the goal. The assistance of all agencies is needed. Especially valu-
able aid can be rendered in fire prevention by acquainting the public
with the national and community economic losses incurred in forest
fires. We can stop many fires before they are set.
Much more research work is needed to work out methods of
insect and fungi control to lessen the damage from these sources.
The successful accomplishment of insect-control projects on the
national forests, and in some private forests, is noteworthy.
The lack of adequate proven data on actual methods of re-
forestation has constituted a very serious difficulty in the practice of
forestry. In the past five years, the Forest Service has established
eight forest experiment stations throughout the United States which
are taking up the investigation of the outstanding technical prob-
lems as rapidly as possible. Efforts are being concentrated to ascer-
tain accurate knowledge of tree and forest growth on different soils
and under different conditions, to determine methods of obtaining
regeneration by natural seeding and the possibilities of altering the
character of the forest and composition to make possible greater
growth of the best kind of timber, and especially to work out
methods of fire and insect control, and the best methods of regrow-
ing forests on fire-swept lands. Some research in forestry is being
carried on by the states, schools and private companies.
There is still much to be learned in wood utilization and waste
elimination. The Forest Products Laboratory, at Madison, Wis-
consin, has been working on many phases of this problem and many
changes in practice have resulted with a corresponding saving of
material. Research in wood preservation, in methods of pulping
wood, and in kiln drying, glueing, box manufacture and crating,
as well as in physical and chemical properties of wood, are revealing
possibilities for more efficient manufacture and use of wood. Chem-
ical studies are also opening up new uses for wood as a source of
chemical elements.
LecisLATIVE.—Legislative obstacles revolve about ‘‘taxa-
tion.” Economic conditions may develop a favorable opportunity
for commercial forestry, federal and state governments in coopera-
tion with private owners may develop adequate systems of fire pre-
vention, but profitable commercial forestry will be handicapped
seriously so long as there are unstable systems of forest taxation.
The tax problem is primarily one for the states. It falls into
two divisions. first, burdensome taxes on mature timber: and
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