EDITORIAL COMMENT 197 



The editors are unwilling to consider the resolution as it passed the 

 last meeting of the Society as the mature and best judgment of its 

 membership. We should like, therefore, to throw open the pages of 

 the Journal to a full and frank discussion of the problem, "What is 

 to be done with private forests?" The contribution of H. S. Graves, 

 which appears in this number, opens a discussion which we hope will 

 be followed up in succeeding numbers. 



Impressions of the Baltimore Meetings 



The American Association for the Advancement of Science meetings 

 in Baltimore. December 26 to 28, 1918, were very successful and the 

 character of the papers presented and the discussions were on a high 

 plane ; in fact, higher than those heard at the Pittsburgh session in 

 1917. In all the meetings of the affiliated societies in the Botanical 

 Section, at least, the programs were well arranged and the papers dove- 

 tailed into one another remarkably well. This feature contributed very 

 largely to the interest in the sessions and also to the discussion, provok- 

 ing the highest kind of criticism and comment and giving every one a 

 wonderful stimulus toward better, more thorough, and more consci- 

 entious work. 



Two things which were emphasized and reiterated were the recog- 

 nition during the war period of the value of research by outside inter- 

 ests, who had previously not thought it of practical value, and the need 

 for more careful, better, and systematic research in all things botanical. 

 Pure research, as contrasted with so-called applied research, has at last 

 been recognized by organizations which prior to the war had not seen 

 any advantage gained from exploring the realms of the unknown in 

 search of primal causes. 



In forestry the need of research was brought out time and time 

 again, as papers presented the discovery of certain fundamental prin- 

 ciples which will have a great bearing on future forest policy and on 

 silvicultural practices. Studies of the distribution, growth, and silvics 

 of forests emphasized how little is really known as yet of the under- 

 lying causes, and was evidenced by the differences in opinion during 

 the discussions. The progress of research at the Forest Products 

 Laboratory during the war was strongly brought out. and the great 

 advances in technology and the use of woods contrasted strongly with 

 how little has been done in forest production. That this is realized by 

 foresters, and steps are being taken to overcome it, is evidenced by the 

 establishment of an experiment station in connection with the work of 



