2^8 JOURNAL OF FORESTRY 



manufacture of groundwood pulp for newsprint may point the way 

 toward one of the partial solutions of the markets problem. Experi- 

 ments are being made along these lines in Canada, at least partly as a 

 result of representations made by foresters. 



Turning now to the situation in the United States. We are all, of 

 course, aware of the splendid work that is being done by the experiment 

 stations in the West maintained by the Forest Service. Is there not, 

 however, an urgent need for similar work in the East, and is it not 

 logical that such work should be centered in the Forest Service, which 

 has the requisite staff of experts? The existence of National Forests 

 in Eastern States would furnish an excuse for such action were one 

 needed. No such justification should, however, be necessary, in view 

 of the unquestionably national scope of the whole Service. Good prece- 

 dents for such constructive work by the Forest Service in the East are 

 the preparation of management plans for timber owners, in the earlier 

 days of the Service, and the later establishment of numerous sample 

 plots, since, however, turned over to State or educational agencies. 



The Society of American Foresters organized nearly two years ago 

 a Committee on American Forest Research "to assemble in convenient 

 form for comparison and reference data on all forest investigations 

 v/hich are being conducted or are proposed by all agencies in the United 

 States and Canada." The president of the Society, in emphasizing the 

 need for such a committee, pointed out the enormous field for forest 

 research in America and the small part of the field which is now being 

 covered. He referred also to the fact that in many agencies research 

 has not been definitely recognized as an important activity ; that at the 

 present time no one agency is in touch with the investigative work of 

 the others, and that there is much less of attempts to correlate this 

 work. The plans for the committee include the publication periodically 

 of statements indicating the scope of investigative projects under way, 

 the correlation of research carried on by all agencies, and the encour- 

 agement of research on the part of such agencies as might not be alive 

 to their responsibilities. All this constitutes a splendid program, and it 

 is only to be regretted that war conditions have prevented its execution. 



Unquestionably, it is of the greatest importance that this program be 

 carried out in some way. My suggestion, however, goes considerably 

 further than this, since it involves the question of Federal support for 

 the carrying out of the actual investigative work on a greatly increased 

 scale, both independently and in close co-operation with State and edu- 

 cational agencies. I may perhaps need to justify such a suggestion 



