A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 683 



objectives; the second, more or less aggressive and persistent efforts 

 to reach them. 



Outstanding among such objectives have been those connected with 

 the establishment of the Branch of Research and those with the 

 passage of the McSweeney-McNary Forest Research Act, both of 

 which are in reality groups of objectives. Underlying these and nearly 

 all other objectives is the recognition of the unity of the complex 

 forest problem and hence of the various classes of research which must 

 be used in its solution. 



The most important aspect of the creation of the Branch of Re- 

 search in 1915 was that it brought the research activities of the 

 Forest Service together and definitely segregated them as a part of 

 a general departmental reorganization which segregated its three main 

 activities. It has been this more than any one thing that has given 

 the first great impetus to research in the Forest Service. It has 

 given to the investigative work and personnel a recognition and stand- 

 ing equal to that of other major Forest Service activities, something 

 which they had not had at least since the transfer of the national 

 forests to the Department of Agriculture in 1905. It has given for 

 the first time the freedom needed for the consideration and handling 

 of research requirements in the special ways necessary to meet in- 

 vestigative needs. It has meant for the first time a national concep- 

 tion of the need for forest research if all forest lands in the United 

 States are to be utilized, of the Federal obligation for a part of this 

 research, and of an aggressive, plan-wise effort to measure up to the 

 Federal obligation. Accordingly, it led almost inevitably among 

 other things to the passage of the Forest Research Act in 1928. 



The McSweeney-McNary Forest Research Act formulates objec- 

 tives in at least three particulars. First, it specifies what research 

 may be done and attempts to cover the entire scope of forest research. 

 Among other things this has made it possible to initiate the Forest 

 Survey and other investigations in forest economics for which it had 

 never before been possible to obtain appropriations. Second, it sets 

 up a program of field units based upon such fundamental considera- 

 tions as the interrelationship and unity of all phases of the forest 

 problem and hence the necessity for well-rounded-out group attacks. 

 This gives full legal sanction to the Forest Products Laboratory and 

 the forest experiment stations already established, sets up authoriza- 

 tions for other stations known to be needed, and incidentally prevents 

 the establishment of unneeded stations. Third, it outlines a 10-year 

 financial program with restrictions as to total appropriations, which 

 takes into account not only the national needs for research but the 

 rate at which an efficient organization can be built up. The restric- 

 tions lapse at the end of the 10-year period and whatever appropria- 

 tions may subsequently be necessary in the public interest are author- 

 ized. This act has been directly responsible for the first time in the 

 history of forestry in the United States for appropriation increases 

 even approximating national needs. 



The background had been prepared by the work of the previous 

 years for many of the remaining objectives which have contributed 

 to the development and progress of research. But the clarification 

 of nearly all of these objectives has resulted directly or indirectly from 

 the two outstanding groups connected with the establishment of the 

 Branch of Research and the passage of the McSweeney-McNary Act. 



