PUBLICATIONS AND REPORTS

TWO FINE PAPERS BY ROBERTS MANN

State Park Administration and State Park Maintenance are the titles of two papers delivered at the Institute on Landscape Management, at Syracuse University, by Roberts Mann, Superintendent of Maintenance for the Forest Preserve District of Cook County, Illinois. Fortunately, the influence of these papers does not have to be limited to those who attended the Institute, for they have been mimeographed and may be had for the asking.

"Bobs" Mann, charged with maintenance of one of the most intensively used park areas in America and associated with Captain Charles H. Sauers, an outstanding park administrator, writes from a wealth of personal experience that has provided him, if not with "all the answers," at least with a lot of them; and what he has to say is said with characteristic clarity and pungency. His two contributions are recommended to all who are or hope to be concerned with state park administration. Copies may be obtained by addressing Roberts Mann, Cook County Forest Preserve District, Cummings Square, River Forest, Illinois. --Herbert Evison.

A PRIMER FOR AMATEUR MINERALOGISTS

"Mineralogy, An Ideal Hobby," by Eunice Robinson in New England Naturalist (March, 1939, pp. 11-15), pictures a fascinating hobby that satisfies man's desire to collect beautiful objects and stimulates his interest in natural science. The article has particular significance for all Service employees who are concerned with educational work in parks and recreational areas.

Attractive minerals of some kind can be found in almost any area and the variety to be found in many places is truly remarkable. Stone quarries, caves and newly opened railroad or highway cuts are particularly promising sites, but interesting specimens appear in cliffs, gorges and types of rook outcrops. The author, writing especially for residents of New England, maps the favorite haunts of the amateur mineralogist in that area but similar maps could be drawn for the remainder of Region One. The reader is told how to collect minerals and various items of useful equipment are pictured and described. Suggestions regarding labeling and exhibition also are included and brief reference is made to methods of identifying minerals. Appended to the article is a list of books designed to acquaint the beginner with the science of mineralogy. --H. S. Ladd.

LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURAL QUARTERLY FEATURES NATIONAL PARKS

Two full-length articles, and 35 photographs are devoted to national parks and monuments in the current number of Landscape Architecture, organ of the American Society of Landscape Architects. Editor Henry V. Hubbard's "Landscape Development Based on Conservation as practiced by the National Park Service" describes in considerable detail the methods of planning by which the Service has sought to meet its responsibilities in the development of the areas under its jurisdiction. "The range of national park landscape problems," he notes, "is highly interesting and diversified. It runs the gamut from dog kennels in Alaska to colonial plantations in Virginia, from adobe houses with cactus gardens in the Southwest to subarctic roadside plantings in Maine, and from lakeside hotels in Montana to hot spring developments in Arkansas. And new problems continually arise."

A second, briefer article, "The Proposed John Muir-Kings Canyon National Park," illustrated with photographs and a map, urges public support of efforts to preserve the area for the public. Fourteen of the pictures which appear in the quarterly were made in national areas of Region One. Among them are interesting "before and after" views showing the results achieved in soil erosion control methods carried out by CCC enrollees at Vicksburg National Military Park.

FECHNER COMMENDS NON-ENROLLED CCC WORKERS

An article by Robert Fechner, Director of the Civilian Conservation Corps, published in the current issue of the Federal Employee, official organ of the National Federation of Federal Employees, cites with generous praise the administrative and supervisory personnel whose labors have contributed to the nationwide success of the Corps's program.

"The work of the CCC boys is well known," wrote Mr. Fechner. "...But the work of another group of men . . . is less well known, although their share in making a success of the Corps is a greatest importance and their influence on the boys themselves of inestimable value. I refer to the non-enrolled personnel of the Civilian Conservation Corps. These are the men who have supervision of the boys while they are in camp and while they are at work on the conservation projects. These are the men who by their interest, their guidance, their example and their inspiration have done much to make a success of the individual enrollee's stay in the Corps, and to help him find his place in private life after he leaves camp, a healthier, better educated boy and a better citizen.

". . .The Civilian Conservation Corps has given employment to an aggregate of some 220,000 persons, exclusive or enrollees, in the field and 190,000 persons have been employed to assist in carrying out the CCC program. Most of this number were field supervisory and technical personnel, sub-professional, scientific, custodial and regularly employed skilled and unskilled labor.

WEBER'S PAINTINGS IN NATIONAL MAGAZINE

Five full-page paintings by Walter A. Weber, Chief Museum Preparator, Branch of Research and Information, Washington, were reproduced in the March issue of The National Geographic Magazine to illustrate an article (pp. 353-376), "Sparrows, Towhees and Longspurs," by T. Gilbert Pearson, President Emeritus of the National Association of Audubon Societies. There is a total of 31 individual birds in Mr. Weber's five groups. They include Desert, Northern Sage, Sharp-tailed, Eastern Savannah, Eastern Henslow's, Eastern Grasshopper, Ipswich, Eastern Song, Desert Song, White-crowned, White-throated, Golden-crowned and Eastern Fox Sparrows; Green-tailed, California and Canyon Towhees; Slate-colored and Oregon Juncos, and the Lapland Long spur.

CLEANSING THE HIGHWAYS

Progress in Roadside Control and the Next Step, an address by Mrs. Walter L. Lawton, chairman of the National Roadside Council, is being given nationwide distribution in pamphlet form. Mrs. Lawton cites the rapid development, in recent years, of a public sentiment opposed to the billboarding of American highways and notes, with satisfaction, that salutary results are being achieved in those states where organized groups bring pressure against the expropriation by advertisers of scenic public property .

"Call it what you will, state zoning or state regulation," says Mrs. Lawton, "We must find a way to give the state control over the full transportation corridor, including the right-of-way and a wide marginal strip on either side. In no other way can we protect the efficiency and safety of our costly highway system. The National Roadside Council believes that the state should require a license from each outdoor advertising company, and a permit with an annual fee for each sign. This is the machinery for control. In addition, for protection of safety, the state should require (1) adequate setbacks of billboards and roadside business from the right-of-way, with special setbacks for billboards at curves and intersections; (2) regulation and restriction of signs on the place of business, outside of corporate limits; (3) prohibition of advertising signs outside of true commercial districts. The commercial district should be so defined that it will indicate a district where business is sufficiently congested to require a reduction of speed to 25 miles per hour. This creates the safety basis of your law. The menace of the billboard through distraction of attention is comparatively negligible where speed is thus reduced. . . . Minimum restrictions as outlined above must be provided by each state if we are to protect our tremendous highway investment."

EMERGENCY CONSERVATION COMMITTEE ISSUES NEW BOOKLET

Conservation - Come and Get It! is the title of Publication No. 75 issued by the New York Emergency Conservation Committee through the authorship of Mrs. Rosalie Edge, chairman. The 24-page booklet contains 13 brief articles of interest to conservationists, three of them of direct concern to the Service. One expresses satisfaction at the establishment of Olympic National Park; a second urges public support for the proposed John Muir-Kings Canyon National Park and points out that the Committee's pamphlet on that area still is available for free distribution. The inside front cover carries a photograph of the gigantic Hart Tree on Redwood Mountain, accompanied by a warning by the Secretary of the Interior that 7,000 Big Trees face destruction.