AN AUSTRALIAN FOREST PRODUCTS LABORATORY. 
great need for unified control of the work. If the results of such investi- 
gations are to be as good as they should be, then there must be a staff 
of experts to carry them out. It is not possible to get a chemist who 
can one day attack a problem in essential oils, and next day one in 
tanning materials. ¢ 
Now, it is quite improbable that each State would be able to employ 
a staff of expert chemists and physicists in each main line of investiga- 
tion. The only way in which this can be done is to concentrate the work 
in one well-equipped and properly-staffed laboratory. Some of the 
smaller local problems can, of course, be handled as well on the spot, 
and possibly more quickly dealt with in this way. My remarks apply 
to all main investigations, and to those needing specialists. For both 
Federal and local problems, then, there is only one way to attain 
efficiency, and that is by the establishment of a Federal laboratory that 
is properly equipped to do the work of all the States. This is, of course, 
what is planned in the proposed establishment of a Forest Products 
Laboratory by the Institute of Science and Industry. There is no need 
to fear that the work planned by separate States will not go ahead 
as rapidly as if it were done locally. The method I will suggest later 
for the organization of the work insures a proper distribution of the 
work and a proper apportionment of the activities of the laboratory to 
the needs of all. The only Forest Products Laboratories at present in 
existence are those at Madison, Wisconsin; McGill University, Mon- 
treal; and Dehra Dun, India. In each case the laboratory has to serve 
larger forest services than in Australia, widely scattered, with divided 
control and very varied products. Yet it has been.found necessary to 
federalize the research into single institutions. 
Madison has one branch on the West Coast at the Seattle University, 
and McGill has’ a branch at Vancouver. These branches, however, are 
confined to one kind of work only, viz., the strength tests of timbers. 
This project is huge, and necessitates many hundreds of thousands of 
tests carried on over long periods. It is manifestly impossible to carry 
on tests on timbers from all parts of the country at the same time. It 
was, therefore, wisely decided to establish branches on the West Coast. 
The Vancouver laboratory was only established quite recently to deal 
with aeroplane timbers, but it is being continued, and there is plenty of 
work to be done there for years to come. 
With this exception, all forest products research is centred in the 
one laboratory in each country, and there has been no sign of any dis- 
satisfaction. To insure a proper distribution of the work, I suggest 
the system adopted in India. A Board of Forestry, consisting of the 
Chief Conservators in the various provinces, lays down the main lines 
of the programme for three years ahead, A similar system adopted in 
Australia would insure that each State would have its fair proportion 
ef the laboratory’s time, and would avoid possibility of complaint that 
any one State was receiving more than its due attention. In America, 
all working plans have to be submitted to the officer in charge of research 
at Washington, whose duty it is to see that every one is satisfied as far 
as is practicable. ape 
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