676 A NATIONAL PLAN FOB AMERICAN FORESTRY 



Possibly no other single phase of forest research is at present fall- 

 ing so far short of meeting national needs or offers a greater oppor- 

 tunity for constructive service. 



FOREST PRODUCTS 



When the Branch of Research was established in 1915 forest prod- 

 ucts investigations were better organized and financed and are still, 

 receiving larger appropriations than any other class in the Forest 

 Service. Since 1910 the work had been centralized primarily in the 

 Forest Products Laboratory at Madison, Wis., in cooperation with 

 the State University, a clear-cut recognition of the organization 

 which would ensure the best correlation of the work and render the 

 largest returns nationally with the resources available. 



METHODS OF HARVESTING 



The utilization of forest products for most purposes starts with 

 the cutting of the tree and here makes its direct contact with the 

 silviculture that grows the tree. Significant but limited results have 

 been obtained on methods of logging and the principles which under- 

 lie these methods, but logging and milling methods are now being 

 investigated directly only in a special study of the small sawmill. 

 The studies in this group have in general considered the use of stand- 

 ard logging and milling machinery and methods in determining the 

 comparative costs of handling different-sized logs and trees of dif- 

 ferent diameters. 



For about 15 species and 10 forest types very complete figures have 

 been obtained on the cost and value of the lumber from trees and logs 

 of different sizes, so that lumbermen and foresters can tell the mini- 

 mum of tree and log sizes that will "pay their way." The purpose 

 is to encourage, for future growth and the perpetuation of the forest, 

 the leaving of the small trees that can be cut only at a loss. 



In naval stores production, utilization begins with the wounding 

 rather than the cutting of the tree. The work to date, which has 

 involved both forest management and forest products investigations, 

 has revolutionized methods of chipping and has given preliminary 

 data on the yield from trees of different diameters, etc. Reference 

 will be made here also to substantial progress on the relation of cell 

 structure to the production of resin, and to the beginning of work on 

 the biochemistry of resin production, although these investigations 

 do not fall logically under the " harvesting" group. 



Future work must provide for a considerable extension into other 

 conditions of the determination of the size of the trees and logs which 

 can be cut profitably and of the relationship between cutting for 

 lumber and of utilization for other products, such as naval stores. A 

 broad field, on which only a relatively small start has been made and 

 which should be extended into all of the major conditions throughout 

 the country, is the development of the fundamental principles on 

 which logging methods, including types of machinery, should be 

 based. 



Logging methods up to the present time have been developed solely 

 with the idea of getting material out of the woods at the lowest cost 

 and with no reference to the silviculture which will grow new stands. 

 Work along this line will in many cases require the modification of 



