July 14, 1916] 



SCIENCE 



55 



tie and sheep. The range country in Nevada 

 will never be broken up into farms; it can be 

 used for nothing but range; it presents many 

 unique and interesting problems. These cen- 

 ter around the adaptation of grazing methods 

 to the periods of growth and reproduction of 

 the native forage plants with a view to making 

 the fullest use of the range without further 

 injury to the plant life. Mr. 0. E. Fleming, 

 Cornell, 1910, formerly of the Forest Service, 

 Grazing Studies, has been chosen to head the 

 new department which ranks as a full professor- 

 ship in the university. Mr. Fleming has been in 

 charge of the Federal Grazing Reserve at 

 Jornada, New Mexico. Studies of the poison- 

 ous plants of the range will be carried on by 

 Mr. Fleming and Dr. Jacobson, the head of 

 the department of chemistry in the Nevada 

 station. The project work of the Nevada Ex- 

 periment Station is being based almost wholly 

 on the problems of western agriculture; an 

 effect is made, however, to maintain the high 

 scientific character and accuracy of the work. 

 The new department will have a set of prob- 

 lems characteristic of the peculiar agriculture 

 of the western mountain country. 



The production of anthracite in 1915, as 

 shown by the final figures compiled by C. E. 

 Lesher, of the United States Geological Sur- 

 vey, from returns made by the operators, was 

 79,459,876 gross tons, differing from the esti- 

 mate of 79,100,000 tons published last Jan- 

 uary by less than one half of 1 per cent. The 

 value of this output was $184,653,498, an aver- 

 age of $2.32 per ton, a value slightly higher 

 than the average in 1914. Compared with the 

 figures for 1914 those for 1915 show a decrease 

 of 2 per cent, in quantity and 1.9 per cent, in 

 value. Anthracite is used mainly as a do- 

 mestic fuel, and the mild weather during the 

 early months of 1915 resulted in a decrease in 

 consumption. A falling off in the exports to 

 Canada, which normally takes a large quantity, 

 and light buying by householders and retail 

 yards in this country during the summer 

 period of low prices, were also factors con- 

 tributing to this decrease. There were 176,- 

 552 men employed in the anthracite mines in 

 1915, a greater number than in any year ex- 

 cept 1914, when there were 179,679. The aver- 



age number of days these men worked was 230, 

 as compared with 245 in 1914, and the number 

 of tons produced per man per year was 450, 

 and per man per day 1.96, as against 451 tons 

 per year and 1.84 tons per day in 1914. The 

 smaller number of days worked, together with 

 the comparatively large number of men em- 

 ployed, indicate that the work during the slack 

 months was divided by the companies among 

 a greater number of men than was necessary, 

 in order to assist all. As in 1914, there were 

 few strikes, only 30,325 men having been in- 

 volved in 1915, for an average of 7 days each. 

 There were 148 machines used in underground 

 mining of anthracite in 1915, and 57 steam 

 shovels were used on the surface, 1,001,431 

 tons having been taken from steam-shovel pits 

 during the year. The steam shovels are nearly 

 all used in the Schuylkill and Lehigh regions, 

 and the mining machines in the Wyoming re- 

 gion. 



Ground has recently been broken for the 

 building of the Museum of the American 

 Indian in New Tork City. Mr. Archer M. 

 Huntington has given to the institution a site 

 with a frontage of sixty-five feet on Broad- 

 way, just south of 155th Street and adjacent 

 to the group of buildings of which the His- 

 panic Museum is the center. The plans for 

 the proposed museum provide for a structure 

 with a basement and four stories, which will 

 be in the same style as that of the building of 

 the American Geographical Society. Friends 

 of Mr. George G. Heye, who has gathered the 

 notable collection which is to be placed in the 

 structure, have subscribed $250,000 for the 

 building, and arrangements are now being 

 made to raise the additional $100,000 for the 

 equipment. The collection itself, which in- 

 cludes 400,000 specimens and is valued at 

 $500,000 is to be turned over in a few days to 

 a board of trustees, who are also to take title to 

 the real estate. Marshall H. Saville, of 

 Columbia University, has been the scientific 

 adviser of Mr. Heye for many years, and will 

 be the director of the museum. 



Among the courses in scientific field work 

 provided for the coming summer quarter by 

 the University of Chicago is one in geology 



