THE Bellefonte Central is through at last and we are now in easy connection with the main lines of R. R. This will prove of al most invaluable importance, especially to those desiring connections to and from the West. With this we are now in good shape to place our sports in the field—base-ball, foot-ball, etc.,— and command good audiences from our enthusias tic Bellefonte friends. The road opens up a means of quicker, better and cheaper transporta tion of freight, meaning hundreds of dollars to the College in a single year, in so much that all coal can now be landed at the very furnace door to re place the necessity of hauling with teams from the old 'yard. To the already rapid growth is added this stimulus for renewed progress. At the approach of Spring and the road, the work at the proposed Mechanics Hall is rapidly advancing. The station in use at present is merely tempor ary and of a necessity very crude ; but the road authorities hope within a short time to present, in that line, something very neat and appropriate. TRAINER G. H. Hoskins has offered four very handsome silver cups which are to be• con tested for during the present month. • The students should show their appreciation of his of fer by turning out and doing their best to make good records ; and especially do all need the train ing, if we are to be represented at the inter-collegi ate meeting next month. Since the track is now in good condition and we have almost every ad vantage possible, an effort should be made for a creditable showing. D.R. PUGH'S WORK AT ROTHAMSTED. The recent visit to this country of a representa tive of the Rothamsted, England, Experiment Sta tion, and the delivery by him under the provi sions of the laws' trust of a course of lectures on some aspects of the work of that station, is calcu lated to cause a renewed interest in the magnifi THE FREE LANCE. cent work for agriculture being done there. To those connected with the Pennsylvania State Col lege that work has a special interest ,through the connection of Dr. Pugh with it in 1857-8. It hap pens, too, that within the last few years a large amount of work has been done on the question which formed the subject of his researcheS, and that, as a result, the conclusion which he reached has been very materially modified. The subject in . itself, too, is one of both scientific and practical importance, and it has, therefore, seemed to me that it might be of interest to review briefly Dr. Pugh's investigations in the light of the more re cent results. His subject was the relations of the free nitro gen gas of the atmosphere to the nutrition of plants. While the air contains vast stores of this indispensable element for plant growth, its well known indifference and inaptitude for entering into combination would naturally lead to its be ing regarded as unavailable for vegetation. This view was confirmed by the earliest exact experi ments on the subject. The most important °of these were made by Boussingault in ° 1851-55 in the most thorough and exact manner. His con clusions were, however, disputed by Ville, a French investigator, who claimed to have proved that vegetation does feed on the free nitrogen of the air. His experimental methods, however, were far less rigorous than those of Boussingault and Cloez, who was appointed by the French Academy to superintend a repetition of the ex periments, found a considerable quantity of am monia which by accident or design had found its way into the apparatus, a fact which, of course, vitiated the results. In fact it.has been, I believe, perfectly well known since that the investigation had absolutely no scientific value. Among those who became acquainted with this fact was Dr. Pugh. He had made .the ,acquaint. ance at Heidelberg of a young man who was after wards employed as Ville's assistant and from. whom Dr. Pugh learned many things regarding the ex periments which were not generally known. As
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