52 Proceedings of Indiana Academy of Science. 
most important field of applied botany, and for the effective application 
of this knowledge to the problems of the farmer, the fruit grower, the 
gardener, and the shipper. 
Forestry is another branch of applied botany which has contributed 
to the successful prosecution of the war. Its contributions have been 
more direct in their bearing upon purely military affairs than have 
those of plant pathology. 
Two regiments of engineers (forest) were organized during the year 
following our entry into the war. Trained foresters largely officered the 
first of these regiments, and the second drew about 25 per cent of its 
officers from the ranks of professional foresters. The companies making 
up these regiments were employed in the forests of France in the felling 
of trees, in the sawing of timbers and boards for military construction, 
in hewing ties for army railroads, and poles and props for use in the 
trenches and elsewhere. The forester officers found abundant oppor- 
tunity to utilize their experience in supervising this work, for the French 
forests have in the past been managed with the highest skill and effi- 
ciency. It was necessary that the work of the forest engineer regiments 
be carried on with the least possible waste, and with due regard to the 
future of the forests worked. 
The entry of the United States into the world war and the initiation 
of our ambitious aircraft construction program offered a great oppor- 
tunity for service to that branch of forestry which is concerned with 
the study of forest products. On account of its virtues of lightness, 
strength and elasticity, wood is very largely employed in airplane con- 
struction. Different parts of the airplane in the construction of which 
wood is used call for lightness, strength and elasticity in varying degree. 
In the building up of the framework much more consideration may be 
given to the matter of lightness than in the case of a part such as the 
front of the fuselage, which, by reason of the weight of the motor, is 
subject to great shock in landing. Lightness must also be sacrificed to 
strength and resilience in choosing suitable wood for the tail skids and 
for the landing skids on the lower planes. Special demands are also 
made upon the material employed for the engine bed.’ 
The careful tests upon which was based the choice of the best woods 
for the purposes mentioned and for others in connection with airplane 
construction were made largely by or under the supervision of foresters 
trained in the study of forest products. A large part of this work and 
of other work on forest products connected with the airplane program 
was carried out at the Forest Products Laboratory, Madison, Wisconsin, 
2The facts in this paragraph and many others used here were secured from an 
article entitled, “Our Air Fleet in the Making,’’ by Samuel J. Record, Yale Forestry 
School News, July 1, 1918. 
