October 21, 1921] 



SCIENCE 



375 



provements in metliods of beekeeping, fish 

 culture, etc. It will strive constantly to 

 meet the demands for the economic applica- 

 tion of the branches of science it represents. 



COMMITTEE OF THE U. S. DEPARTMENT OF 

 AGRICULTURE ON LAND UTILIZATION 



Secretary Wallace has appointed a com- 

 mittee of six scientific men of the Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture to consider the entire 

 problem of land utilization, especially with 

 respect to the country's future requirements. 



In appointing the committee Secretary 

 "Wallace suggested that as the basis of the 

 work to be undertaken careful consideration 

 should be devoted to the country's present 

 crop production, home consumption and for- 

 eign demand, relating the land now under 

 cultivation to present and near future de- 

 mands. It seems to the secretary that this 

 study should be followed by a more careful 

 survey and classification than has yet been 

 made of lands which can be brought under 

 cultivation in the future, and the conditions 

 necessary to make it profitable under the 

 plow. 



The suggested survey would include the 

 arid lands of the West suitable for irrigation, 

 swamp lands which can be reclaimed by 

 drainage, and the cut-over timberlands of the 

 various sections. In studying the cut-over 

 lands consideration will be given to their pos- 

 sibilities both for cultivation and for re- 

 forestation. 



The personnel of the committee of six is as 

 follows : 



Dr. L. C. Gray, agricultural economist, OfBoe of 

 Farm Management a,nd Farm Economics, chairman. 



C. V. Piper, agrostologist in charge forage crop 

 investigations, Bureau of Plant Industry. 



Dr. G. M. Rommel, chief, Animal Husbandry 

 Division, Bureau of Animal Industry. 



C. r. Marbut, in charge, soil survey investiga- 

 tions, Bureau of Soils. 



E. E. Carter, assistant forester. Forest Service. 



S. H. Mc'Oory, chief, Division of Agricultural 

 Engineering, Bureau of Public Roads. 



At the present time a little less than half 

 the total national area is in farms, and only 

 about one-quarter of the total area is im- 



proved land. Many persons, deceived by 

 these facts, assume that there is an unlimited 

 reserve supply of farm land. Such is not the 

 case, however; by far the greater part of the 

 1,000,000,000 acres not yet in farms probably 

 can never be used for the growing of crops, 

 and plans must be made to use this land for 

 the benefit of the nation. 



THE DIRECTOR OF THE MELLON 

 INSTITUTE 



Announcement has been made by the board 

 of trustees of the University of Pittsburgh of 

 the appointment of Edward Ray Weidlein as 

 director of the Mellon Institute of Industrial 

 Eesearch. Mr. Weidlein has been acting 

 director since the recent resignation of Dr. 

 Eajrmond Foss Bacon, and prior to that time, 

 since 1916, he served as associate director. 

 Dr. Bacon, who left to engage in consulting 

 chemical practise in K'ew York, succeeded 

 Dr. Eobert Kennedy Duncan, the first direc- 

 tor and formulator of the institute's system 

 of practical cooperation between science and 

 industry, upon the latter's death in 1914. 



Mr. Weidlein was a student of Dr. Duncan 

 and later became an industrial fellow of the 

 Mellon Institute. He has been associated 

 intimately with the Industrial Fellowship 

 System since 1909, and since 1916 has been 

 a member of the administrative staff of the 

 institute. He has had much experience in 

 the supervision of industrial research and en- 

 joys a national reputation as a specialist in 

 the systematic investigation of the problems 

 of chemical and physical technology. 



Edward Eay Weidlein was born at Au- 

 gusta, Kansas, on July 14, 1887. He was 

 graduated at the University of Kansas with 

 the degree of bachelor of arts in the year of 

 1909 ; in 1910 he received the degree of master 

 of arts. He engaged in a study of cam- 

 phor, under the direction of the late Dr. 

 Robert Kennedy Duncan, and he carried out 

 a comprehensive study of the ductless glands. 

 From 1912 to 1916 Mr. Weidlein was a 

 senior fellow in the Mellon Institute of In- 

 dustrial Research, having supervisory charge 

 of the institute's investigations on the metal- 

 lurgy and hydrometallurgy of copper, and 



