19161 NOTES. 599 



Military Legislation Affecting the Land-grant Colleges. — Under the National 

 Defense Act, the President is authorized to establish and maintain reserve offi- 

 cers' training corps at certain civil educational institutions. Universities and 

 colleges requiring four years of collegiate study for a degree and at which 

 instruction in military tactics is provided under the Morrill Act are grouped 

 under what is known as the senior division of this corps, and each state insti- 

 tution may constitute one or more units of the corps if enrolling under military 

 instruction at least 100 physically fit male students. 



The Secretary of War is authorized to prescribe a course of theoretical and 

 practical training for the units of the corps, this to include senior instruction 

 and an average of at least three hours per week per year for the entire course. 

 Provision is made whereby additional oflicers, noncommissioned officers, and 

 enlisted men may be detailed from the regular army for service at these insti- 

 tutions, animals, arms, uniforms, equipment, and transportation may be sup- 

 plied as needed, and field camps may be maintained. 



Members of the corps who have completed two academic years of service and 

 care to continue the course may be supplied by the United States with commu- 

 tation of subsistence for the remainder of their course. Graduates up to a total 

 of 50,000, who agree to serve at least ten years as reserve oflicers, may be so 

 appointed, and any reserve officer thus appointed may be commissioned as a 

 temporally second lieutenant of the regular army for not to exceed six months 

 with pay of $100 per month and the usual allowances. Graduates between 21 

 and 27 years of age who, prior to the passage of the act, have received the 

 requisite training may also be appointed temporary second lieutenants and 

 reserve officers. 



Another law increases the number of cadets at the U. S. Military Academy. 

 This law provides that 20 cadets are hereafter to be appointed by the President 

 from the honor graduates of educational institutions having officers of the 

 regular array detailed as professors of military science and tactics under the 

 existing law. 



A third act provides for the issue of Government supplies to these institutions 

 for the establishment and maintenance of military instruction camps. 



National Eesearch Council. — Following a request from President Wilson, the 

 National Academy of Sciences has organized a National Research Council. The 

 purpose in view is stated to be to bring " into cooperation existing governmental, 

 educational, industrial, and other research organizations, with the object of 

 encouraging the investigation of natural phenomena, the increased use of sci- 

 entific research in the development of American industries, the employment of 

 scientific methods in strengthening the national defense, and such other appli- 

 cations of science as will promote the national security and welfare." 



The membership is to Include American investigators and engineers, repre- 

 senting the army and navy, the various scientific bureaus of the Departments 

 and tBe Smithsonian Institution, educational institutions and research endow- 

 ments, and the research divisions of industrial and manufacturing establish- 

 ments. Dr. George E. Hale, director of the Mt. Wilson Solar Observatory, has 

 been chosen chairman, and Dr. Raymond Peai*l, of the Maine Experiment Sta- 

 tion, a member of the executive committee. Committees have also been ap- 

 pointed on research in educational institutions, the promotion of industrial 

 research, and a national census of research. 



Agricultural Education and the European War. — According to a statement In 

 the London Times, Mr. F. D. Acland, secretary of the British Board of Agri- 

 culture and Fisheries, recently stated in the House of Commons that the 

 scheme of agricultural education had been retarded by the war, but that 

 the popularity of agricultural education had undoubtedly increased and that 



