128 AN AUSTRALIAN STUDY OF AMERICAN FORESTRY. 
recorded in his “ Forest Flora” all the dendrological data at present available. 
But silvicultural, industrial, grazing, utilisation, and management problems 
are not covered in any way, despite their supreme importance in every day 
administration. 
Moreover, there is a lack of co-ordination, without which a well-ordered 
development is impossible. 
There should be a mobilisation of our limited and scattered investigative 
resourees, and an organisation of a comprehensive system of forest studies. 
My proposals are— 
1. Forestry and forest industry investigations should be centralised 
at a State Institute of Forest Research to be attached to the 
proposed schools of forestry ; provided that: 
(a) That section of research relating to forest products be 
allocated under a suitable agreement to such institutions 
as technological museums and the engineering schools. 
(5) That section of research relating to botany and general 
dendrology be left in the hands of the Government 
Botanists, as heretofore. 
2. That a permanent forest investigation committee consisting of the 
representatives of the institutions concerned be established 
to co-ordinate the research work to be undertaken. 
The proposed combination of teaching and investigative work at the forest 
schools would make for the greatest possible economy and efficiency, especially 
with regard to the school itself, since a stronger faculty and wider facilities 
would be available to the students. An important precedent for the proposal 
is a similar combination in the case of the Imperial Forest Research Institute 
and College at Dehra Dun, India. The same idea has been adopted largely 
in Germany. 
CuHapTer XV. 
FOREST IMPROVEMENTS. 
ORGANISATION First. 
A natural forest is a mere wildwood. 
The introduction. of business management implies the provision of means 
for the fullest possible protection and utilisation of its resources. 
The first consideration is organisation, and the primary requirements, 
therefore, are means of transportation, control, and communication. 
These needs were especially felt in the American case owing to the over- 
shadowing danger of fire ravage. 
That danger provided the great spur to American forest development. 
To its existence was mainly due the improvement of the national forests up to 
the present pitch. The Fire Protection Plan called for roads and tracks to 
make all parts of the forests accessible for look-out stations and forest. officers’ 
headquarters for purposes of control; and for telephone communication with 
settlements for mobilisation needs. 
The provision of means of travel and transportation was the prime 
essential in organisation. The standard was accessibility to saddle horses. 
The aim was to develop a system of roads which would place every part of a 
forest within seven miles of a wagon road—that is, a day’s return journey for 
a pack horse. . 
In open forests there was no immediate necessity for “ trail” construc- 
tion; operations, therefore, were concentrated in the heavily timbered areas 
most in need of protection and management. 
