274 JOURNAL O]? FORESTRY 



However, as Clapp also points out in his article, forest investigative 

 work, under the stress of national necessity, has had to be concentrated 

 on the more immediately pressing problems, primarily in connection 

 with determining the properties and uses of certain woods and the loca- 

 tion and extent of existing supplies of specific timbers. In other words, 

 as might be expected, the most pressing problems were those involving; 

 utilization and exploitation rather than the growing of the crop. 



I submit, however, that the time has now arrived when the balance 

 should be redressed by making the expenditures on research in forest 

 production more nearly commensurate with those on the use of the 

 forest after it has been produced. Present methods of cutting on pri- 

 vate lands do not, as a rule, leave the forest in a productive state ; they 

 are destructive rather than constructive. This is amply evidenced by 

 the progressive decadence of the lumber industry in many regions and 

 by the gradual shifting of operations to the west and to Canada. The 

 migration of pulp and paper industries to Canada is retarded only by 

 the importation of considerable amounts of pulpwood from privately 

 owned lands in the Dominion, the exportation of such timber from 

 Crown (government-owned) lands being prohibited in order to encour- 

 age local manufacture. 



The planting of denuded areas should, of course, be encouraged to 

 the greatest possible extent. However, any conceivable planting pro- 

 gram will still leave enormous areas untouched, and it is of the greatest 

 importance that the necessity for planting be minimized as much as 

 possible by the adoption of cutting methods that will perpetuate the 

 forest instead of destroy it. What is needed is a nullification of Mr. 

 Pinchot's dictum — which he meant to be of more limited application — 

 that forestry is being practiced everywhere except in the woods. To 

 accomplish this object, a large amount of silvical research is required 

 to determine and demonstrate the fundamental facts, and in addition a 

 large amount of co-operative educational and propaganda work among- 

 timber owners to secure the gradual adoption of the improved methods, 

 to be thus determined and demonstrated. 



Cannot this ideal ride in on the high tide of a sentiment, both public 

 and official, favorable as never before toward scientific research to the 

 goal here suggested? Surely, research calculated to increase the pro- 

 ductivity of so vital a natural resource as our forests cannot fail tO' 

 appeal as being both logical and necessary. 



The war has brought about a tremendous appreciation in Europe of 

 the vital economic necessity for forestry practice, and it is logical that 



