668 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 



States who were studying for a doctor's degree in forestry, there 

 were 32 men at 6 of our forest schools in 1929-30. 



Five or six of these were in the field of wood chemistry and wood 

 technology, several in the field of range ecology, and practically all 

 of the others in silviculture and various aspects of forest ecology. 

 Comparable data on the number of men working for master's degrees 

 in preparation for research as contrasted with other phases of forestry 

 are not available. Obviously the demand from other organizations 

 than the Forest Service has accentuated the burden on the forest 

 schools to supply in rapidly increasing numbers men thoroughly 

 trained for the various kinds of forest research. 



EFFECTIVE SUPERVISION 



Another question involving the philosophy of organization and 

 supervision which has had to be faced and settled, but which never- 

 theless keeps arising, is whether the work should be handled by individ- 

 ual or organized effort. 



In many research organizations individual investigators under 

 general or no supervision and with little or no coordination decide 

 what they can and should do, follow out leads as they find them, and 

 proceed without very much regard to what their associates are doing. 

 Unquestionably this form of individual effort has many advantages, 

 chief among which is the incentive arising from lack of restraint. It 

 fails fully to take into account, however, such basic considerations as 

 the need for group attacks because of the interrelationship of all 

 phases of the forestry problem or its unity, and it fails to meet other 

 requirements and responsibilities of a publicly supported research 

 agency. 



The plan of organized effort has accordingly been followed by the 

 Forest Service. The determination of the programs on which work 

 will be done is undertaken systematically once each year and programs 

 so determined ordinarily remain in effect during the ensuing year. 

 In reality the determination of such programs is an attempt to set 

 up clear-cut objectives for a year's work. The members of investiga- 

 tive staffs are then assigned to the projects agreed upon in which it is 

 believed, all things considered, they can render services of the greatest 

 value. In short, wherever the nature of the work requires, the staff 

 works as groups on those phases of the forest problem which, after 

 careful consideration, are determined to be most in the public interest. 

 This plan insures fully coordinated attacks on the most urgent 

 problems, continuity of purpose and effort, and results of greatest 

 value from the public standpoint, and, finally, makes it possible to 

 render a satisfactory accounting to the public which finances the work. 



Accomplishments to date under this plan unquestionably far 

 exceed any conceivable progress under unrestricted individual effort. 

 Furthermore, it has been found that sufficient leeway can be given for 

 individual effort to satisfy nearly all investigators, individualistic 

 though they may be. 



The Forest Service handling of research differs in still another 

 respect from that of many other research organizations in requiring 

 that a carefully thought-out plan be put into writing for all the specific 

 pieces of work or projects undertaken, at least after they have passed 

 a preliminary exploratory stage. This for one thing makes it neces- 



