Germination of Forest Trees 5 



that we should measure the value of purely scientific work- in 

 dollars and cents rather than in terms of scientific advance and 

 intellectual satisfaction. The test nowadays applied to any sci- 

 ence by the large majority of people is, How much money does 

 it influence? What industries has it created ? What has it added 

 to the wealth of the world? 



If purely investigative work in forestry must give a raison 

 d'etre, it might be well to call to mind the following facts : that 

 many of its problems strike the foundations of national pros- 

 perity and their value cannot be measured in dollars and cents; 

 that some of its problems must be gauged by the future returns 

 they bring rather than by the present ; and that it is the avowed 

 purpose of scientific work to solve those problems in which the 

 so-called practical worker has failed to produce results. History 

 bears witness to the fact that those fields which have seemed 

 furthest removed from utility have often yielded the most fruitful 

 results. What seems of only scientific value to-day very often 

 turns out to be of great practical utility later. It is comparatively 

 easy to estimate the value of a piece of work when it is possible 

 to base that estimate upon what has been actually gained ; but 

 how hopeless is very often the task when we must base our esti- 

 mate upon the loss which it prevented. In such silvical investiga- 

 tions as the influence of forests upon stream flow, upon the water 

 supply of communities, and upon the health and prosperity of our 

 people money values fade into insignificance. 



Silvicultural investigations as well as forestry business are 

 long time propositions. The value of such work is very often 

 measured not so much by the immediate financial returns it brings 

 as by the principles it helps to establish, which in turn may affect 

 our management and hence the financial returns many years 

 hence. It is the time element more than any other that em- 

 phasizes the need for beginning the solution of some of our silvi- 

 cultural problems soon. It is believed by many that it will be at 

 least twenty-five years before intensive operations such as plant- 

 ing, thinning, and other silvicultural measures will be economically 

 possible in some parts of the country. Granted that this is true. 

 Is this too much time to devote in preparation for this work? If 



