A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 1427 



that are most in need of them, cannot be expected without a good deal 

 of individual attention during the first few years. 



The treatments must be adapted to small-mill use on the basis of 

 numerous practical trials in regular small-mill operations; while the 

 small operators would probably muddle through into ultimate suc- 

 cessful use of the treatments, the process would be unreasonably 

 slow and the cost of unsupervised practical trials of this sort is exces- 

 sive. A good deal of lumber would inevitably be lost or damaged 

 during the process, and without technical help in acquiring equipment 

 there would be both waste of chemicals and very likely injury to 

 workmen from poisonous action of certain of the chemicals used 

 without proper precautions. The fact that the new treatments will 

 not give complete protection unless the lumber is properly handled 

 in other respects is a thing that is particularly difficult to impress on 

 the small operator without some personal contact. 



The sap-stain problem is a relatively simple one, which should be 

 sufficiently disposed of by the combination of adequate research and 

 service activity in a few years' time. Decay in forest products con- 

 stitutes a much more complicated problem, and research in its pre- 

 vention by methods other than the expensive and difficult impreg- 

 nation with preservatives has not yet gone far enough to justify much 

 active propaganda. It is believed, however, that the service personnel 

 proposed for sap-stain work, which should preferably consist of at 

 least 2 men in the Gulf and South Atlantic States, 1 in the Central 

 and Lake States, 1 in the Northeast, and 1 in the West, could be 

 gradually shifted into the more difficult decay problems as the sap- 

 stain situation improves with increased attention to the Southwest. 

 The problem of dry rot in buildings is a very serious one for builders 

 and home owners in approximately, the same sections as those in 

 which sap stain is most serious, and the badly needed service work 

 on this problem can be done more satisfactorily by men with a sap- 

 stain service experience than by men without such experience in 

 control of wood fungi. 



The sap-stain problem affords a particularly good example of a 

 case in which the technical service man could perform a double func- 

 tion, adapting the research man's results to fit the practical needs of 

 different groups of users as well as stimulating the use of the adapted 

 process. Similar practical experimentation has in fact been one of 

 the important contributions of the blister-rust service agents, and 

 pathology service men in general would undoubtedly make con- 

 siderable additions to our supply of useful information along lines 

 on which the regular research staff would have less opportunity. 



The agency that should handle such service activity as has been 

 proposed would have to be determined separately for the individual 

 projects. For the seedling diseases, there are no States except per- 

 haps New York and Pennsylvania that have a sufficient stake in 

 young trees to be likely to install specialists for either research or 

 service exclusively on them in the next few years. The four service 

 men recommended for the different parts of the country in this project 

 probably must be Federal. It might at first be desirable to attach 

 them to the Division of Forest Pathology of the Bureau of Plant 

 Industry in order to give them the full advantage of contact with 

 the research on juvenile diseases done by that Division, but they would 

 probably best be located ultimately with the Division of Blister Rust 



