280 JOURNAL OP FORESTRY 



Federal aid and support as is here suggested? In the first place, we 

 have the Weeks law, which provides for a Federal policy of subsidized 

 co-operation with States in forest-fire protection. Secondly, we have 

 the very generous appropriations made for the support of the Forest 

 Products Laboratory at Madison, which concerns itself largely with 

 the uses and properties of w'ood. The Bureaus of Entomology and 

 Plant Industry are concerning themselves very largely with investiga- 

 tive work on the insect and fungous enemies of trees, both inde- 

 pendently and in direct co-operation with State and private agencies. 

 Surely, the production of the forest crop, even on privately owned 

 lands, is no less a national concern than is its utilization or its protec- 

 tion from fire, insects, and fungi. Another precedent is the very large 

 aid which the Federal Government has always extended toward the 

 development and encouragement of better methods of agricultural pro- 

 duction. The vast areas of non-agricultural lands are much more in 

 need of attention, if they are to continue to add materially to the na- 

 tional wealth, after the virgin stands of timber are removed. Experi- 

 ence shows that this problem has not received adequate attention in the 

 past, and the conclusion would appear to be fully justified that the 

 situation calls for a generous measure of Federal support for a com- 

 prehensive scheme of forest investigative work, both independently and 

 in co-operation with State, educational, and private agencies. A greatly 

 increased program of more or less independent work by such agencies 

 is also extremely desirable. 



In iany program of forest investigative work for which provision may 

 be made in the United States, I think there is no question but that the 

 Dominion and provincial governments of Canada and the Canadian 

 Society of Forest Engineers will be glad of the opportunity of the 

 fullest possible collaboration. This should prove highly desirable, since 

 the forest problems along the international boundary are substantially 

 the same in both countries. 



