24 
plan maps and plantimg-plan maps for the cooperative and admin- 
istrative work. It includes, further, plans and working drawings of 
apparatus for logging, preserving timber, and timber testing; the 
miscellaneous illustrations, maps, diagrams, and tables for the pub- 
lications of the Service, and the determination of areas from maps. 
The section also has the custody of original maps and map data, and 
is charged with the responsibility for the development and applica- 
tion of systems of mapping the data collected by the Forest Service. 
The cemputing section is charged with the compilation of all forest 
tables and the keeping of a file of forest tables. In this file are kept 
all reliable tables of stand, yield, growth, and form for our many 
species of forest trees. Copies of any table may be secured on appli- 
cation. The compiling, editing, and revising of these tables for pub- 
lication is in progress, and circulars containing the more useful tables 
will shortly appear. The volume tables are the feature of the work 
and represent a beginning of American volume tables. Tables of 
lodgepole pine and western yellow pine are the first to be completed. 
These will be followed by tables for Douglas fir and other species 
important in the National Forests. The circulars covering all the 
species of a region are later to be combined with a chapter on methods 
of taking forest measurements and of construction of tables. The 
plan embraces three general regional compilations, viz, the western, 
the southern, and the northern. | 
This section also computes and tabulates data taken by other offices 
of the Service. 
The section of wood chemistry handles the chemical problems con- 
nected with the utilization of wood products. Work in progress 
includes the analysis of wood preservatives and of treated timbers, 
tests of the suitability of various species of wood for paper pulp, a 
study of wood distillation, and an investigation of the chemical changes 
involved in water seasoning. A thorough study of the best methods 
of analyzing coal-tar creosote, including a determination of the prop- 
erties of creosotes distilled from other kinds of tar, is nearing com- 
pletion. Work on the preservative value of different fractions of coal- 
tar creosote and of other creosotes is under way. The composition of 
turpentines obtained by wood distillation is being studied to secure the 
necessary data for establishing standard grades of this product. <A 
special laboratory for the study of wood pulps, which includes a small 
sulphite plant, has been, equipped to determine the paper-making 
possibilities of many species of American woods. 
The section of wood uses studies the supply, markets, properties, 
and uses of lumber and other forest products, and gives especial atten- 
tion to the characteristics of woods which fit them for specific pur- 
poses. The principal lines of work carried on are grouped under 
special studies and timber tests. To meet an urgent need for an 
[Cir. 36] - 
