FOREST RESEARCH AND EXPERIMENTATION 93 



the approval of the National Forest Reservation Commission. Section 

 IX contemplates administration of public reservations, military or 

 otherwise, with a view to their forest assets and by the Forest Service 

 in cooperation with whatever Department they may now be adminis- 

 tered by. 



The bill makes no mention of regulation by prescribing methods, 

 but seeks to encourage forest rehabilitation and to systematize the 

 ownership and recreation of forest areas. 



FOREST RESEARCH AND EXPERIMENTATION 



With the rapidly diminishing forest resources of the United States 

 constituting one of the leading economic problems before the nation, 

 every means to the maximum use and maximum protection of the 

 forests and their products are necessary. One of the most important 

 activities to attain these ends is the development of forest experiment 

 and research, adding to the sum total of knowledge about the employ- 

 ment of our present and potential timber lands and timber resources. 



The field of experimentation is broad and in large measure tech- 

 nical. The work that is now being done is practically exclusively con- 

 fined to the several forest experiment stations of the United States 

 Forest Service and the laboratories and experimental departments of 

 forestry schools at more than a score of the colleges and universities. 



Only a brief indication of the work done by these experimental 

 agencies can be given here as an indication of their importance and 

 scope. Studies are being made of such questions as the extraction 

 of seeds from cones by kiln drying; the control of the spruce bud- 

 worm ; of the effect of mixing various stands ; of root lengths and the 

 effect upon the survival of trees; of the adaptability of trees to 

 localities ; of the effect of the pine squirrel on second growth forests ; 

 of the adaptability of new trees to the United States. Experiments 

 have been made in methods of measuring moisture on the forest floor, 

 in programs of forest management, in proper systems of cutting and 

 in the yields of second growth forests. 



In addition to its forest experiment stations, the Forest Service 

 maintains the Forest Products Laboratory at Madison, Wisconsin, in 

 cooperation with the University of Wisconsin. The laboratory con- 



