EDUCATION IN FORESTRY. 37 



depends both on the kind of tree and the conditions under which it has been 

 grown. Dendrology, plant physiology, and ecology are thus introduced as factors 

 that can not be ignored. Why is it so much more difficult to dry the southern 

 swamp oaks than the northern upland oaks? The answer is to be found in 

 t ho Hold of biology fully as much as in physics or chemistry. 



r take the question of the mechanical properties of wood. We already know 

 that these vary materially with the rate of growth of the tree. This rate of 

 growth in turn depends on the forest conditions under which the tree has been 

 grown, conditions which to a large extent can be controlled by human efforts. 

 Tho engineer in timber mechanics is thus led at once into the field of silviculture. 



Or take the question of decay in structural t'mbers, railroad ties, pulpwood, 

 or wood pulp. How can one hope to understand or control this without a knowl- 

 odge of plant physiology and pathology and of organic chemistry? Or take the 

 production of naval stores. Is not a thorough understanding of the biological 

 processes by which resin is produced, of the effect of chipping on these and 

 other aspects of the tree's life, and of the relation between the character of the 

 stand and the amount of resin flow fundamental to the development of efficient 

 methods? 



Even in so apparently remote a field as the production of ethyl alcohol from 

 sawdust a knowledge of the processes by which that most wonderful of all 

 laboratories, the living plant, converts one organic substance into another may 

 play a more important part than we now think. The field is so vast and the 

 possibilities so unlimited that we do not at present know enough even to ask 

 intelligent questions regarding a thousand and one problems that will be formu- 

 lated only by those trained in both the biological and physical sciences. And 

 in whatever line such men may specialize they will find themselves materially 

 helped by a general knowledge of the forest resources from which their raw 

 material comes, of the methods by which these resources may be perpetuated, 

 and of their place not only in individual industries but in the life of the nation 

 as a whole. The point of view which embraces the forest as well as its products 

 constitutes an asset not to be ignored. 



The need for men of this type is as real in a wide variety of business posi- 

 tions as in public service. As one forester now in industrial work has ex- 

 pressed it: 



The course should aim not only to prepare men for the forest products labora- 

 tory and other research but for lumber-sales engineers, creosote wood sales 

 engineers, chemists in the employ of lumber associations, technical-service en- 

 gineers, wood-using equipment installations and sales engineers, and the many 

 other lines of work in which a technical knowledge of wood and forestry is of 

 basic value. The field for such specialists has hardly been scratched. Hun- 

 dreds of potential positions of this kind are simply waiting t or the men to fill 

 them. 



The committee believes that this is by r.o means an exaggerated statement of 

 the situation. The mere fact that the industries have not as yet demanded 

 men whose technical training included both the biological and physical sciences 

 and the broader aspects of forestry proves nothing but that they have not been 

 available. It is only a question of time when the need, already felt by the 

 Forest Service, will be recognized by the industries as well. How rapidly the 

 present potential demand will develop into an actual demand is, of course, 

 problematical. The committee believes, however, that if the training of such 

 men is begun on a comparatively small scale, it will not be long before the 

 demand for them will considerably exceed the supply. The conclusion seems 

 inescapable that as soon as they prove their worth they will be preferred to 

 those less well equipped for the work at equally good if not better salaries. 



