692 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 



its results known. One of the great needs, not as yet satisfactorily 

 met, is to publish results promptly so that the development of for- 

 estry will be stimulated as much as possible. What this calls for 

 perhaps most of all is a medium of publication which will handle 

 progress reports as they are completed. A progress report series, the 

 numbers of which can be issued periodically or whenever the amount 

 of material warrants, would go a long way in meeting the situation. 

 It would undoubtedly have important incidental results in helping to 

 maintain a high morale in the Research organization, particularly if 

 investigators can be placed largely on their own responsibility for the 

 material published. 



Competent, well-trained men will probably continue to be the limit- 

 ing factor in the development of most classes of forest research for 

 some years to come, if economic conditions permit the expansion 

 indicated in the preceding discussion. Efforts to maintain the high- 

 est standards possible in recruiting should be continued. Standards 

 should in fact be raised as rapidly as this can be done. Every possible 

 effort must be continued to stimulate the training of men before they 

 are employed, and when it is necessary to take on men not fully 

 trained, every possible means for developing them on the job and for 

 allowing them ample opportunity to supplement their training at the 

 universities must be utilized. The character of work done and, with- 

 in limits, its amount will in the last analysis depend more upon the 

 qualifications of the staff than on any other one thing. 



It has not been possible to keep the growth of the Washington 

 overhead of the Branch of Research in suitable ratio to that of the 

 field staff. The result is that in this particular respect the develop- 

 ment of forest research is probably more seriously handicapped than 

 any other research in the Department of Agriculture. This is true 

 both of number of men and their compensation. The fact that the 

 work is in an entirely new field and that the training of personnel and 

 the development of an organization are still in an early initial stage 

 makes the need all the more urgent. As soon as the economic 

 situation permits, this requirement should be met. 



Many things on which a Federal forest research organization can 

 and should render a large public service lie outside of the ordinary 

 research projects and even outside of the ordinary research program. 

 Periodically, for example, the need arises for the synthesis of results 

 from many different lines of work in order to meet some exceptional 

 public requirement or even some public emergency. Such a need 

 now exists because of sweeping economic, industrial, and social 

 changes, the ultimate outcome of which no one can foresee, but the 

 importance of which no one denies. Because of these changes, much 

 that has been accepted in the past in forestry, along with everything 

 else, is now subject to uncertainty or attack. Some of the questions 

 which are being raised regarding the present status and the future of 

 forestry are unquestionably sincere. Others undoubtedly should be 

 raised and must be faced. Others are undoubtedly intended to relieve 

 private owners and industries of any and all responsibility for any 

 contribution to future timber supplies, and tend to undermine the 

 whole forestry movement. Some of these attacks are undoubtedly a 

 part of the sincere and perfectly legitimate effort of overburdened 

 taxpayers to eliminate unnecessary governmental functions or to 

 reduce their cost. The purpose of other attacks seems, however, to 



