412 ANNUAL REPORTS OF DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



With all of the investifi^ativc Avork of the Branchof Products c-cntercd 

 at Madison and Chicago, it appeared advisable to establish the admin- 

 istrative office also at one or these points. Since the larger part of 

 the organization is at ^ladison, the administrative oflice was trans- 

 ferred thither. This was done on June 1. The Branch of Products 

 is also represented by fiehl ollices in Denver, San Francisco, and Port- 

 land, which carry on the work in Districts 2, 5, and 6, and by an cilice 

 at Washington, D. C. 



In consequence of the new facilities for careful and scientific inves- 

 tigation and experiment, both the methods and the character of 

 the work have, to a considerable extent, been modified. When the 

 Government lacked adequate means for investigating the under- 

 lying problems in the use of forest products, experiments were of 

 necessity limited and attention was centered principally upon field 

 demonstrations of the practicability of processes the intrinsic value 

 of which were already known. Facilities for investigation were ordi- 

 narily obtained through cooperation with individuals or companies, 

 especially in such fields as wood preservation and wood distillation. 

 Now that adefjuate facilities are available, it is possible to go into the 

 deep, underlying problems, ^loreover, it is in a large degree possible 

 now to transfer cooperation from individuals to large associations, 

 and results secured in this way will be much more completely available 

 for the entire industry which the work concerns. 



FOREST PRODUCTS LABORATORY. 



Tlie agreement entered into witli the University of Wisconsin for a 

 forest products laboratory at ^Madison was announced in the last 

 annual report. The university erected a building at a cost of about 

 S50,000, and supplies heat, light, water, and electric and steam 

 power. The Forest Service supplied and installed tlie testing ma- 

 chines and other apparatus, and furnishes the force of 50 experts 

 and assistants engaged upon experiments. By this cooperation the 

 United States has secured the largest and most completely equipped 

 wood-testing laboratory to be found anywhere. 



Plans for the new laboratorj- and for the installation of the equip- 

 ment were carefully developed, and the building was constructed dur- 

 ing the summer and fall of 1909. The technical and clerical force 

 was transferred from Washington to Madison and occupied temporary 

 offices on October 15. By December 1 the building had reached a 

 stage at which installation of the machinery could begin. On April 

 1 the offices in the new building were occupied, and on June 4, with 

 nearly 500 visitors present, the laboratory was formally opened. 

 Many of the visitors were representatives of lumber associations or 

 associations of wood users. 



The work of tlie laboratory is organized in three groups of three 

 sections each. The first group may be designated the chemical 

 group. In it are the sections of cliemistry, pulp, and distillation. 

 The section of chemistry devotes itself to the study of problems con- 

 cerning the chemical constituents and conditions of wood^ and the 

 analj^ses and standardization of wood preservatives. The section 

 of pulp studies the fiber characteristics of woods to determine their 

 value for various classes of pulp. The first work of this section, a 

 work for which Congress has made a special appropriation, is to 

 determine whether it is possible to find a substitute for spruce in the 



