Conservation Commissioner Pratt has lost no time in coming to the assistance of the shad, which is the most important food fish in the new waters under his control. Statistics in the office of the commission show alarming decrease in the quantity of shad taken during recent years in the Hudson river north of VerPlanck's Point, which is the spawning ground of the fish. In 1913 the catch was 87,115 pounds; in 1914, 69,072 pounds; in 1915, 34,209 pounds; and in 1916, 25,206 pounds. Although the official catch for 1917 has not yet been reported, the conservation commission was unable to collect sufficient spawn to supply even one hatchery at Linlithgo.

Commissioner Pratt feels that under the methods of promiscuous and uninterrupted netting hitherto practiced in the lower Hudson, there is little chance for the shad to succeed in making its way up the stream to spawn. It is believed that the shad seeks the river in which it was born, and the restocking of the Hudson by natural methods is therefore dependent upon such shad as can manage to nose their way successfully up the river.

Employees of the public service commission, second district, with headquarters at Albany, have organized a movement to cultivate several acres on the farm of F. U. Wilcox, several miles south of Albany, for garden purposes. The executive committee consists of E. J. Cheney, F. X. Disney and F. U. Wilcox, which will supervise all the details of the war garden and will be assisted by other employees of the commission. Automobiles of the commission will be used to take young women and men in groups of ten to the farm after five o'clock p. m. on various days. The work will be under the direction of the State department of agriculture.

The State charities aid association, with headquarters in New York city, disagrees with the statement in the newspapers that the recent legislature was a do-nothing body. From the standpoint of constructive legislation in the field of public health, providing for the welfare of children, safeguarding women and children in industry, and providing for the insane and the feeble-minded, the 1918 legislature was not a do-nothing session," declares the Bulletin published by the association.

Employees of the State whose salaries are less than $1,500 a year will receive a 10 per cent increase under the Lockwood-Fearon bill signed by the governor. The law appropriates $1,000,000 for the purposes of the

increase which goes into effect July 1. No salaries are to be increased to more than $1,500 as the result of the bill, and the advance will continue during the war with Germany.

Plans are progressing rapidly for the new army post which will be erected in connection with the government warehouse in South Schenectady. There will be nine barracks buildings which will accommodate 400 men and 10 officers.

The opening of the barge canal to through navigation on May 15 was celebrated in Rochester by a dinner held in the Hotel Rochester and which was attended by more than a hundred of the men who have been engaged on the work. The guests of honor were Frank M. Williams, State engineer and surveyor; D. B. La Du, special deputy State engineer; and Guy Moulton, division engineer of the middle division. The toastmaster was Division Engineer Friend P. Williams of Rochester.

During the dinner music was furnished by an orchestra and a number of songs were sung. Foremost among these was the following, which was composed by one of the engineers working on the barge canal. It is sung to the tune of materna in the Presbyterian hymn book and bids fair to become the official song of the department of the State engineer and surveyor:

"The Barge Canal It Must and Shall
The dream of long-converging years
Has not been dreamt in vain,
For hero-hearted engineers

Have battered hills and plain.

The barge canal! The barge canal!
A brimming health to thee:

May'st crown success with usefulness,
From lake to shining sea.

To-day we loosed the watery wave,
The portals flung we wide;
But every swish the waters gave,
Echoed as if it cried:

America! America!
True patriots we be;

The barge canal - it must and shall
Contribute victory."

State Engineer Williams spoke, thanking the men in the department for the work they had done in making the opening of the canal possible and paid a striking tribute to the 101 members of the department who are wearing the olive drab of the army or the blue of the navy.

Francis M. Hugo, secretary of State, is distributing a booklet which contains all recent additions to the automobile law, including that pertaining to head lights also the periods of reciprocity between this and other states. Copies of the book may be obtained from Mr. Hugo's offices in New York, Albany and Buffalo.

