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THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL 



alone if need be. High grade foresters will 

 act as noncommissioned officers. Most of 

 the enlisted men will be lumljermen, mill- 

 men, and road engineers. The appropriation 

 provides for twelve specialists, two high 

 grade engineers, and a number of first class 

 sawyers. These last are particularly im- 

 portant, since on the sawyer depends the 

 amount of lumber to be obtained from the 

 tree. It is now thought that three of the 

 small portable mills (of about eight thou- 

 sand feet capacity) to a company, will pro- 

 duce the best results. Before this forestry 

 regiment begins active work, it will be under 

 strict military discipline for two months. It 

 will then go armed Avith rifles and in every 

 way equipped as a fighting unit. This is 

 probably only the beginning of the transfer 

 of our scientific forestry experts to Europe, 

 as at least five such regiments will be needed 

 in France, and the Avork may have to be ex- 

 tended to Eussia. 



In response to a cable from the French 

 Government that two officers familiar Avith 

 French conditions be sent over in advance 

 of the regiment, Henry S. Graves, chief for- 

 ester of the United States, and Barrington 

 Moore, associate curator of Avoods and for- 

 estry in the American Museum of Natural 

 History, sailed for France on June 9. Their 

 purpose is to look over the forests, deter- 

 mine the final details of the needed organi- 

 zation and decide definitely upon the 

 equipment, so that Avhen the regiment arrives 

 there Avill be no loss of effort. 



Since April, 1917, the Ncav York Botan- 

 ical Garden, in cooperation Avith the Inter- 

 national Children's School Farm League, has 

 been conducting training classes for teachers 

 of school gardening. A tract of land near 

 the Arboretum entrance on the eastern side 

 of the grounds, about nine hundred feet 

 south of the Mansion, has been set apart 

 and is noAV being cultivated by these classes. 

 Instruction is given by means of lectures, 

 practice Avork, and reading, in those subjects 

 needed by teachers in school garden Avork, 

 a certificate being aAA-arded to students satis- 

 factorily completing the course. Lectures 

 cover the following subjects: planning the 

 garden; soil and fertility; selection of 

 seeds, germinating, planting, transplanting, 

 and related subjects; also insects to be dealt 

 with in the garden. Elementary forestry 

 and soil conservation are likeAvise included. 



Classroom Avork is supplemented Avith the 

 spading, hoeing, cultiA'ating, planting, Aveed- 

 ing, in fact, all of the work from the enter- 

 ing of the crop to the harvesting. The Avork 

 is maintained by public subscription. 



The centennial meeting of the New York 

 Academy of Sciences and Affiliated Societies 

 AA'as held at the American Museum of 

 Natural History on the evening of May 28. 

 Professor Michael I. Pupin, Honorary Ser- 

 bian Consul General and president of the 

 Academy, spoke on the "Eelation of Pure 

 Science to the National Crisis," emphasizing 

 Avhat Ave are all beginning to realize, that 

 scientific research is one of the most valuable 

 assets this country possesses. He made spe- 

 cial mention of the Avork of the National 

 Advisory Committee on Aeronautics ap- 

 pointed by President Wilson some tAVO years 

 ago, Avitli a continuing three-year program 

 Avhich Avill give the LTnited States as good 

 an aerial service as there can be by that 

 time in the AA'orld, the Naval Consulting 

 Board, appointed by Secretary Daniels a 

 little more than a year ago, Avith the splendid 

 result of an appropriation of several million 

 dollars for the organization of a naA-al re- 

 search laboratory, and the National Eesearch 

 Council for mobilizing all the scientific re- 

 search facilities of the country. Among the 

 problems Avhich press most urgently upon the 

 scientists of our country are the making of 

 optical glass, and the making of nitric acid. 



Dr. Nathaniel Lord Britton, of the NeAv 

 York Botanical Garden, gave a summary of 

 the Avork done by the Academy's scientific 

 surA-ey of Porto Eico during the last fcAv 

 years, in AA-hich many of the American Mu- 

 seum's scientists have made investigations. 

 The study of the material gathered is pro- 

 gressing rapidly, and many of the results 

 are noAv readA' for j)ublication. Some of the 

 collections are 1>eing returned to Porto Eico 

 to aid in the founding of a natural history 

 museum at San Juan; the rest will be di- 

 A'ided among the cooperating institutions. 

 It is hoped to extend the Avork of the survey 

 into the neA\-est purchase of the United 

 States, the Danish West Indies. 



Dr. John Hendley Barnhart gaA'e a sum- 

 mary of the Society's first hundred years of 

 activity; from the time of the formation of 

 the Lyceum in 1817, by about tAventy young 

 men connected with the College of Physicians 

 and Surgeons, under the leadership of Dr. 

 Mitchell, Avith its first home in the old alms- 



