News and Notes. 507 



forests of this country to learn the government's methods of sell- 

 ing timber and of reforestation. 



At a State timber auction in Minnesota, aggregating some 

 40,000,000 feet sold at approximately $250,000, pine stumpage 

 ran from $6 to $12 averaging $9, spruce, $4 to $5, tamarack and 

 cedar $3 to $4, Jack pine $4 to $5, bakam $2 to 3. The premium 

 paid in some cases amounted to over 140 per cent on the ap- 

 praised price. 



Mr. Ralph Sheldon Hosmer, who for a number of years offici- 

 ated as Superintendent of Forestry, Bureau of Agriculture and 

 Forestry at Honolulu T. H. has been appointed Professor of 

 Forestry at the New York State College of Forestry, Cornell 

 University in place of Walter Mulford who assumes the new 

 professorship of Forestry at the University of California. 



American foresters are beginning to compete for positions in 

 foreign services. The latest development in this direction is the 

 call of Mr. Douglas Mathews from the Philippine forest service 

 to take charge of the timber holdings' of the British North Borneo 

 Company. The same bureau has furnished Mr. H. M. Curran to 

 organize a forest service for the Argentine government. 



We regret to learn from Major George P. Ahern that he is 

 forced to resign his position as Director of the Philippine Forestry 

 Bureau on account of trouble with his eyes. He will return in 

 November, taking up his residence in Washington with a view 

 of doing missionary work on behalf of the Islands. Mr. Sher- 

 fessee will replace him in the position of Director. 



For fifteen years Major Ahern has held the position. He cre- 

 ated the bureau and has brought it to noteworthy efficiency in 

 spite of many drawbacks. Major Ahern began as a propagandist 

 of forestry practice when Captain in the regular army, stationed 

 in Montana some 20 years ago giving public lectures after he had 

 sufficiently informed himself. In 1897 he secured the appoint- 

 ment of military instructor at the Agricultural College at Boze- 

 man and immediately organized a class of students' to study 

 forestry. This was terminated when the Spanish war broke out 



