28 MISC. PUBLICATION 290, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 
important forest types in the country are directed toward furnishing 
the owner of timberland, whether farmer or lumberman, State or 
Federal Government, information wherewith forest lands can be 
brought to the point of producing the highest returns and maintain- 
ing stabilized industrial communities. 
Forest-management research includes a wide variety of subjects. 
How to obtain forest regeneration, artificial or natural, calls for 
studies of seed production and germination, nursery and planting 
oe 
F-261571 
FIGURE 21.—Forest officer using an increment borer for study of tree growth rate. 
Ouachita National Forest, Ark. 
practice, and sprout and seedling growth. Genetics—for the develop- 
ment of improved quality, growth rate, or other characters—is being 
studied for forest trees just as it is by other agencies for livestock 
and crop plants. Intensive studies are made of thinning practice, of 
the growth rate of trees and stands, and of methods of harvesting 
the forest to obtain the best natural reproduction. 
Research has an important place in forest-fire control. Planning 
for fire suppression is aided by studies of forest-fuel inflammability, 
weather conditions, and the development of fire-fighting equipment. 
Apparatus for detecting forest fires under different conditions of 
visibility 1s being devised or perfected. Fire damage, the recovery of 
