FOREST SERVICE. 239 



made a beginning. The Southern and the Appalachian Forest 

 Experiment Stations have now been in operation a little more than a 

 year, have organized their staffs, have taken a rapid survey of their 

 fields, and have concentrated their efforts on the problems that are 

 most urgent — such as the amount of loss from forest fires, simple 

 methods of cutting to assure natural reproduction, and studies of 

 the growth and yield of timber, the effects of grazing on forest repro- 

 duction,,and improved methods of turpentining. These investigations 

 will help in the management of the national forests in the Southeast, 

 but their outstanding significance will be in relation to the vastly 

 larger areas of timbenands in private ownership. 



These two stations cover only part of the eastern forests; two other 

 great forest regions. New England and the Lake States, are equally 

 m need of forest experiment stations, and there is a rapidly growing 

 public recognition of this need in both regions. It is tne aim of the 

 Forest Service to establish them as soon as the necessary appropria- 

 tions can be secured. 



There has been much discussion in recent years of public regulation 

 of all forest lands. There is urgent need for more exact knowledge 

 than we now have as to what public regulation might fairly and 

 reasonably require and what it might accomplish in growing timber. 

 The Forest Service has undertaken to answer these c^uestions in the 

 main forest types of the country. Going further, this investigation 

 also seeks to establish what might be termed "desirable forestry 

 practice" — that is, the things that must be done not merely to keep 

 forest lands reasonably productive, but to produce good qualities 

 and higher yields of timber. These two projects, nation-wide in 

 scope, aim to deal in a broad way with the immediate questions 

 arising in the reforestation of the 83 per cent of our forest lands in 

 private ownership. 



Side by side with this extension of research into new regions and 

 broad problems has come the fruition of intensive investigations in 

 regional forestry problems of great importance. In the Southwest 

 and the Pacific Northwest, for example, 10 years of patient study 

 at the Fort Valley and Wind River Forest Experiment Stations has 

 thrown a flood of light upon the best methods of securing natural 

 reproduction of western yellow pine and Douglas fir. These problems 

 are difficult because of the dry climate and frequent droughts in 

 the Southwest and logging slash conditions in the Northwest, and 

 even their partial solution gives the key to scientific management 

 of these important forest types. Such solutions, reached only through 

 prolonged observations, experiments, and studies demonstrate the 

 importance of peraiament forest experiment stations. 



There is no use in growing timber to be burned; and the Forest 

 Service is paying more and more attention to studying forest fires 

 as well as fighting them. This study is proceeding along a variety 

 of approaches. Where do the most fires occur? How are they 

 caused ? What are the weak spots in the prevention organizations ? 

 Such studies make possible an increased efficiency in the expendi- 

 ture of fire-protection funds, public or private, and in the reduction 

 of current fire losses. 



Another promising lead is the relation between forest fires and 

 weather. Forest Service investigators are finding a very close rela- 

 tion between the relative humidity of the atmosphere and the fierce- 



