NEKD rOR A UNIFIED FORRST RRSICAKCH I'ROCRAM 285 



Forest research in the United States should not be confined, as it 

 largely is at present, to the United States Forest Service, which is pri- 

 marily an administrative and executive branch of the Government. 

 The National Forest Service cannot and will not locate a forest re- 

 search station in each State, and past experience has shown that those 

 already in existence are located without reference to forest conditions 

 in the entire country, but with reference to the national forests, which 

 are a small part, and in man\' respects the least important part, of the 

 forests of the entire country. 



In agriculture, engineering, mining, and other applied sciences, re- 

 search is everywhere associated with educational institutions. Amer- 

 ican schools of forestry must take a larger part in research and the 

 work that the}' are now doing given a larger hearing. 



Although the volume and diversity of forest research in this country, 

 under the United States Forest Service, outshadows that of all other 

 agencies, it should not be overlooked that a good deal of important 

 research work is being done by State agencies, as in Pennsylvania, and 

 by educational institutions working alone and in co-operation with the 

 United States Forest Service. 



What we want in this country at once is an organization to co-ordi- 

 nate and give direction to forest research now being carried on by the 

 United States Forest Service, State agencies, private agencies, and by 

 educational institutions. This central bod\' might be called the Amer- 

 ican Forest Research Association, comparable in many respects to the 

 German Forest Research Association. A research committee appointed 

 by the Society of American Foresters will not do, as shown in the 

 inaction of the committee appointed some two years ago. Tt nnist be a 

 virile association, composed of research workers in the national service, 

 in State service, and in educational institutions, who accept the duties 

 of the association as a part of their daily work. 



In Germany the association discusses the various experiments by all 

 agencies in each German State and the exact procedure and method is 

 passed on before the experiment is started. Prior to the outbreak of 

 war the association usually met twice each year. The distances in this 

 country are so great the members of a representative association could 

 not meet oftener than once each year. An executive committee of five 

 members could, however, do the current work of the association. The 

 agencies included in the association should provide funds for clerical 

 work and for publication. An annual calendar of forest research, with 

 reviews and citations of all research within the year, should be jirinted 



