Growth of Forestry 

 Research 



Formal research in forestry 

 in the South may be said 

 to have begun about 1921, 

 when the USDA Forest 

 Service established the 

 Southern Forest Experiment 

 Station in New Orleans, 

 LA. 2 A visitor to the station 

 at this time would have 

 found a director, R.D. 

 Forbes — a Yale forestry 

 graduate and former State 

 Forester of Louisiana- plus 

 a staff of four professionally 

 trained foresters and one 

 clerk. This group was given 

 the responsibility for forestry 

 research in southern pine 

 types extending from Texas 

 through South Carolina. 



Also in 1921, the Appalachi- 

 an Forest Experiment Sta- 

 tion was established at 



2 A fascinating account of the early 

 years of the Southern Station is 

 contained in "A Biased History of 

 the Southern Forest Experiment 

 Station Through Fiscal Year 1933," 

 by Philip C. Wakeley (Wakeley 

 1964 unpubl.). Additional recollec- 

 tions appeared in the Journal of 

 Forest History in April 1976. Over 

 the years, annual reports on 

 research accomplishments, plus 

 occasional bibliographies, have 

 provided a picture of the continuing 

 growth in investigations and re- 

 search findings of the experiment 

 stations. 



Asheville, NC, under director 

 E.H. Frothingham, with an 

 even smaller staff of three 

 technical foresters and a 

 clerk. Originally assigned 

 responsibility for research 

 in the hardwood forests of 

 the southern Appalachians, 

 after World War II this station 

 was renamed the Southeast- 

 ern Forest Experiment 

 Station and given research 

 responsibilities in both pine 

 and hardwood types from 

 Florida through Virginia. 



Prior to the establishment 

 of these experiment stations, 

 some limited research 

 pertaining to southern 

 forestry had been conduct- 

 ed by the U.S. Bureau of 

 Forestry (later the Forest 

 Service) and by some State 

 agencies, but funds for 

 such work were very limited. 

 Some early studies dealing 

 with lumber seasoning and 

 preservatives for railway 

 ties, for example, applied to 

 southern pine species. And 

 other national studies of 

 forest resources and a few 

 local reports on the timber 

 and naval-stores industries 

 provided some general 

 knowledge of southern 

 forest conditions and prob- 

 lems. 



