A Decexxiat. Record 13 



office, acting as a balance wheel or governor to the entire program of 

 the research portion of the laboratory. 



To one interested in getting a more intimate grasp of the lab- 

 oratory organization scheme a study of the chart on the following page 

 will serve better tlian a descriptive effort. Further, there can be 

 gained from this chart a good general idea of the main lines of research 

 pursued at the present time (1921 ) . 



Forest Service Products Offices 



A discussion of the organization of the Forest Products I^ab- 

 oratory would not be comiDlete without mentioning the forest products 

 offices in several of the headquarters of the western districts of the 

 Forest Service. While not a part of the Madison organization, their 

 work is intimately tied in with the laboratory through chiefly furnish- 

 ing a close contact with the industries in the several districts. 



The offices of the District Foresters at INIissoula, San Francisco 

 and Portland are assigned one or more men to handle the work in this 

 field that occurs within the states covered by these offices. Reporting 

 to the District Forester at Portland there is also a timber testing lab- 

 oratory maintained in cooperation with the University of Washing- 

 ton, at Seattle, which works on local problems referred to it directly 

 or indirectly. 



The personnel of the district products offices ofl:'ers broader 

 outlets, in somewhat remote regions, for the Avork of the laboratory 

 than otherwise would prevail. 



Handling many local problems directly on the ground the field 

 men are also enabled to rapidly obtain for the industries information 

 or special investigations from the laboratory tlu'ough interior organi- 

 zation channels. To these same offices the laboratory in turn occa- 

 sionally refers problems that can be handled better in the field. The 

 relationship, in the final analysis, is the logical outcome of the insep- 

 arable tie that the development of forest products utilization, repre- 

 sented by tlie laboratory, has to tlie silvicultural and management 

 aspects of national forestry practice in this country. 



