conside;rations in silvicultural research 887 



endeavor to reach an agreement concerning such questions as these : 

 Which are the important and fundamental problems and which the 

 minor ones? Which are most needed now and which can be delayed 

 for solution ? and What should be the logical order in which they should 

 be taken up for solution ? 



In this connection it is interesting to note that the Society for Horti- 

 cultural Science, in 1916, appointed such a committee on research and 

 experimentation, which reported at the New York meeting of the 

 American Association for the Advancement of Science in 191 7. Dr. 

 L. H. Bailey was the chairman of the committee. The report was 

 divided into three parts : a definition of terms, the laying out of an 

 experiment, and the training of an investigator. 



The Forestry Branch of Canada has a committee such as has been 

 proposed above. Its official title is "Advisory Committee to the For- 

 estry Branch on Scientific Investigations." It consists of seven mem- 

 bers, and a definite program of work was drawn up, which, however, 

 has lagged on account of the war. Dr. C. D. Howe is the forest ecol- 

 ogist on this committee. Tiie New York Section of the Society of 

 American Foresters has a committee of five members on Forest In- 

 vestigations, and they have already completed plans for the establish- 

 ment of numerous sample plots in the Adirondack Mountains. 



There is every reason to believe that a committee similar to the 

 above-mentioned ones, whose duty it should be to establish definite 

 Government and State policies pertaining to the prosecution of silvical 

 and silvicultural research, and after that to lay down a definite plan of 

 action, would lay the cornerstone for something better and bigger in 

 the way of attacking our real forestry problems as they were defined 

 by Dr. Fernow. 



