NOTES AND COMMENTS 805 



present cost of producing ship timber to be used in the construction of 

 the emergency fleet. The present investigation is not concerned with 

 the price of lumber itself, but rather costs of production. J. M. Gries, 

 of the School of Business Administration in Harvard University, has 

 been placed in charge, under the general supervision of the advisory 

 economic board of this commission. Mr. Gries, an accountant by pro- 

 fession, is well fitted for this task, having been associated with the 

 Bureau of Cooperation in their study of the lumber industry made 

 some years ago. 



Announcement of the arrival of Henry vS. Graves, Chief of the U. S. 

 Forest Service, in Paris, has led the Department of Agriculture to ex- 

 plain that Mr. Graves has gone abroad to make arrangements for the 

 forest work which the American army engineers will undertake in 

 France in connection with the military operations of the allied forces. 



Because of the opportunity for service by this country in woods 

 work incidental to the war, which the request of the British Govern- 

 ment for the sending of a forest regiment was believed to present, Mr. 

 Graves has been granted leave of absence from his position as head of 

 the Forest Service and has received a commission as Major in the 

 Reserve Engineer Corps. He has not been assigned to any command, 

 tut is acting under instructions, it is stated, to proceed to France in 

 order to learn on the ground in advance just what conditions will need 

 to be met, what equipment will be called for, and how extensively the 

 services of American lumbermen can be utilized to advantage. 



One of the stafif officers of the regiment. Captain Barrington Moore, 

 IS with Mr. Graves for the purpose of arranging for its prompt assump- 

 tion of the specific duties to which it will be assigned when it is landed 

 in France. While organized on military lines, the work of the regi-. 

 ment will be industrial, not combatant. It will operate in the woods 

 behind the armies, getting out timbers, trees, and lumber required for 

 military purposes. 



A ranger station in the Coconino National Forest has been named 

 the Fernow Station in recognition of the services rendered to the for- 

 estry cause by Mr. Fernow. It replaces the less euphonious name of 

 Potato Patch Station. 



The U. S. Forest Products Laboratory at Madison, Wis., has re- 

 cently given out a statement in regard to the production of ethyl alcohol 

 from sawdust, which is timely, in view of the possible prohibition of 



