development function as well. And 

 it is beginning to be used to get 

 needed long-range basic research 

 underway (Weir, personal 

 communication). 



By 1985. there were a total of at 

 least 20 such cooperatives 

 (including the initial 2) at 9 of the 

 14 southern universities conducting 

 forestry and forest-products 

 research. 



Elsewhere research was expanding 

 under conventional arrangements. 

 Important work was carried out at 

 Mississippi State on fertilization 

 and management for forest-tree 

 nurseries (Foil, personal 

 communication). Bottomland 

 hardwood research got underway 

 at Louisiana State (Louisiana State 

 University, School of Forestry and 

 Wildlife Management 1985 

 unpubl.). Black locust fertilization 

 and cottonwood growth and yield 

 studies went forward at Oklahoma 

 State (Oklahoma State University, 

 Department of Forestry 1983). 

 Tree-improvement research was 

 initiated in 1959 at the University 

 of Tennessee in white pine. 

 Virginia pine, loblolly pine, and 

 yellow-poplar (Thor 1976). 

 Extensive wood-preservation 

 service tests were established at 

 Florida, and forest fertilization 

 work began there and elsewhere 

 (Goddard, personal 

 communication). These are but a 

 few examples. 



The Melntire-Stennis Act — 



Although momentum in university 



programs devoted to forestry 

 research was building in the 

 1950's, land-grant university 

 forestry leaders and key clientele 

 registered considerable 

 dissatisfaction with the low level of 

 forestry research support received 

 from Federal appropriations under 

 the Hatch Act through the State 

 agricultural experiment stations. 



In 1952. the State stations received 

 a total of S12.9 million in Federal 

 funding, of which only S137.000 

 (about 1 percent) was allocated to 

 forestry and related research 

 (Kaufert and Cummings 1955). 

 Eleven years later, the total had 

 risen to $25 million, of which 

 S800.000 (3.2 percent) was 

 allocated to forestry (Gray 1977 

 unpubl.). 



Although this was progress, 

 leaders from forestry schools, 

 industry, and the USDA Forest 

 Service felt support was low in 

 relation to the need to expand both 

 research and the training of 

 researchers in forestry and forest 

 products. Accordingly, these 

 interests pushed for and secured 

 congressional passage of the 

 Melntire-Stennis Cooperative 

 Forestry Research Act in 1962. 



This act had two objectives: 



• To encourage and assist 

 land-grant and other State- 

 supported forestry schools to 

 conduct research needed to 

 improve the production, 

 protection, and utilization of 

 forests and associated rangelands 



33 



