Forestry and Irrigation. 



VOL. X. 



JANUARY, 1904. 



No. i. 



NEWS AND NOTES. 



Public Land The coin miss ion ap- 

 Commission. pointed by President 

 Roosevelt, consisting of 

 Commissioner Richards, of the General 

 Land Office ; Gifford Pinchot, Forester 

 of the Department of Agriculture, and 

 Frederick Haynes Newell, Chief Engi- 

 neer of the Reclamation Service, as an- 

 nounced in this column last month, to 

 inquire into the public-land affairs and 

 prepare definite information on the sub- 

 ject for the use of Congress, has been 

 holding daily meetings at the General 

 Land Office, in Washington. The com- 

 mission, in its endeavors to collect all 

 possible useful information, is calling 

 upon all persons who have reason to be 

 familiar with existing conditions. A 

 number of members of Congress have 

 already appeared before the commission 

 to testify, among these being Senator 

 Newlands of Nevada, Senator Dubois 

 of Idaho, and Senator Fulton of Ore- 

 gon ; also Representatives Lacey of 

 Iowa, Mondell of Wyoming, Jones of 

 Washington, and Martin of South Da- 

 Tcota. The) r have been asked to give 

 facts concerning the administration of 

 the public lands under the existing laws 

 and suggestions for future handling. 



Mr. Pinchot and Mr. Newell have 

 been ordered by the President to attend 

 the conventions of the National Live 

 Stock Association and the National 

 W T ool Growers' Association, which are 

 to be held simultaneously at Portland., 

 Oregon, January 11-15, in order to 

 learn the sentiment of the grazing inter- 

 ests toward the public-land question. 

 Mr. Pinchot will at the same time state 

 the administration's policy on forest 

 reserve matters. 



The early activity of the Public Land 

 Commission bears out the prediction 



made in this column last month in com- 

 menting upon its make-up: that its mem- 

 bers were chosen wholly because of their 

 intimate knowledge of the questions in- 

 volved, which would result in a com- 

 pleted investigation in much shorter time 

 than is true of the deliberations of most 

 commissions. There is every reason to 

 expect that its findings will be laid be- 

 fore Congress at an early day. 



Fire at Yale At about 2 a. m., De- 

 Forest School, cember 1 1, Marsh Hall, 

 in which the work of 

 the Yale Forest School is carried on, 

 was seriously damaged by a fire which 

 started in the basement and spread 

 through practically all of the four sto- 

 ries, destroying the interior woodwork 

 and furnishings and involving, to a 

 greater or less extent, the library, col- 

 lections, and other equipment. 



The collections of South American 

 woods and of western conifers were 

 totally destroyed, as was also a large 

 part of the tools and forest implements. 



The large collection of domestic woods 

 was badly smoked, but otherwise unin- 

 jured, 



The microscopes and other equipment 

 of the Botanical Laboratory were slightly 

 damaged. The valuable library fortu- 

 nately escaped with little injury. 



One of the heaviest losses was in the 

 Technological Laboratory, where nearly 

 the entire data for six months' work by 

 an expert and two assistants was de- 

 stroyed, with the apparatus. This was 

 cooperative work with the Bureau of 

 Forestry, a study of moisture and vola- 

 tile oil in relation to strength of timber. 



A large force of men is at work re- 

 constructing the interior of the build- 



