The Forester and His Work 109 



The Review of Forest Service Investigations, 

 issued from time to time at Washington, keeps 

 the entire force of investigators informed as to 

 what is being done at all the stations. Thus new 

 knowledge soon becomes common property, and 

 men do not waste time and money working over 

 problems which have already been solved else- 

 where. 



In the stations, experts study the growing forest 

 and the living tree, and in the Forest Products 

 Laboratory at Madison, Wisconsin, they study 

 the dead tree and its products. All manner of 

 tests are tried, in this laboratory, on different 

 woods, to ascertain their dry weight, their bending 

 power, their hardness, toughness, and durability. 

 Many things are learned of vital interest to archi- 

 tects and engineers, and to all captains of industry 

 who work with wood or with wood pulp. 



In manufacturing wooden articles, much time 

 and money are spent in seasoning, and often there 

 is loss to the manufacturer or annoyance to his 

 customers because the seasoning, after all, is not 

 well done. 



The government laboratory tries to find out the 

 surest and most economical way of preserving 

 wood. Their experts carry on tests to see 

 whether cheaper woods can be used, where until 

 now we have wastefully used more valuable tim- 

 ber, and whether trees which are, as yet, little 

 known to manufacturers will not do, in many cases, 



