December 28, 1917] 



SCIENCE 



633 



cil of National Defense, and manufacturers 

 of "war orders. The peace-time program has 

 been largely discontinued. The force and the 

 work have been centered in Washington and 

 Madison. Every effort has been made to 

 bring available knowledge to the attention of 

 the organizations which have need for it and 

 to assist in anticipating their problems." 



Much of the work has concerned aircraft 

 material. It has included also problems con- 

 nected with the construction of wooden ships 

 and of vehicles. Assistance has been given 

 to hardwood distillation plants in order to in- 

 crease the production of acetone and other 

 products needed for munition making. A 

 commercial demonstration has shown that 

 costs of producing ethyl alcohol from wood 

 waste can be materially reduced. Methods 

 have been developed by which walnut and 

 birch can be kiln-dried in a much reduced 

 time with comparatively little loss. In gen- 

 eral, the report says, "much assistance has 

 been given on a great variety of war problems 

 relating to forest resources and the manu- 

 facture, purchase, and most efficient use of 

 wood and other forest products." 



In spite of the many new demands upon the 

 Service and the entrance upon military duties 

 of a considerable number of its men, the ad- 

 ministrative and protective work on the na- 

 tional forests was continued without disor- 

 ganization. "Upon request of the War De- 

 partment the preliminaries of recruiting and 

 officering the Tenth Engineers (Forest) were 

 handled. Increase of crop production in and 

 near the forests was stimulated and the forage 

 resource of the forests was made available for 

 emergency use up to the limit of safety. In 

 the latter part of the summer a fire season of 

 extreme danger, made worse in some localities 

 by an unusual prevalence of incendiarism, 

 was passed through with relatively small loss 

 of property and with no reported loss of life." 



WAR ACTIVITIES OF THE GEOLOGICAL 

 SURVEY 



The activities of the Geological Survey, De- 

 partment of the Interior, during the fiscal year 

 1916—17 have been concentrated on investiga- 

 tions connected with military and industrial 



preparedness, as shown by the Annual Report 

 of the director of the survey, just made public. 

 These activities have included the preparation 

 of special reports for the War and Navy De- 

 partments and the Council of National De- 

 fense, the making of military suveys, the print- 

 ing of military maps and hydrographic charts, 

 and the contribution of engineer officers to the 

 Reserve Corps. 



The survey's investigations of minerals that 

 have assumed special interest because of the 

 war have been both expanded and made more 

 intensive. Special reports giving results al- 

 ready at hand, the product of years of field 

 and office investigation, have been published 

 for the information of the general public or 

 prepared for the immediate use of some official 

 commission, committee or bureau. Geologic 

 field work has been concentrated on deposits of 

 minerals that are essential to the successful 

 prosecution of the war, especially those of 

 which the domestic supply falls short of pres- 

 ent demands. Every available oil geologist is 

 at work in petroleum regions where geologic 

 exploration may lead to increased production. 

 Other geologists are engaged in a search for 

 commercial deposits of the " war minerals "— 

 manganese, pyrite, platinum, ehromite, tung- 

 sten, antimony, potash and nitrate. 



The war not only diverted practically all 

 the activities of the topographic branch of the 

 survey to work designed to meet the urgent 

 needs of the war department for military 

 surveys, but led to the commissioning of the 

 majority of the topographers as reserve officers 

 in the Corps of Engineers, United States 

 Army. 



A large contribution to the military service 

 is made by the map-printing establishment of 

 the survey. This plant has been available for 

 both confidential and urgent work, and during 

 the year has printed 96 editions of maps for 

 the war department and 906 editions of charts 

 for the navy department. Other lithographic 

 work, some of it very complicated, was in 

 progress at the end of the year. 



During the year the survey published 203 

 scientific and economic reports, and at the end 

 of the year the survey members holding ap- 



