DAMAGE TO VEGETATION BY SMOKE AND FUMES. 1 83 



Commission and in immediate charge of the investigations, to 

 carry out the necessary experimental work and to report. 

 The Commission had power to call and to examine witnesses, 

 and to cause such alterations as they thought necessary to be 

 carried out by the Smelting Company, either in the plant or 

 methods employed. The costs of the investigations were to 

 be shared equally by both parties, and the findings of the 

 Commission were to be accepted as final. 



The carrying out of such a series of investigations as was 

 desired by the Commission required the services of a consider- 

 able number of trained scientific and technical men. They 

 arranged that, as far as possible, each investigation should be 

 carried out by the co-operation of at least two specialists in 

 that particular branch of work. Without exception, all the 

 men in charge of the work have been thoroughly trained in 

 science and technology, have had, in addition, the necessary 

 experience, and in no case had any partisan interest in the 

 findings. 



As the investigation was a semi-official one, the assistance 

 of various departments of the University of California was 

 readily obtained, and in particular that of the staffs of the 

 College of Agriculture and of the Department of Physiology. 

 The staff of the U.S. Bureau of Mines was also placed at the 

 disposal of the Commission, and much of the work of the 

 Commission's staff was carried out in the Bureau of Mines 

 laboratories in San Francisco. 



As it was highly desirable that the inquiry should be com- 

 pleted in as short a time as possible, a large staff was appointed 

 to deal with the numerous investigations which were necessary. 

 This staff numbered 29 in all, and included 10 chemists, 2 plant 

 pathologists, an entomologist, 2 soil experts, a protozoologist 

 and bacteriologist, and 9 assistants to the different departments. 

 From this it will be seen that the Commission was fully staffed 

 and equipped for its work in a manner quite unheard of in this 

 country. 



The Commission first of all reviewed the evidence which had 

 been led in the legal inquiries already held. They found that 

 much of this evidence would not stand the test of scientific 

 scrutiny, and finally decided that it should all be rejected. 

 The conditions at the smelter were first investigated. The 

 smoke from the Selby smelter was composed of three different 



