GENERAL 233 



The most important act which has provided for a definite policy 

 of research was the McSweeney-McNary Forest Research Act of 

 1928. This specified what research was to be done, set up a definite 

 program of field units, and outlined a ten-year financial program with 

 certain restrictions, which includes a statement of the national need 

 for research and the rate at which an efficient organization can be 

 developed. 



Hawley, in his book on Silviculture previously referred to, 

 has pointed out that the experience of many years is necessary to 

 develop adequate and efficient methods of silvicultural treatment of 

 our forests, in relation to silvicultural systems as well as in thinning 

 and cutting immature stands to improve the rate of growth, composi- 

 tion, and general condition of the stands. 



Recently the demand for knowledge obtained through research 

 has been greater than ever because of the large amount of man power 

 available for work in the woods through the Civilian Conservation 

 Corps (Emergency Conservation Work), the Tennessee Valley Au- 

 thority, drought relief in the Middle West, chiefly in connection with 

 the Shelterbelt Project, the marketing agreement with the naval stores 

 producers in the South, the President's National Resources Board, the 

 National Research Council, the special cabinet committee on rivers 

 and waterways, the Soil Conservation Service, housing programs in- 

 volving the use of lumber, and several other unemployment relief 

 measures. The acquisition of submarginal lands and the broadening 

 of the uses of lumber and other forest products have also intensified 

 the importance of research. 



When the Civilian Conservation Corps was organized in 1933, 

 many thousands of men were available for improvement and cultural 

 thinning in our young, ragged, and immature stands of timber. With 

 almost 600,000 men available for all types of woods work in 1935, it 

 became necessary to employ them on useful, constructive work in 

 the woods. Some of the research problems had not been sufficiently 

 studied to give fundamental facts necessary to put many of these 

 young men to work in stand improvement activities. For example, 

 in stands of young lodgepole pine timber containing from 5 to 20 

 thousand trees per acre, the question of the number of trees to elim- 

 inate and the spacing of trees left, was not readily answered. Ade- 

 quately trained foresters, familiar with the results of research, were 

 not available in sufficiently large numbers to meet many of these 

 problems. 



Briefly summarized, research seeks to obtain in the briefest pos- 

 sible space and time, and at the lowest possible expense, the funda- 



