876 JOURNAL OF FORKSTRV 



made above, namely, that the Government investigative program is too 

 one-sided, and that in Government work research should be as much as 

 possible divorced from administrative work. But before discussing 

 these two questions, it is necessary to briefly refer to the historical de- 

 \-elopment of Government investigations, to the emphasis that has been 

 placed upon the forest-products side of research, and, finally, to the 

 insufficient consideration that has been given to the more fundamental 

 silvical and silvicultural problems. 



During the infancy period of the federal forestry movement, the 

 needs of forest organization, forest administration, and forest protec- 

 tion have been so urgent that forestry investigations were, necessarily, 

 relegated to the background. Now, however, that the main problems 

 of this nature have been solved, it behooves us, I think, to turn our 

 attention to a more fundamental phase of forestry — forestry research. 

 This has, in a measure, already been done. What has been accom- 

 plished is laudable ; but, as Dr. Fernow has pointed out, the funda- 

 mental problems have as yet been left practically untouched. 



At numerous times (^, ^, ") I have called attention to the necessity of 

 attacking our real forestry problems. Judging from the citations which 

 I have made from recent forestry literature, other foresters, much more 

 capable of diagnosing the situation than I, hav^ made similar sugges- 

 tions. To summarize the situation, we might say that satisfactory 

 progress has been achieved in the utilization investigations of National 

 Forest wood products, the work of the Forest Products Laboratory, 

 and in industrial investigations. In the realm of silvical and silvicul- 

 tural investigations some progress has been made, undoubtedly. Taken 

 Ijy themselves they do not make a poor showing; but compared to the 

 time and effort that have been devoted to forest-products investigations, 

 the results along that line are not encouraging. We are still far behind, 

 considering the needs and demands which silvicultural management, 

 forest protection, and other lines of work are making daily upon the 

 practicing forester. He is making mistakes — yes, groping in the dark — 

 because science has not kept pace with the needs of practice. 



Fundamentally, silviculture, or timber growing, is the improvement 

 and direction of natural forces for the production of economic values 

 in the forest. Silvical and silvicultural investigations, therefore, seek 

 to discover natural laws, verify them, and then apply them to the pro- 

 duction of forests. Forest-products investigations deal with the end 

 product — wood. To be logical, we should first learn to grow forests 

 Ijefore we attempt to study the products and the by-products of the for- 

 est. If the present policy were carried far en9ugh. we might find our- 



