170 JOURNAL OF FORESTRY 



ness of need for them by the industries concerned. The vision of the 

 forester was greater than that of the business man. The wood-pro- 

 ducing and wood-using industries were utterly unconscious of how 

 little they knew about their product and the field in which information 

 should be secured. Only during the latter part of the last decade has 

 there been an awakening and this has resulted in part from the serious 

 inroads into the markets for wood by other materials about which 

 there is exact information. The economic need for immediate results 

 has on the whole been far greater in the case of products than in the 

 case of silvical investigations. A similar and greater need exists, 

 therefore, for a judicious balance in our program between pure and 

 applied science, between the fundamental and the technological. In 

 formulating the program for forest products investigations it is neces- 

 sary to consider something further than the results which can be 

 secured. They are to be used by a series of comparatively primitive 

 industries, industries which have never on their own initiative realized 

 the need for research, industries which are in this respect behind other 

 leading industries in the United States. If by an occasional investiga- 

 tion of a technological character which from the standpoint of research 

 alone might better follow than precede fundamental investigations, the 

 interest and efforts of the industries which are vitally concerned can 

 be stimulated to some degree of self-help the departure would seem 

 to be worth while. In addition such investigations can be made to 

 reduce present enormous wastes of raw material and to increase in- 

 dustrial efficiency. 



The program of the Forest Service has included both classes of 

 projects. It has been continuing for years intensive studies into the 

 structure of woods. Studies of mechanical properties were among 

 the earliest undertaken and have been continued regularly. A chemical 

 survey of American woods has been in progress for a number of 

 years. The physical properties of wood are under investigation. 



An enormous mass of accurate and detailed data on the mechanical 

 properties of American woods have been secured and their analysis 

 and practical application begun. They have, for instance, formed the 

 basis for the first scientifically drawn grading rules for structural 

 timbers ever adopted in the United States, rules which will again 

 permit wood to compete on a fairly equal basis with steel and other 

 structural materials. Fundamental studies of mechanical properties 



