NEWS AND NOTES 



195 



Trees and Railroads 



The suggestion that railroads plant rows 

 of trees on either side of their tracks does not 

 appeal to the Cincinnati Times-Star, which 

 sees in such a plan a serious obstruction to 

 the view of passengers, and added oppor- 

 tunity for collisions. It says : 



"The conservation of the natural resources 

 of this country in general, and reforestation 

 in particular, are matters of the greatest 

 importance and interest to every American 

 who has his eye open to the needs of his 

 country. But this idea of planting trees 

 alongside of railroad tracks is more impress- 

 ive on first suggestion than after it has 

 been thought over a little." 



Effect of Oxygen in Coal 



^Recent investigations by the United States 

 Geological Survey have shown that oxygen, 

 so essential to all life, forms in coal an 

 impurity that is almost as injurious as the 

 ash content. The subject is, of course, of 

 great importance to the consumer, whether 

 he be a manufacturer using hundreds of tons 

 or a householder who has to supply only i 

 furnace. 



David White, an account of whose investi- 

 gations on the subject has just been published 

 by the Geological Survey as Bulletin 382, was 

 led to these conclusions in the course of 

 work undertaken in an attempt to devise an 

 acceptable classification of the many different 

 sorts of coals. He states that oxygen and 

 ash are of very nearly equal negative value, 

 ash being probably a little more injurious in 

 most coals; and that the calorific value of 

 coals in general is indicated by the balance 

 between the total carbon on the one hand 

 and the sum of the two great impurities, 

 oxygen and ash, on the other. The practical 

 application of these statements appears in 

 considering the effect of the exposure of coal 

 to the weather. The weathering of the lower 

 grades, especially lignites, bituminous coals, 

 and peats, is marked by the accession of oxy- 

 gen, which is taken into combination. This 

 increase of the oxygen content permits a 

 calorific deficiency, which, on account of the 

 high anticalorific value of oxygen, is often 

 serious. It is possible that in many cases 

 considerable increase of oxygen and conse- 

 quent loss of efficiency are suffered by the 

 lower-class fuels between removal from the 

 bed and consumption; and it is probable that 

 in the subbituminous coals, and more espe- 

 cially in the lignites, oxygenation begins 

 immediately after the coal is blasted from the 

 face in the mine. 



Bulletin 382 can be had free of charge 

 from the Director, United States Geological 

 Survey, Washington, D. C. 

 6 



New York Constructing a Waterway 



The Troy, N. Y., Times says : 



"The attention of the United States 

 Government is called to the fact that the 

 state of New York is constructing, at its 

 own expense, a waterway from the Great 

 Lakes to tidewater. This canal will accom- 

 modate vessels of larger size than any simi- 

 lar waterway this side of the Canadian 

 border, and Uncle Sam can do a graceful act 

 by providing proper facilities for traffic by 

 properly dredging out the river from Water- 

 ford down to Hudson." 



The Canal Requires Inland Waterways 



In an address at Topeka, Kans., Mr. John 

 Barrett, of the Bureau of American Repub- 

 lics, said : "It will be folly to spend $4,000,000 

 on the Isthmian Canal and not a similar 

 amount during the corresponding years in 

 legitimate dredging and improving of the 

 channels of the Mississippi, Missouri, and 

 their navigable tributaries. 



"Let Missouri, Kansas, and their neigh- 

 boring states, as great industrial and agri- 

 cultural productive districts, destined to sup- 

 ply the markets of the Pacific as well as 

 those of the United States, support enthusi- 

 astically an agitation, a campaign of educa- 

 tion of the people and Congress, which will 

 make our country a leader and not a laggard 

 in the competition for the vast prizes of in- 

 ternational commerce upon the Pacific seas. 



"The Panama project will be merely a 

 dream if our Government does not improve 

 our inland waterways and make them chan- 

 nels of cheap transportation to the seaboard." 



The Capital adds : "For generations Con- 

 gress may have frittered away millions in 

 desultory and unsystematic river and har- 

 bor work, but the new idea of systematic 

 waterway development appeals to the im- 

 agination of the country, especially of the 

 West, as no national project that has been 

 proposed in fifty years. It is a project 

 worthy of the immense wealth and energies 

 of the country, a big project, and a big coun- 

 try to carry it out. Mr. Barrett's appeal for 

 it will not fall on deaf ears in this part of 

 the country." 



Artesian Possibilities in Antelope Valley 



A brief advance statement of the artesian 

 possibilities of a portion of the Antelope val- 

 ley region, California, has been prepared by 

 the United States Geological Survey in 

 response to_ special requests. The conclu- 

 sions resulting from the survey's investiga- 

 tion of the region are not favorable to th^ 

 finding of extensive supplies of underground 

 water. The area embraced in the report is 

 T. 5 N., R. 8 W. ; T. 5 N., R. 9 W. ; T. 6 N., 

 R. 8 W., and T. 6 N., R. 9 W. 



