There can be no progress without research. No industry can continue to meet the present day competition unless it is continually developing new products or new and better methods of production. This fact is well illusb·ated in the fi eld of plasticsa recent product developed by research. The importance of this research is emphasized by the financial budget of such indush·ies as Dow Chemical, DuPont, and others. It is of no less importance in the field of range management.

During the past two days we have been reviewing and reliving fifty years of Forestry at Iowa State College. We have brought into focus the influence which the school has had on the lives of each of us. vVe have renewed our acquaintance with a campus of outstanding beauty and inspiration. All of us have thrilled to the clear tones of the Campanile in the Indian Summer dusk, the c1ystal sharp morning after a dawn's ice-storm, the crunch of snow as impatient feet beat a path to the girls' dormitories on the eastern knoll and the peal of the Victory Bell following a football game.

The Black Hills National Forest is located in western South Dakota and northeastern Wyoming. Compared with other national forests, it has the longest history of regulated cutting and forest management.

The dimensional stabilization of wood by impregnation with phenolic resins as developed by the Forest Products Laboratory has been described rather extensively in many reports, magazines, and technical journals during the past two decades. However, because of the recent application of resin-impregnated wood ( impreg) (4, 8, 9, 11 , 12) for patterns and die models by the Ford Motor Company, this method of dimensionally stabilizing wood has been given considerable publicity in newspapers and

During a meeting of the Memphis Lumbermen's Club in the early spring of 19.50, the words of two men initiated one of the most unique research programs ever known in biological circles. On this day, Dr. Curtis .\fay, a government forest pathologist, had been asked to speak to this group on the relatively new disease of oaks, oak wilt. At the conclusion of Dr. .\lay's discussion, the late Leonard H.. Steidel, a Club member, challenged his group to do something constructive in meeting this threat to their chief lumber tree. From this simple beginning, the National Oak Wilt Research Committee was born.