Stimulation of planting of various species in city streets. Observation in rates of growth and hardiness of trees under existing conditions. Assigned to California State Board of Forestry. UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, COLLEGE OF AGRICULTURE Division of Forestry, Walter Mulford, Professor of Forestry, Berkeley Silviculture 510. A study of the development of stands of Bigtree. Sample plots laid out and trees measured and tagged August, 1915, in stands of bigtree natural reproduction, Whitaker's Forest, Tulare County, California. To be remeasured at intervals of five years or more. 511. A study of the growth and yield of various species of eucalyptus on different sites in California. Work begun on some plantations by Forest Service in 1912. Remeasurements made on these and others by W. Metcalf and J. A. Mitchell in 1916. Sample plots now located in groves from Glenn County to San Diego County, California. Sample plots to be remeasured at about 5-year intervals. Report on work to date being prepared. Assigned to Woodbridge Metcalf. 512. A study of trees suitable for windbreak planting on various sites in California. Proposed in 1916. Location of work; portions of Sacramento and San Joaquin valleys, seacoast, and semi-desert areas. To include a general survey of windbreaks in California and their influence on production of various agricultural crops. No work done to date. Existing windbreaks to be investigated and comparative records. made of wind velocity, temperature, and evaporation in shelter of windbreak and on adjacent unprotected areas. Planting plan to be prepared for University Farm, Davis, Calif., to test accuracy of conclu sion. Assigned to Woodbridge Metcalf. 513. Studies in adaptability and rate of growth of trees in the North Sacramento Valley. Plantations of over 100 species of trees have been set out on the Chico Forestry Station, Butte County, California, beginning in 1889. and continuing at intervals to the present time. Area has been mapped and growth measurements are in progress. Publication of results as soon as completed. Plantations to be extended to test other species. Assigned to Woodbridge Metcalf. 514. Studies in adaptability and rate of growth of trees in southern California. Seventy species of eucalyptus and many other trees have been set out on the Santa Monica Forestry Station, Los Angeles County. Some of these are now 20-30 years old. Measurements are being made as soon as accurate identification can be made. All records were destroyed by fire in 1904. Publication of results, extension of plantations using new species. 515. Trees suitable for planting without irrigation in the Berkeley Hills, Alameda County. Begun 1916. Tests have been made with species from Australia, New Zealand, Africa, Japan, and China. Some have been raised from seed in the Berkeley Nursery but many have been received from the Plant Introduction Gardens. Expensive methods of planting have given good results with several species. It is proposed to select species which will stand cheaper methosd of handling. Work to be extended in experimental planting area in Strawberry Canyon. Assigned to Woodbridge Metcalf. Lumbering Studies 516. Factors affecting the cost of log making and skidding. Begun during 1916, during which field season several men made time studies of donkey and big-wheel logging in both the redwood region and Sierra pine region. Data were taken on felling, marking, limbing, hand bucking, steam saw bucking, and yarding. Each operation is analyzed into its component parts, each of which is timed repeatedly. A large amount of data is at hand but has not been worked on owing to the absence of Captain Bruce. To be continued according to working plan. It is necessary to secure a mass of data large enough so that for each gradation of one variable in the several steps in log making the others will show a reasonably constant average. Assigned to Donald Bruce. Mensuration 517. Preparation of volume tables for principal California species. An investigation has been made as to a proper diameter and height basis for volume tables and tentative conclusions reached. A study is in progress of the best technique of volume table preparation. Tables are being made in a number of different ways from the same data and their accuracy compared. This phase of the project will be completed this winter. Work is started on the preparation of a new volume table for white fir using all available field measurements gathered by the United States Forest Service, the United States Bureau of Plant Pathology and the University. After the completion of these steps it is planned to continue the preparation of a set of volume tables for California species. Assigned to Donald Bruce. 518. Quantitative and qualitative forest increment on cut over lands. This project was initiated by Mr. Raphael Zon at the direction of the National Research Council. Tentative plans of work have been drawn up and collaborators are being secured in each State. A survey of existing data will first be made and a bibliography or summary prepared therefrom. An attempt will be made to standardize the technique of growth studies and to work up a first approximation of the total growth on second growth stands. Assigned to Donald Bruce. UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA Prof. W. L. Jepson, Berkeley 519. Studies on the taxonomy of chaparral species in California. Independent investigation by Prof. Jepson. II. Periodic systems of one degree of freedom.... III. Systems with many degrees of freedom. General dynamical theory. V. The rotational specific heat of diatomic gases. ... VI. Application of the quantum theory to paramagnetism. VII. Application of the quantum theory to spectral lines. VIII. Intensity and polarization of spectral lines..... INTRODUCTION 301 303 312 324 333 338 347 352 366 One of Lord Kelvin's last lectures was entitled "19th Century Clouds over the Dynamical Theories of Heat and Light," which he gave at the Royal Institution in the last year of the 19th Century. Lord Kelvin's scientific work was very largely devoted to dynamics. No explanation of any physical phenomenon that was not a dynamical explanation made any appeal to him. For example, the electromagnetic theory of light did not satisfy him; it was no explanation of light phenomena in terms of primary dynamical notions-motion of masses in ordinary space and time according to Newton's laws. The first of the two clouds to which he referred was the difficulty of explaining by dynamics the fact that the earth moves freely through a medium such as the ether, which can transmit the transverse vibrations which constitute light, in such a way that the motion of the earth has no effect on optical experiments performed on the earth. Lord Kelvin was quite prepared to give up one of our fundamental notions-that two bodies cannot occupy the same space at the same time-but he was unable to account for the negative results of experiments such as the Michelson-Morley experiment on dynamical grounds. His conclusion, after a discussion of the possibilities was simply, "I am afraid we must still regard cloud No. I as very dense.' Cloud No. II had to do with the doctrine of equipartition of energy among the degrees of freedom in a dynamical system formed of a large number of similar elements, as, for example, the system formed of a large number of molecules of a gas. Lord Kelvin was particularly concerned with the difficulties relative to specific heats and spectral lines. If we accept the doctrine of equipartition, specific heat measurements show that a monatomic gas has only three degrees of freedom per atom. Unless, then, we regard an atom as a material point there are three degrees of freedom unaccounted for. A diatomic gas has, in most cases, a specific heat corresponding to five degrees of freedom per molecule. Even if we regard the two atoms in the molecule as rigidly connected there is one degree of freedom unaccounted for. Furthermore, it is a certain consequence of dynamical theory that to each period of vibration of a dynamical system there corresponds at least one degree of freedom. How to reconcile the limited number of degrees of freedom found by specific heat determinations with the large number required by the complicated spectra of all gases was a problem which he could solve only by giving up the doctrine of equipartition altogether. Now the doctrine of equipartition depends upon two principles: (1) Newtonian dynamics and (2) statistical mechanics. Giving up the doctrine of equipartition was therefore, for him, denying the applicability of statistical mechanics. But he had nothing to offer in its place and so his way of dispelling Cloud No. II was to leave the whole thing darker than before. A few years before Lord Kelvin gave the lecture to which I have referred Lorentz published his "Theory of Electrical and Optical Phenomena in Moving Bodies." In this paper he showed that by introduction of a special time in a moving system-his "local time"-it was possible to deduce equations which formally satisfied the results of the Michelson-Morley experiment, and other experiments involving electrical and optical phenomena in moving bodies. This was the beginning of the theory of relativity; the development of this theory by Minkowski and particularly by Einstein has indicated that the failure of Newtonian dynamics satisfactorily to account for certain phenomena demands a complete revision |