EDUCATION 



553 



The Proposed Nebraska State Forest 



Active steps are being taken to create a 

 state forest of about 2,000 acres near Omaha 

 and Bellevue, Nebraska, on the Missouri 

 River. The project was broached at the Ne- 

 braska conservation congress at Lincoln last 

 spring, and has the support of such influential 

 men as Prof. George E. Condra, president of 

 the Nebraska conservation commission, and 

 Dr. A. A. Tyler, professor of biology at 

 Bellevue College. Now the Forest Service 

 has been requested to send one of its mem- 

 bers to examine the tract and report upon 

 its suitability for forest purposes. Accord- 

 ing to present plans, the examination will 

 be made this month. 



A Fire Handbook for California 



The California state board of forestry has 

 issued a handbook for the purpose of exhort- 

 ing the people of the state to prompt action in 

 the suppression of forest fires and proper care 

 in preventing them. It is brief and very 

 much to the point. A summary of the forest 

 laws, rules for the prevention of fires, in- 

 structions to fire fighters, and a list of fire- 

 wardens are included. The object has been 

 to appeal to individual initiative. As the state 

 forester says in his notice to the public, on 

 the inside cover : "Nine out of ten forest 

 fires would be forestalled if every Californian 

 were to read this little book and govern his 

 conduct by what it contains.'" The handbook 

 is distributed free upon application. 



EDUCATION 



New Head of Maine University Forestry 

 Department 



John Manvers Briscoe, of the United 

 States Forest Service, has accepted the posi- 

 tion of professor of forestry, in charge of 

 the department of forestry at the University 

 of Maine, Orono, Me., and will take up his 

 new duties at the opening of the fall term. 



Mr. Briscoe was born in Pottsville, Pa., 

 July 22, 1878. After attending college, he 

 entered the Yale Forest School, from which 

 he was graduated with the class of igog. He 

 then took the United States Civil Service ex- 

 amination for the position of forest assistant 

 in the Forest Service, passed it successfully, 

 and was appointed. While in the service he 

 has been specially connected with cooperative 

 work in the Branch of Silviculture and with 

 studies in the section of silvics. He was 

 engaged in reconnaissance work in the Choc- 

 tawhatchee National Forest, in Florida, and, 

 more recently, accompanied Mr. Raphael Zon, 

 chief of the section of silvics, in a field ex- 

 amination of the possibilities of growing eu- 

 calypts in Florida, particularly in the Ever- 

 glades region. 



Forestry at Massachusetts Agricultural 

 College 



F. F. Moon, for some time connected 

 with the department of forestry in New 

 York, has accepted the position of professor 

 in charge of the new department of for- 

 estry which has just been established at the 

 Massachusetts Agricultural College. Mr. 

 Moon was graduated from Amherst College 

 in 1901, and thereafter spent two years at 



the Harvard Medical School. Subsequently, 

 he completed a course in forestry in Yale 

 Forest School, obtaining the degree of Mas- 

 ter of Forestry. 



It is anticipated that the new department 

 of forestry will develop rapidly. A good pro- 

 portion of the men now in the college entered 

 with the idea of making forestry a major 

 study. 



To Train for Field and Forest 



When the country life commission of the 

 state of Washington, appointed recently by 

 Governor Marion E. Hay, meets in Spokane 

 the week of November 14, plans will be 

 presented for a model community center and 

 consolidated country school, to be established 

 in one of the rural districts adjoining Spo- 

 kane, early in 1911. 



David Brown, of Spokane, chairman of 

 the commission, announces that Governor 

 Hay, and possibly Colonel Roosevelt, will 

 attend the conference and assist in formulat- 

 inj-, a practical plan for the betterment of 

 life on the farm, along the lines suggested 

 in the report of the Roosevelt commission on 

 country life, which, headed by Prof. Liberty 

 Hyde Bailey, of Ithaca, N. Y., made a tour 

 of the larger farming districts of the United 

 States the latter part of 1908 and early in 

 1909. 



This is to be the preliminary step of a 

 nation-wide movement, cooperative with the 

 various states and territories, in an endeavor 

 to teach the youth of the land the funda- 

 mental principles of agriculture and domestic 

 economy and manual and industrial training, 

 also giving the farmers in the communities 



