan, in Lake Township, two miles north of Sawyer, in Berrien County.

The forest is a remnant of the original beech-maple forest of southern Michigan. It has never been cut or burned over and many of the trees are splendid specimens, fifty to seventy feet in height to the first limb, and from two to four feet in circumference. The Galien River flows through the forest for about one and one half miles and there are numerous springs.

The sand dune tract has a frontage on Lake Michigan of about 3,000 feet. It includes probably the highest dunes in the State of Michigan, the largest of which are from two hundred to three hundred feet in height. Much of the tract is wild and with little doubt the original vegetation prevails in most places.

The preserves have been established by Mr. and Mrs. Edward K. Warren, of Three Oaks, Michigan, and are incorporated in the "Edward K. Warren Foundation," which also inIcludes the Chamberlain Memorial Museum at Three Oaks, founded in 1915 and opened to the public in 1916.

The forest has been in Mr. Warren's possession for forty years, and has been preserved by him for its great natural beauty, and both tracts have been set aside that future generations may have an example of the primitive floral and fauna conditions in southern Michigan, that nature lovers may find here many of the animals and plants which are being exterminated elsewhere, and that students of biology may have available a place where they can study native animals and plants in their natural habitats. Some of the sand dune area has been more recently acquired, and it is typical of the good judgment and foresight of Mr. Warren that this area includes the best developed dunes and is the least disturbed tract in the sand dune region.

The Museum of Zoology of the University of

Michigan has been asked to make a detailed survey of the reservations, and it is planned to extend this survey over an indefinite number of years. Field laboratories will be provided by the foundation, and the museum will send specialists on the groups represented in the preserves to these laboratories at different times. The object of the field work will be to obtain a complete inventory of the plants and animals and to secure data upon the causes of fluctuations in numbers of individuals, that the fauna and flora may be maintained as nearly as possible in the primitive condition. At the same time it is expected that ecological data and information on the original biota will be obtained which will be of scientific interest. The specimens will be deposited in the Museum of Zoology and the Chamberlain Memorial Museum, and the published results of the work will appear from the Museum of Zoology under a common title.

Future generations will not fail to appreciate the good judgment and public spirit which have led to the recognition of the desirability of insuring the perpetuity of the wild life of these areas and the establishment of the preserves.

ALEXANDER G. RUTHVEN

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of the faculty of the Sheffield Scientific School are no longer valid.

3. That the governing board of the Sheffield Scientific School be requested to appoint a committee, of which the director shall be chairman, to prepare plans for the immediate establishment of a four-year undergraduate course and the discontinuance of the "select" course; reporting at the same time to the corporation whether, in the opinion of this committee, it is desirable to establish a scientific course in preparation for business.

4. That this committee be directed to confer with a similar committee to be appointed by the permanent officers of Yale College regarding the inter-departmental problems created by the proposed changes, in order that properly qualified students in either school may be given access to the courses of instruction offered by the other.

5. That the president be directed to call meetings of the two committees thus created, together with the chairman of the entrance examination committee, to devise means for carrying more fully into effect the policy of joint administration of entrance requirements for the two schools; with authority to recommend, for the consideration of the respective governing boards and the approval of the corporation, such changes as shall appear to them desirable in the scope of the entrance requirements themselves, and in the organization of the freshman year.

6. That in the opinion of the corporation it is practicable, as recommended by the executive board of the graduate school, to place the administration of all advanced degrees and certificates in science, comprising at present the degree of master of science, the certificate in public health, and the higher engineering degrees, under the jurisdiction of the graduate school, without interfering with the development of the departments of study concerned or their proper articulation with the undergraduate courses which lead up to them; and that under these circumstances the administration of the courses leading to these degrees should be transferred to the graduate school at the close of the present academic year.

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