A NATIONAL PLAN FOB AMERICAN FORESTRY 661 



search, and in the organization of field units is one of the most striking 

 lessons which has come out of the development in forest research in 

 the Forest Service during the last 15 years. 



The question is sometimes raised whether the regional forest experi- 

 ment stations do not constitute a new national system of experiment 

 stations with a different basic principle from that of the State agricul- 

 tural experiment stations. Federal contributions to both agricul- 

 tural and forest research take two forms one of financial grants to 

 the States, and the other, of direct Federal effort. In the latter the 

 Department has over a long period of years been building up a 

 strong, Federally supported and controlled research organization of 

 which the regional forest experiment stations constitute a part. 

 These stations are designed to meet the Federal responsibility for 

 work on national and regional and national forest problems. If they 

 give any appearance of a new and different principle it is only because 

 the entire country has been covered in a plan-wise organization. 

 The steadily growing volume of cooperation between the Federal and 

 State stations is evidence of the fact that the two sets of stations 

 constitute complementary rather than rival systems. 



MOST SATISFACTORY WORKING FACILITIES 



An essential requirement for good research is satisfactory laboratory 

 and other working facilities, including headquarters. The de- 

 termination of what facilities will best meet requirements consti- 

 tuted, therefore, another important question which had to be an- 

 swered in the development of forest research. The answer constitutes 

 another set of objectives. 



The Forest Products Laboratory is maintained at Madison, Wis., 

 in cooperation with the State university. It has, therefore, all the 

 advantages from the standpoint of research of affiliation with a strong 

 educational institution with a well-developed graduate school and 

 an agricultural experiment station in both of which there is a large 

 amount of research. The advantages, in brief, grow out of the 

 stimulus which comes from the opportunity for formal consultation 

 and informal contact with a large group of specialists in widely 

 diversified fields and from the scholarly and research atmosphere of 

 educational institutions. They grow also out of the opportunities 

 for formal cooperation. 



The university provided laboratory facilities for the Forest Products 

 Laboratory for many years, until the organization completely out- 

 grew the available space. Present needs have now been met and 

 future needs anticipated by a recently completed Federal laboratory 

 in the maintenance of which the university will cooperate. This, 

 with periodic enlargements, should meet the needs for years to come. 



The headquarters for the forest experiment stations have consti- 

 tuted another problem.. Isolated headquarters were the rule in the 

 early stages of our forest and range experiment station development, 

 so that the men might live with their jobs in the woods or on the 

 range an unquestionable advantage. It was found, however, that 

 small groups of men stagnated scientifically under such an environ- 

 ment, and the experience of other organizations has shown that even 

 relatively large groups have the same tendency. The plan of isolated 

 headquarters has therefore been abandoned, and headquarters have 



