Page:The National Geographic Magazine Vol 16 1905.djvu/68

Rh hardy Vladmir cherry from Russia (distributed in the Northwest), and many others.

NITROGEN-FIXING BACTERIA Extensive practical tests were made the past season with nitrogen bacteria for use in connection with the legumi- nous crops. Results have been even more successful than was anticipated. The several strains of bacteria sent out from the department have proved valu- able even on soils containing the uncul- tivated organisms in abundance. The material for inoculating an acre of soil costs the department about one cent per acre and the farmers scarcely anything to apply it. The demand for the organ- isms is constantly increasing.

THE SOIL SURVEY The study of soils and their manage- ment with regard to their values for pro- ducing crops has been continued. Soils vary greatly in the several states, and a general knowledge of their composition is of prime importance before the tiller can put them to their most profitable use. The Bureau of Soils is mapping the various areas to the end that resi- dents on each may as soon as possible learn the peculiarities with which they have to deal. The department is seek- ing to introduce plants from foreign countries to diversify American agri- culture. A knowledge of the character of the soils from which they come and on which they have been developed is imperative, and suggests the wisdom of becoming familiar with the soils as well as the climate to which these new plants are introduced.

The total area surveyed and mapped by the bureau during the fiscal year was over 29,000 square miles, and the total area surveyed at the close of the fiscal year exceeded 74,000 square miles, or 47,868, 800 acres. During the past year 68 areas in the different states were surveyed. A table presents the area surveyed in 1904, and previously re- ported in each state, and shows that the total cost of the year's survey was $72,601.41, of which $2,377.57 was paid by state organizations. The cost of work in the field per square mile was therefore $2.21, and the average total cost per square mile, $2.50.

HE last report of the Superintendent of Education of the Philippine Islands, David P. Barrows, describes very clearly the educational policy that has been adopted for the Filipinos and the manner in which that policy is being carried out. The following paragraphs are from the report :

There are between 40 and 50 dialects in the Philippine Islands. The question has been frequently raised whether these Filipino languages are sufficiently related so as to fuse into one common tongue, and the Bureau of Education has received its most vigorous criticism in the United States because of its alleged attempt to supplant and destroy what might, in the opinion of absentee critics, become a national and characteristic speech. Such criticisms could only proceed from a profound ignorance of the nature of these languages and the people who speak them. All of these dialects belong to one common Malayan stock. Their grammatical structure is the same. The sentence in each one of them is built up in the same way. The strik-