RESEARCH IN THE UNITED STATES FOREST SERVICE, A STUDY 



IN OBJECTIVES 



By EARLE H. CLAPP, In Charge, Branch of Research 



CONTENTS 



Page 



Consolidation and segregation 651 



Development of organization and facilities 655 



The most effective relationships between research and administration _ 655 



Most effective field units 656 



Most satisfactory working facilities 661 



Adequate finances 663 



Competent men 665 



Effective supervision 668 



Progress in research and that still required 669 



Forest management 669 



Forest range investigations 673 



Forest and range influences 675 



Forest products 676 



Forest economics 681 



Objectives, past, present, and future 682 



CONSOLIDATION AND SEGREGATION 



The Branch of Research was established in the Federal Forest 

 Service on June 1, 1915, by Henry S. Graves, who was then Chief 

 Forester. This action was a part of a more or less sweeping reor- 

 ganization of the work of the Department of Agriculture which began 

 a few months earlier. The general purpose of the departmental re- 

 organization was in the words of the order putting it into effect to 

 obtain " greater efficiency by definitely outlining or segregating within 

 each bureau" the three main departmental activities, regulatory, 

 research, and extension. While the Forest Service has little or no 

 regulatory work in the commonly accepted sense of the term, it has 

 instead a large administrative responsibility for the handling of the 

 national forests. 



The establishment of the branch of research involved the recogni- 

 tion by the Forest Service, among other things, of the following: 



1. The need for forest research, if the main responsibility and 

 objective of the Forest Service to bring; about the full use of all 

 forest lands of the United States and of its products and services is 

 to be met. 



It was a recognition of the fact that only by means of research 

 would it be possible to obtain in the shortest possible time and at 

 the lowest possible cost the basic knowledge necessary: To bring 

 about the productive use of forest land for timber growing; to place 

 and keep forest products in a position to compete with other materials 

 in present-day industry which is relying more and more upon 

 research and thus to insure a demand for the products grown; 

 to insure the full recognition and use of forests and other vegetative 

 cover in the regulation of stream flow, the prevention of erosion, and 



651 



