452 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXIX. No. 742 



to send delegates to a meeting to be held at the 

 Chemists Club on April 3, to form an or- 

 ganization. 



At a meeting of the business committee and 

 the German members of the International 

 Cancer Eesearch Association, held at Berlin, 

 on January 4, it was agreed, on the proposal 

 of Professor von Czerny, to convene a confer- 

 ence on cancer at Brussels during the exhi- 

 bition in that city. The final decision was 

 left to the board of directors, which will meet 

 during the session of the German Surgical 

 Congress at Berlin, April 14 to 18. 



It is expected that the Antarctic exploring 

 steamer Nimrod wiU return to New Zealand 

 at the end of March or the beginning of April. 

 The headquarters of the expedition are at 

 Lyttelton, the port of Canterbury, in the South 

 Island, and that will be the Nimrod's destina- 

 tion when she comes out of the Antarctic re- 

 gions. It is possible, however, that she will 

 touch at a more southern port before reaching 

 Lyttelton. She may put in at Half-moon 

 Bay, in Stewart Island, oil the southern coast 

 of New Zealand, or at the Bluff, the southern- 

 most port on the mainland. 



The program of the Forest Club of the Uni- 

 versity of Nebraska for the second semester 

 is as follows : 



February 16 — " The Commercial Forest Nurs- 

 ery," by Mr. L. O. Williams. 



March 2 — " Lumbering in Washington," by E. 

 G. Polleys. 



" Microscopic Study of Woods," by G. N. Lamb. 



March 16 — " Factors Affecting Stream Flow," 

 by Dr. Condra. 



March 30 — " Formation of Forest Soil," by 

 Professor Barber. 



" Moisture Studies in Forest Soils," by Pro- 

 fessor Keyser. 



April 27 — " Scientific Problems in Forest Plan- 

 tations," by Professor Phillips. 



May 11 — "State Problems in Wisconsin," by 

 A. G. Hamel. 



" Utilization in Wisconsin," by J. C. Ketridge. 



May 25 — " Forest Types in the Philippines," by 

 G. Pagaduan. 



" Forest Utilization in the Philippines," by M. 

 Lazo. 



By signing the bill for the creation of the 

 Calaveras National Forest, California, Presi- 

 dent Roosevelt has completed the legislative 

 act which saves the most famous grove of trees 

 in the world. The first Calaveras bill was 

 introduced in the senate four years ago by 

 Senator Perkins, of California. Bills for the 

 same purpose were passed in the upper house 

 of Congress a number of times, but failed cf 

 favorable consideration in the house. There 

 is to be a practical exchange of the timber in 

 the groves for stumpage on other forest land 

 owned by the government. The land to be 

 acquired tmder the bill includes about 960 

 acres in what is known as the North Calaveras 

 Grove in Calaveras County, and 3,040 acres in 

 the South Grove in Tuolumne County. The 

 North Grove contains ninety-three giant se- 

 quoias and in the South Grove there are 1,380 

 big trees. Any tree under eighteen feet in 

 circumference, or six feet through, is not con- 

 sidered in the count of large trees. Besides 

 the giant sequoias tuere are hundreds of sugar 

 pines and yellow pines of large proportions, 

 ranging to the height of 275 feet and often 

 attaining a diameter of eight to ten feet. 

 There are also many white firs and incense 

 cedars in the two tracts. The North Grove 

 contains ten trees each having a diameter of 

 twenty-five feet or over, and more then seventy 

 having a diameter of fifteen to twenty-five 

 feet. Most of the trees have been named, 

 some for famous generals of the United States 

 and others for statesmen and various states of 

 the union. " The Father of the Forests," now 

 dcwn, is estimated by Hittel, in his "Ee- 

 sources of California," to have had a height 

 of 450 feet and a diameter at the ground of 

 more than forty feet when it was standing. 

 "Massachusetts" contains 118,000 board feet 

 of lumber ; " Governor Stoneman " contains 

 108,000 board feet, and the "Mother of the 

 Forest," burned in the terrible forest fire which 

 licked its way into a part of the grove last 

 summer, contains 105,000 board feet. Each of 

 these trees named grows as much lumber as is 

 grown ordinarily on fifteen or twenty acres of 

 timberland. The bark runs from six inches to 

 two feet in thickness. 



