First, without it, meaningful and 

 successful applied research would 

 quickly reach the limits of 

 knowledge and new approaches. 

 Second, it is perhaps best 

 conducted in universities rather 

 than by more specific mission- 

 oriented organizations. In 

 universities, faculty usually have 

 more freedom to pursue lines of 

 inquiry of their own choosing. And 

 major universities offer diverse 

 opportunities for multidisciplinary 

 and basic science collaboration 

 that simply do not exist elsewhere 

 for the most part. 



Some interesting and significant 

 basic research has been and is 

 being conducted by southern 

 university forestry and forest- 

 products program units. Early 

 work at Mississippi State on 

 nutrient cycling in pure pine stands 

 and oak-hickory-pine climax 

 stands provided a foundation for 

 large-scale applied research on 

 forest fertilization and its 

 acceptance by southern forest 

 managers (Richards, personal 

 communication). Work on the 

 basic biology, behavior, and 

 population dynamics of southern 

 pine beetle at several southern 

 universities was absolutely 

 necessary for development of more 

 effective control techniques and 

 strategies. At Oklahoma State 

 University and Stephen F. Austin 

 State University, research on the 

 physiology of drought resistance 

 led to higher success in planting 

 droughty areas (Walker 1981; 



Adair, personal communication). 

 Duke University is known for long- 

 term work on plant growth- 

 moisture relationships and the 

 effects of water stress on plants, 

 and for work on radiant energy 

 balances (Jayne, personal 

 communication). 



Tissue culture and genetic 

 engineering are currently the 

 glamor areas of basic research. 

 And forestry scientists at southern 

 universities are deeply involved. 

 Claude Brown, at the University of 

 Georgia, was the first to 

 vegetatively propagate pine 

 seedlings in test tubes (Hargreaves, 

 personal communication). North 

 Carolina State established a tissue 

 culture cooperative in 1979 — a 

 joint venture of the School of 

 Forest Resources, the Department 

 of Botany, and 14 forest-industry 

 companies. A major goal is finding 

 a cost-effective system for 

 vegetative propagation of pine 

 species. This would open the door 

 to doubling genetic gains from one 

 generation to the next and getting 

 into mass production of improved 

 strains in 3 to 4 years instead of 12 

 to 15. In the long run, this research 

 could also open the door to gene- 

 splicing to permit moving genes 

 that control fusiform rust 

 resistance in shortleaf pine to 

 another species, for example, 

 loblolly pine. A method for 

 transferring genes in pine utilizing 

 two strains of bacteria has already 

 been patented by the North 

 Carolina State botany genetics 



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