> 
RESEARCH WORK INTO FOREST PRODUCTS. 
There is a direct practical value behind these inquiries. The Laboratony 
is in a’position to advise trades that utilize timbers as to what materials 
are suitable for their particular requirements. Some interesting results 
followed on the redrawing of war office specifications for boxes for muni- 
tions of war, by the Laboratory staff. A saving of 25 per cent. in the 
cost and 33 per cent. in space occupied was effected. The money value 
of this slight modification alone ran into hundreds of thousands of 
dollars during the war. Other directions in which the Laboratory has 
obtained valuable results are in timber preservation, timber seasoning, 
prevention. of decay of timbers in buildings, prevention of timber diseases 
in the forests, the utilizing of timber waste, the introduction of new 
sources of timber for paper making. In these and many other matters 
the staff of the Laboratory keep close touch with the industries, and a 
field staff is employed to advise factories, and to bring in new problems 
of a practical nature for solution. Anything approaching a complete 
account of the work done in this splendid institution under its able 
Director, Mr. O. P. Winslow,-would occupy more space than is available 
for this article. Sufficient has been said to indicate the scope of its 
functions and the value of the results obtained. If Australia can estab- 
lish a laboratory which, even distantly, approaches that at Madison, 
there can be no doubt that whatever money is spent will be repaid many- 
fold. So far from not being able to afford the cost of establishing and 
maintaining such work, Australia, with its large forests and its huge 
waste, cannot afford to neglect the pressing need to survey the wide 
field of research into forest products. 
Canada followed the splendid example of the United States by estab- 
lishing a similar laboratory at Montreal, in conjunction with the 
McGill University. While this institution has not received the same 
generous endowments as that at Madison, it has been given a fine equip- 
ment, and has done a great deal of work of recognised value. One of 
its main features is the excellent paper laboratory, with its large machine 
for making paper on a semi-factory scale. Unfortunately, the Govern- 
ment of Canada has not paid the investigators sufficiently large salaries 
to prevent the industries from tempting them into the industrial world. 
The paper trade has always recognised the value of the Laboratory, and 
has taken advantage’of the practical experience obtained there by the 
workers. “The consequence has been that, tempted by generous offers, 
many of the staff of the Laboratory have recently resigned, and much of 
the activity of the Laboratory has thus been hampered. Vigorous 
attempts are being made to overcome this difficulty. Only one way is 
open, and it is hoped that the Government of Canada will be able to see 
it, and take advantage of the opportunity that the Laboratory presents, 
to develop forest industries. A branch of this institution has been 
established in Vancouver at the University. This branch deals, at 
present, only with timber testing, much as does the Seattle branch of, 
the Madison Laboratory. 
In Great Britain there has been no attempt to carry on any kind of 
systematic research into forest products utilization. The forest areas 
are small, and this fact probably accounts for the omission. In a 
country with small timber resources there is really all the more need for 
preventing waste and the misuse of that timber, and for insuring all its 
produets are used to the greatest advantage, During the war much work 
85 
