A NATIONAL PLAN FOE AMERICAN FORESTRY 665 



The character of expansion is indicated also by the establishment 

 of new units or the reorganization of small local units to a regional 

 basis, and by the initiation of Nation-wide investigative enterprises. 

 The Appalachian and Southern Forest Experiment Stations were 

 established and the Northern Rocky Mountain Station was placed 

 on a regional basis in the fiscal year 1922. The Lake States and 

 Northeastern stations date from 1924. The Pacific Northwest 

 station was reorganized on a regional basis in 1925. The forest taxa- 

 tion inquiry was organized in 1926. The California station was 

 founded in 1927. The Central States and Allegheny stations were 

 established in 1928. The forest survey was initiated in 1930 and the 

 Intermountain and Southwestern stations were established on a 

 regional basis in 1931. 



The increase in finances has carried with it the initiation of lines 

 of work some of which had been recommended regularly over long 

 periods of years. The Forest Survey, for example, for which the 

 initial appropriation was obtained in 1930 under the authorization of 

 the McSweeney-McNary Act, was first recommended some 50 years 

 ago. Provision for intensive studies of forest taxation and forest 

 insurance, dates from 1926 and 1930, respectively, following the au- 

 thority granted in the Clarke-McNary Act. For other classes of 

 economic work repeated recommendations had been made over at 

 least a 10-year period, but it needed the authorization of the 

 McSweeney Act to make the first appropriations available in 1930. 



With growth in appropriations there has been a corresponding 

 expansion in the Branch staff. It now totals approximately 500 of 

 whom 285 are technical. The increase is not in the same ratio as 

 that of appropriations because of changes in salary level. 



Probably few foresters in the United States realize how even under 

 its present inadequate status the provision for forest research in the 

 Federal Forest Service alone compares with that in other countries. 

 Although full data from other countries is not available, a check of all 

 the sources at hand in 1930 indicated current expenditures in all other 

 countries of approximately $1,000,000. It is probable, therefore, that 

 the 1932 appropriation of about $1,800,000 for the Forest Service 

 equaled or exceeded expenditures in all other countries. This is a 

 situation which has developed almost entirely within the last 10 years, 

 and a substantial part of it since the passage of the McSweeney- 

 McNary Act. It is not an indication that requirements are being 

 met. As will be shown later in greater detail, in every region and in 

 every field of research the projects on which nothing is being done or 

 on which the attack is seriously inadequate far exceed those on which 

 it is now possible to work or on which attack can now be made on an 

 adequate scale. 



As the result of the current economic depression, some of the finan- 

 cial ground gained has already been lost. The funds available for the 

 fiscal year 1933 are about 10 percent less than those for 1932. A 



Erolonged depression may seriously threaten much that has so far 

 een gained . 



COMPETENT MEN 



Long years of experience have shown the hopelessness and the 

 futility of attempting to do satisfactory research with mediocre or 

 poor men, and hence one of the main essentials in building up a 



