Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1927-04-17

| idle acres close to the points Of great
est consumption, our manufacturing
centers, were at work growing trees.
Idle acres are as great menace to
prosperity as idle men,"
Expenditure of $9,000,00 to $4,000
600 year for forest research by Gov
ernmet agencies, institutions and the
forest industries is urged by the COM
mittee of foresters. The report covers
260 pages
S. T. Dana, president of the society
and director of the Northeastern EX-
pertinent Station, Amherst, Mass,
calls attention to the disparity between
the scant $2,600,000 now spent by all
agencies for research in connection
with our 470 900 900 acres of forest
land, the $1S,000,0 900 spent for agri-
cultural research relating to our $780,
100000 acres of improved land and
the $100 zoo, 900 to 100000. 900 a year
invested in industrial research.
According to Mr.. Dana, this is the
first attempt to estimate on a Nation
wide scale what science has attained
in the solution of our forest problems
and what it must undertake.
The report was prepared by E. H.
Clapp, in charge of the branch of re-
search, United States Forest Service,
chairman of the society committee,
the other members of which are r. c.
Hall, formerly valuation engineer in
the timber section, Bureau of Internal
Revenue, and A. 3. Hastings, until
recently, assistant State forester of
Virginia.
In its report the committee lays
special stress upon the need for a
broader view of forest research. Such
view includes not only the important
problems of forest management and
wood utilization, but also the cor
relation of these with such basic
studies as the physical nature and
chemistry of wood, the influence of
growth conditions, the strength and
other properties of wood, the fields of
forest soils, forest meteorology, forest
entomology and pathology, and also
forest economics.
The magnitude of the task, says the
committee. can be measured by the
sibe of the area on which timber
must be grown. This exceeds by
about lac, 200, 900 acres the forest area
of all Europe except postwar Russia.
1t is about one-fourth larger than the
area of titled land in the United States
devoted to agricultural crops.
The completely of the problem Is in
Dictated in the great diversity of forest
conditions in the United States. Our
forests ranges over a maximum dis
lance of 1900 miles North and South
and $500 miles East and West. They
range in altitude up to $500 feet in
the East and 1880 feet in the Sierras
of California. Climatic conditions may |
be anything from subtropical to SUBJ |
arctic and are influenced by the Lab |
rador current in one instance and by |
No ToN ant f,, Dpc.
cipitation ranges from 20 inches q |
year to 140 inches. As for soils, one |
of the most important of the many |
studies of forest conditions, probably |
no one knows the number of soil types |
within this continental area and the |
wide range of their influence upon
forest growth. 4
The contrast between Europe and |
America in this respect is emphasized. |
Whereas Europe boasts of total of |
some 80 arborescent species, of which !
seven or eight are of first commercial |
Importance, this country has $50 dis |
tinct species, of which at least So are !
are of first commercial Importance.
All of these species differ in life proc
esses, life histories and requirements
of soil, moisture, climate and light, in
their susceptibility to fire, insects, and |
tural operations.
Such a complication of problems. of
which some solution must be found if |
our forests are to meet the growing
needs of this country, deserve, in the
opinion of the foresters' committee,
greatly increased personnel and equip
ment.
Increased expenditures for research,
the committee believes. are amply
justified by our national requirements,
but an additional justification appears
in the large appropriations for re-
search made annually by Industrial |
concerns of no greater magnitude L
than the united forest industries and
also In the fact that about SIS 900 900
is now spent each year by Federal
and State governments on agricultural
research for the benefit of.an area of
improved land oniV Rightly greater
than our 47O.oOO,Po res of forest
land. a2al