A Decexxiai. Recokd 63 



CHAPTER VI 

 FUTI KE RESEARCH IX FOREST PRODUCTS 



The laboratory, passing, as it did. through the war witli a hirge 

 measure of service to its cre(ht. is now in the post-war adjustment 

 period, sailing out on a new tack. The immediate realignment of 

 forces, following tlie armistice, the reduction in personnel, the clean- 

 ing up of war projects, and tlie ai)plication of facts learned during the 

 war to peace time industries and processes, liave l)een told earlier in 

 this book. The two years that have elapsed since the armistice have 

 seen the adjustment largely completed. 



What of the future, of the problems still unsolved, the fields of 

 research visioned from this point, the beginning of the second decade 

 of the Forest Products Laboratory's existence? Such a vision exists, 

 and its keynote is the reduction of the annual drain ujxhi the remain- 

 ing forests of America by more economical utilization. A vision of 

 service to the wood-using industries of the country and a desire to stop 

 the widening of the alarming gap in America's economic fabric — the 

 shortage of timber to meet our present standard of civilization — are 

 essential parts of this vision. 



Some of the problems facing tlie wood-using industries are given 

 briefly below, together Avith tlieir relation to past and })resent work 

 of tlie laboratory. A number of phases of these problems are being 

 worked on now. in so far as provision has been made to finance them, 

 either tlirough Federal appropriation or through cooperative funds. 



77/r Mechanical Projjcrtics of Wood 



The laboratory's work in this field lias been centered upon deter- 

 mining the mechanical properties of the diff'erent important commer- 

 cial species of tlie United States. At the outbreak of the war some 

 130 difi^^erent species had been tested, and the results of these tests 

 formed tlie foundation for ])ractically all of the laboratory's war work 

 where the streiiirth of timber was a factor. This data, still incomplete, 



