684 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 



Among the remaining objectives are working facilities necessary for 

 the most efficient conduct of research, such as experimental forests and 

 ranges, the setting aside of which is now for the first time moving 

 forward satisfactorily; laboratories, of which the new Forest Products 

 Laboratory Building is outstanding; and the headquarters for field 

 units which will be most effective in stimulating the development of 

 the investigative staff, with 7 out of 12 such headquarters now main- 

 tained in close cooperation with educational institutions. Among 

 them are also the highest possible standards for recruiting, which 

 are bringing into the Research organization a group of the most prom- 

 ising men obtainable in the American forestry profession and which 

 also are playing an important part in stimulating the training of men 

 for research and the development of forest schools to give this training. 



The annual programs required of all the Research units are nothing 

 more than objectives for a year's work consciously designed to con- 

 centrate attacks on the problems which are most important and urgent 

 from the public standpoint and to insure continuity of purpose. 

 The policy of organized rather than individual attack on the problems 

 selected is merely one means to the most effective carrying out of 

 objectives. Written plans on each phase of the work or project are 

 objectives for the investigative attack itself. 



The unity of the complex forest problem and the interrelationship 

 of all of its phases which run through and underlie most if not all of 

 these objectives have been recognized by the establishment of the 

 Branch of Research, which brought scattered investigative activities 

 together; by the Forest Research Act, which treated these activities 

 as phases of a closely related whole ; in the fundamental principles of 

 organization of the forest experiment stations, which brought groups 

 of these activities together for specific forest regions; and in the prin- 

 ciples of organization of the Forest Products Laboratory which brought 

 together activities in its particular national field. They have been 

 recognized in special provisions for coordination of effort in the twi- 

 light zone between forest management, forest range, and erosion 

 streamflow; in forest products investigations; in the Forest Survey 

 and other investigations in forest economics; in the coordination of 

 effort in all classes of research by means of annual programs for each 

 field unit, and in well-rounded-out group attacks rather than individ- 

 ual effort. The ways in which this unity must be recognized grow 

 constantly. Recognition of it is one of the outstanding lessons of past 

 work and consequently an objective which must be taken into account 

 in all future plans. 



The value of objectives should not be judged solely from progress 

 in developing an organization and facilities for research in the Forest 

 Service, because they are merely means to an end. A more important 

 objective than either is the research itself, and a still more important 

 objective is results which will aid and stimulate the development of 

 forestry. But research results themselves are only a means to a 

 end. The ultimate objective is the actual use of the results for human 

 benefit. While investigators have a real but incidental responsi- 

 bility for getting their results into use, the final responsibility rests 

 on others, on the owners and managers of forest lands, and on the 

 stockholders and executives in forest industries. 



The investigative findings on practical methods of both natural and 

 artificial regeneration of forests, on the life histories and require- 



