depend upon the efforts of the lumber industry itself. It must develop 

 a better market for Washington's forest products. Yet in order that the 

 industry can undertake this work in a proper and efficient manner it is 

 in need of more information concerning the qualities of our western woods. 

 This information can be obtained only through scientific investigation in 

 a thoroughly equipped Forest Products Laboratory. The State Univer- 

 sity now carries on some work along this line in co-operation with the 

 United States Forest Service and the College of Forestry is furthermore 

 carrying on a number of independent investigations in wood preservation. 

 When we consider the importance of the industry in this State and the 

 great mass of problems that ought to be investigated it would seem that 

 a first class laboratory operated in conjunction with the College of For- 

 estry at the University would be most expedient. The Forest Service has 

 done much for our State in the investigations that it has carried on at 

 the University and at the Forest Products Laboratory at Madison, Wis- 

 consin, and has assumed a very liberal policy for the future; yet the field 

 is so large and the problems to be solved so urgent that the installation 

 of a sufficient laboratory at the University should be urged by all who are 

 interested in the efficient maintenance of what should be one of our great- 

 est resources. 



Washington is the greatest timber state in the Union in point of 

 annual production. We expend large sums annually for agriculture. Pro- 

 portionately we have spent very little for the forest industries, yet the 

 timber industry furnishes a livelihood for more than one-third of our 

 people; it produces more than 50% of the annually created wealth of our 

 state, and it turns 80% of the value of its products into general circula- 

 tion each year for wages and supplies. 



The Department of Forestry receives innumerable letters asking for 

 information concerning our local forest products, to which the answer must 

 be "The question has never been investigated." These questions cannot 

 be investigated without a proper laboratory. The cost of establishment 

 and maintenance of such a laboratory at the State University would soon 

 be returned to the people of the state many times, and these returns would 

 not be to only one class of people, but would be felt in every avenue of 

 trade. 



The other condition referred to above, namely, that of having our 

 non-agricultural and non-grazing lands made to produce something, can 

 only be met by the State adopting a forest policy such as has been adopt- 

 ed by our sister states. With nearly 400 billion of standing timber there 

 is of course no immediate danger of a timber famine. In fact with much 

 of the timber occupying agricultural soils and a great deal more of it over- 

 mature, and therefore unproductive, it would be good economics to hasten 

 its cutting. 



However, we are cutting in normal times about 4 billion feet a year, 

 and it takes from 60 to 100 years to produce a new crop of merchantable 

 timber. This would indicate that the time for starting the new crop is 

 now. Again, it has been conservatively estimated that in Western Wash- 

 ington alone almost 50% of the land cannot be used to any better ad- 

 vantage than for growing trees. Our problem then becomes one of using 

 the true forest soils for maintaining a continuous timber supply. A large 

 part of this land will be practically valueless unless it is made productive 



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