PRIVATELY SUPPORTED AND QUASI-PUBLIC FOREST RESEARCH 



By E. H. FROTHINGHAM, Director, Appalachian Forest Experiment Station 



CONTENTS 



Page 



Endowed research at forest schools 985 



Endowed forest research in other departments of universities 986 



Forest research by endowed research institutions 987 



Forest research at arboreta and botanical gardens 989 



Forest research by the industries 990 



Summary 992 



In addition to Federal and State research in timber production, 

 utilization, forest entomology, pathology, and other subjects, a 

 considerable amount of forest research is being conducted by privately 

 supported and quasi-public institutions of various kinds. Among 

 these are endowed schools of forestry, university departments of 

 botany, economics, and other sciences, the large research foundations 

 and one or two smaller biological research stations, arboreta and 

 botanical gardens, trade associations, and corporations engaged in the 

 manufacture or treatment of forest products. 



While several of these agencies already have, or are preparing, 

 systematic, long-time programs of forest research, others make no 

 pretense of continuity but undertake investigations to meet some 

 special need, or because a forestry subject happens to appeal to the 

 interest and aptitudes of a particular investigator. Hence the 

 investigative subjects are of great variety, some broadly compre- 

 hensive or superficial to meet emergency needs, others specific and 

 fundamental within narrow fields to obtain exact knowledge of cause 

 and effect relations. 



ENDOWED RESEARCH AT FOREST SCHOOLS 



State-supported research at forest schools was discussed in the 

 section " State Accomplishments and Plans." The research here con- 

 sidered includes that at forest schools entirely under private support 

 as well as some endowed work at State institutions. Many endowed 

 universities, including those which have schools of forestry, are 

 carrying on work in botany, zoology, economics, and other subjects, 

 some of which is really forestry or so closely allied or fundamental to 

 it that it can be properly classed as forest research. This is discussed 

 under the next topic, Endowed Forest Research in Other Depart- 

 ments of Universities. 



Research in almost all phases of forest management is carried on 

 in connection with instruction and the operation of the Harvard 

 Forest of 2,100 acres, at Petersham, Mass. The staff consists of a 

 director, assistant director, and an instructor, in addition to whom 

 there are usually several graduate students. The part of the investi- 

 gative program centering around the management of the experi- 

 mental demonstration forest includes methods of cutting in several 

 forest types, the improvement of inferior or deteriorated stands, 

 thinnings, growth and yield, and artificial forestation. The program 



985 



