jffl 



Vol. XVI 



JULY, 1910 



No. 7 



THE NEW FOREST PRODUCTS 

 LABORATORY 



By EDWIN A. START 



(Last month, in AMERICAN FORESTRY, 

 William L. Hall, assistant forester in charge 

 of the Branch of Products, United States 

 Forest Service, set forth clearly the key 

 thoughts underlying the work of his branch 

 and the significance of the new laboratory, 

 which was formally opened June 4, and which 

 is described in detail below.) 



THERE are still lumbermen, and 

 other citizens less directly inter- 

 ested, who regard the work of the 

 Eorest Service as impractical and in the 

 air, but not one of them can come into 

 contact with the branch of products 

 without recognizing the immediate eco- 

 nomic value and applicability to busi- 

 ness of the solutions of the problems 

 with which it deals, for the task of this 

 branch of the service is to ascertain 

 the best uses for all forest products and 

 the best and cheapest way to obtain 

 them, without waste in the forest or at 

 the mill. That is a simple business 

 question, is it not? And the most hard- 

 ened Philistine can see it. 



And because no capable business man 

 can fail to see this, and because the 

 work of the branch of products is only 

 an interlocking and dependent part of 

 the whole forestry program, this branch 

 has in its power, with the facilities it 

 now commands, to do more than any 

 other agency to educate the men of the 

 wood-using industries into true believ- 

 ers in the complete forestry gospel. 



It is about five years since the efforts 

 began to obtain such a laboratory, but 

 Congress would not provide for it, and 

 it was only through the cooperation of 

 the University of Wisconsin that it was 

 finally made possible. There was a 

 keen rivalry between Minnesota, Wis- 

 consin, and Michigan for the institu- 

 tion, but it was finally located in Wis- 

 consin. No mistake would have been 

 made in locating it in any one of these 

 states, but to an unprejudiced observer 

 the present surroundings seem particu- 

 larly fortunate. Wisconsin still ranks 

 near the head of the list of lumber states 

 and its paper and other wood-using in- 

 dustries are important. Its prosperity 

 rests on the fundamental industries of 

 the soil and the forest. In the develop- 

 ment of its university it closely followed 

 Michigan as the western leader in 

 higher educational work, and for many 

 years its university has ranked with the 

 first state universities of the country. 

 In no state has the university so nearly 

 met the needs of the people and made 

 itself so much a part of their daily lives. 

 Here is realized the ideal which was in 

 the minds of the founders of William 

 and Mary College, when they put it 

 down at one end of the Duke of Glou- 

 cester Street in the old colonial capital 

 of Virginia, looking through the long- 

 vista to the capital at the other. From 



.387 



