PUBLICATIONS AND REPORTS

GEORGIA RECREATION REPORT ISSUED

Report on Outdoor Recreation in Georgia, a 57-page multilithed book containing 18 plates, was issued in February by the Georgia State Planning Board and the Department of Natural Resources in cooperation with the National Park Service and with the assistance of the Works Progress Administration. It was prepared as a part of the Park, Parkway and Recreational Area Study.

Designed for lay readers, the report gives in concise form an analysis of findings to date and projects a tentative state recreational area plan. As a basis for the plan there is included a brief discussion of those facts concerning the state and its people which influence directly the recreational planning. The study lists and describes existing natural and primitive types of recreational areas and makes certain preliminary recommendations for the expansion of the state park system. The proposals are considered worthy of thoughtful consideration by these charged with responsibility for the state park program since the state is taken into a new field of endeavor made necessary by economic and social conditions in those regions whose population is predominantly rural and rural non-farm.

HISTORICAL REVIEW OF LAND DEVELOPMENT

To accompany the 1938 edition of the official map of the United states, the General Land Office of the Department of the Interior has prepared Land of the Free, a 19-page booklet which presents a brief history of land development throughout 150 years in America. From 1785, when the rectangular system of survey was adopted officially by Congress, through the period of western expansion and up to the present, when the public domain areas consist of 404,132,800 acres in continental United States and 346,172,242 in Alaska. the territorial extensions are traced briefly for the layman. The functions of the General Land Office also are described.

The 1938 issue of the official map, a chart prepared biennially as an up-to-date representation of the national territory, is seven feet long and five feet high. It was reproduced from more than 20 large copper plates upon which details were transferred backward by hand engraving from key charts.

CORNELL AIMS DESCRIBED

The Cornellian Council Bulletin, in its January-February issue, describes briefly the development work which is being carried forward at the Cornell Arboretum through cooperation of the Service and the University. Principal objectives of the development, says The Bulletin, are: 1) a botanic garden for scientific study; 2) outdoor sanctuaries and laboratories for all natural sciences of the university, and, 3) a great parklike area where plants may be arranged to show their value for human use.

DEDICATION HELD ON C. & O. CANAL

For the first time in 16 years, a scow passed through Lock No. 1 of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal when that area was rededicated with special ceremonies held recently. One of the old canal scows was towed from the basin along the edge of Rock Creek into the lock, which was filled with water, permitting the vessel to pass into the pool above. Considerable repairs had been carried out at the lock under a PWA project supervised by the Service. Features of the ceremony included the presence of two veteran lock tenders, one of whom had spent 75 years on the waterway. An other participant was "Mutt," a venerable mule who celebrated her 38th birthday by towing a scow upon which the United States Army Band played patriotic airs.