The Caroline," a brand new motor boat, to be used for patrolling New York State waters in the interest of the people, is the unique gift which has just been made to the conservation commission by students in the manual training department of the Oswego State normal school. The boat, which is twenty-five feet long, and equipped with a twelve horse power, three cylinder gasoline engine, was built by the students themselves, as part of their practical work at the school. According to a letter received by Conservation Commissioner George D. Pratt from the State department of education, the twenty young boat-builders, who created the "Caroline," were undecided as to which State department could make the best use of the craft, and referred the matter to Speaker Sweet. He advised that, in his opinion, the boat could best serve the State through the conservation commission, and as a result it has been formally presented.

At the State fair in Syracuse to be held the week of September 9-14 there will be farm boys' camp consisting of one farm-reared boy from each county of the State between the ages of 14 and 18, inclusive. They are to be chosen in a competitive examination held by the district superintendents of the county.

In a lecture delivered to the students of the State college for teachers, Albany, Dean Harlan H. Horner declared that there are seven obstacles to a world peace. They are as follows:

"The conflicting ways life has met, after centuries of struggle, in mortal combat. The world will never witness equilibrium between them again. There can now be no peace, temporary or enduring, by adjudication.

There can now be no honorable conclusion for us and our Allies, save by the sword.

"There can be no enduring peace save through unqualified triumph of the forces that will peace.

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F. C. SCHIER, Manager

For several months past the timber lands of New York State have been culled for spruce of the finest quality for use in building airplanes for the United States government. Secretary of War Baker and Secretary of the Navy Daniels have had representatives in Albany conferring with George D. Pratt, State conservation commissioner. It is estimated that the government will spend ten millions of dollars in buying airplane lumber in this State. The spruce used in the construction of airplanes must be of the highest quality and the government will pay between $100 and $150 a thousand board feet. It will be purchased from private forest owners as the State constitution forbids the sale of timber from the State preserve.

The fifty-first annual report of the State board of charities contains the following war-time recommendations:

1. That there be close official supervision of all war relief agencies.

2. That social hysteria resulting in the creation of many new and unnecessary charitable institutions be curbed.

3. That the State provide institutional facilities for the 35,000 mentally defective persons in the State.

4. That there be no decrease of activity in caring for the feeble-minded, the poor, the sick and the dependent in war times.

5. That immediate steps be taken to fill the places of men and women prominent in juvenile work who have been drafted into war work.

6. That there be no modification of the child labor laws, and that school requirements in no way be diminished in war times.

The State department of education is developing plans to put into effect next fall the Lockwood law, passed last year, which will provide for special classes for backward and defective children in public schools throughout the State. The law extends to all parts of the State a system already thoroughly established in New York city and in several of the larger cities of the State. The law provides for a census within the present year of all school children who are three years or more retarded in mental development, and orders the organization of special classes of not more than fifteen pupils.

The State excise department finds that in the 20 cities of New York State which voted dry on April 16-17, 716 hotels and saloons will be discontinued October 1, next; 72 wholesale liquor stores and 129 drug stores will cease selling intoxicating liquors at that time. This change will result in the loss of revenue of $788,599 divided as follows: $737,400 in saloon and hotel licenses; $49,900 in licenses for wholesale stores and $1,290 for drug stores. The last legislature passed a law enabling cities to provide for additional revenue to make up for the loss resulting from prohibition.

Governor Whitman vetoed the bill providing for the lease of surplus waters in the barge canal to persons or corporations for the development of hydro-electric power. The governor said that the bill originally had permitted municipalities to bid for the lease of the water power, but that this provision had been stricken out. "The bill should have provided that a municipality should have the right to bid, and that the right of such municipality to enter into the power business should be subject to the approval of the proper public service commission," the governor declared. "In this way the rights of all parties would have been protected."

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State Engineer and Surveyor Frank M. Williams is recovering from a serious operation which was performed upon him in a hospital at Syracuse on May 17, and expects to be back in his office during the latter part of June. For some time past Mr. Williams' physicians have been advising an operation but he refused to give his consent, believing that the work necessary on the barge canal required his personal attention until the channel had been opened to through navigation. Following the opening of the canal on May 15, Mr. Williams at once left Rochester and, accompanied by Division Engineer Guy Moulton and his private secretary, Charles R. Walters, proceeded to Syracuse and entered the hospital.

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