Excerpt from the report: The Forest Products Laboratory is a unit of the research organization of the Forest Service, U. S. Department of Agriculture. It is a scientific and technical research institution concerned wholly with the investigation of wood and wood products and their adaptation to diversified fields of use. It was the first and for several years the only institution in the world conducting general research on wood and its utilization; other Nations have since followed the lead of the United States in developing laboratories along similar lines.