Abstract
THE triennial programme of work, 1940–42, of the Forest Research Institute, Dehra Dun, India (New Delhi: Government of India Press, 1940) gives evidence of the great progress made in this respect in India during the last three decades. When the Institute was inaugurated in 1906–7, the five branches still in force were decided upon, namely: sylvicultural, botanical, entomological, utilization and chemical. Some progressed more rapidly than others, notably utilization, as a result of the War of 1914–18 and the demands then made upon it. The present triennial programme shows, however, that advances in sound forest research have since made uniform progress in all the branches. The brochure is inevitably somewhat technical in many of the inquiries and research being undertaken, but in the sylvicultural branch investigations in various provinces are being carried on into that important subject in tropical forestry ‘grazing combined with forestry’; also into erosion and soil-covering and its effects. The utilization branch has been for long subdivided into wood technology, timber testing, seasoning, wood preservation, paper pulp and wood workshop. Perhaps one of the surprising things about the Institute is that the minor forest products section, which is once again in ‘cold storage’, as it is expressed, owing to want of staff, has never received the serious attention which it so obviously seemed to demand. It would have been thought that from very early years in the functioning of the Institute, the Department and Government would have realized the enormous possibilities of research into the very large number of minor products of the Indian forests; lac and resin have already proved the value of experimental research work. It is difficult to understand this neglect.
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Forest Research Programme at Dehra Dun. Nature 146, 835 (1940). https://doi.org/10.1038/146835b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/146835b0