NATIONAL RESEARCH COUNCIL 
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research work in zoology. The Committee will undertake this work as soon 
as possible and in the meantime it invites from every zoological investigator 
in the country a statement of the things most urgently needed for the pro- 
motion of his own research work. 
For the Committee, Edwin G. Conklin, Chairman. 
NATIONAL RESEARCH COUNCIL 
THE SCOPE AND WORK OF THE BOTANICAL RAW PRODUCTS COMMITTEE 
'At the twenty-fourth meeting of the Executive Committee of the Council 
held on July 12, 1917, the appointment of a Botanical Raw Products Com- 
mittee was approved. This committee has since been organized with Edward 
M. East, Chairman, and Oakes Ames, L. H. Dewey, H. M. Hall, Henry 
Kraemerj A. D. Little, George T. Moore, W. W. Stockbergerand W.P.Wilson, 
members. It is designed to serve as a clearing house where manufacturers 
needing raw products of a botanical nature may obtain information regarding 
them. The scope of its work may be outlined somewhat as follows: 
1. The collection of agricultural, botanical and commercial data on all 
species and varieties of plants having an economic value (exclusive of food 
staples) . 
2. Dissemination of such information among importers and manufac- 
turers. 
3. Investigation of requirements of the trade for known raw mate- 
rials. 
4. The discovery of new geographic sources of plants necessary to the 
trade. 
5. The development of plans for meeting the needs of industry by the 
cultivation of economic plants in the United States. 
6. The initiation of investigations calculated to discover the value of 
conventional equivalents and substitutes for raw products of a botanical 
nature. 
7. The discovery and investigation of the value of new equivalents and 
substitutes. 
8. The investigation of the requirements of the trade for new raw mate- 
rials. 
9. The suggestion of new species as possibly meeting trade requirements, 
and the initiation of the proper investigations as to whether or not they 
meet these requirements. 
10. The suggestion of new uses for botanical raw products. 
Owing to the magnitude of the work proposed, there being over 25,000 
species and varieties of plants having an economic value (exclusive of agri- 
cultural and horticultural novelties), it would be some time before active work 
