802 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXVII. No. 960 



teresting routine duty gives the record its 

 value. 



The meteorological work has now come 

 under the direction of the writer as a part of 

 the work of the department of geography. 

 The observations are made at 8 a.m. and 8 

 P.M., 120th meridian time, besides which there 

 are continuous records of pressure, tempera- 

 ture and relative humidity from the record- 

 ing instruments. The eye observations are 

 now as follows : wet and dry bulb thermom- 

 eter readings, maximum and minimum tem- 

 peratures for the preceding twelve hours, air 

 pressure, wind direction and estimated veloc- 

 ity, amount of cloud, weather and precipita- 

 tion during the preceding twelve hours. The 

 data are summarized and published monthly 

 in the Meteorological Synopsis of Berkeley 

 and a monthly report is made to the United 

 States Weather Bureau on the regular form of 

 report for the cooperative observers. 



The University of California has for Berk- 

 eley and for Mount Hamilton meteorological 

 records of considerable length and more com- 

 plete than exist for many places in the United 

 States not regular stations of the Weather 

 Bureau. In a state where climate is such an 

 important factor in the life of the people as it 

 is in California, it is proper that the educa- 

 tional institutions, but above all the state 

 university, should pay more than ordinary at- 

 tention to meteorology. Willum G. Eeed 



Bekkelet, Cal., 

 March 1, 1913 



BEVIEW OF FOSEST SERVICE 

 INVESTIGA TIONS ^ 



The new periodical issued by the Forest 

 Service, the Review of Forest Service Investi- 

 gations, is the direct outcome of the standard- 

 ization and coordination of the investigative 

 work done by the service. This investigative 

 work has been placed on a more solid footing 

 by the establishment of investigative com- 

 mittees in each district and of a central in- 

 vestigative committee in Washington. 



^''olnme I., issued Mareli 11, 1913, by XJ. S. 

 Department of Agriculture, Forest Service. 



The Review is to serve as a medium for 

 keeping foresters in touch with the scientific 

 work of the profession in America. It will 

 do this by publishing progress reports on 

 major investigations the completion of which 

 will require a number of years, during which 

 time nothing would otherwise be known of 

 them; by publishing full reports on minoi 

 studies not of sufficient importance to warrant 

 publication as separate bulletins or circularSj 

 but which nevertheless contain valuable ma- 

 terial; and by giving a general view of the 

 scientific forest problems in this country and 

 of what is being done toward their solution. 

 In short, the district and central investiga- 

 tive committees and the Review represent the 

 crystallization of the scientific work of the 

 Forest Service ; they will make possible a very 

 much higher degree of efficiency. 



The present number, being the first, is 

 purely preliminary. It gives no conclusions 

 or reports of investigations, but shows the 

 organization and classification of the scien- 

 tific work of the Forest Service, the problems 

 in need of solution, and, in general, the man- 

 ner of attacking these problems. It gives 

 the four main heads, Dendrology, Grazing, 

 Products and Silviculture, with their sub- 

 divisions, and describes concisely the problems 

 to be studied under each subdivision. Under 

 Dendrology it shows the importance of studies 

 of tree distribution and of wood structure. 

 Under Grazing, work is being done to collect 

 basic information on the forage, to find meth- 

 ods of reseeding the more valuable kinds, both 

 artificially and naturally, and ways of hand- 

 ling stock so as to increase the carrying ca- 

 pacity of the range, better the condition of the 

 stock, and insure complete utilization of the 

 forage. Under Products, investigations are 

 being carried on to learn the properties of 

 wood, mechanical, physical and structural, 

 so that each kind can be put to its best 

 use and handled most efficiently in manufac- 

 turing and kiln drying; to increase the knowl- 

 edge of preservatives, including the methods- 

 of using them and their effects; to develop 

 uses for products of trees other than saw 



