Research 



would not be impossible: it was 

 simply beyond the scope of my 

 assignment. Thus, the proportion 

 of the population trained in 

 southern institutions could not be 

 estimated. 



"Forestry is the science, the art 

 and the practice of managing and 

 using for human benefit the natural 

 resources that occur on and in 

 association with forest lands" 

 (Ford-Robertson and Winter 1983). 



This definition in a recent 

 terminology publication of the 

 Society of American Foresters is 

 much truer today than it was in 

 1921, when the USDA Forest 

 Service established the Southern 

 Forest Experiment Station at New 

 Orleans. LA, and the Appalachian 

 (now Southeastern) Forest 

 Experiment Station at Asheville. 

 NC. Forestry was far more "art*" 

 than "science*' in 1921. And such 

 science as early southern foresters 

 tried to apply was mostly 

 borrowed from middle and western 

 Europe. 



Today's forestry, as practiced in 

 the South and elsewhere is still 

 part art. In spite of the wealth of 

 knowledge and new technology 

 developed through research and 

 trial and error, much remains 

 unknown. Keen judgment is 

 required in interpreting what is 

 known and adapting it to local 

 situations. As Howard Hanna 

 (1972 unpubl.) once put it. "The 

 forester still needs to know the 

 swamp from the inside out." 



But since the early days of 

 southern forestry, there have been 

 great gains from research and its 

 application in forest productivity, 

 utilization, product development, 

 harvesting and processing 



28 



