Many strength tests are conducted with packing boxes. The railroad companies of the United States are paying annually claims amounting to many millions of dollars because of goods damaged in shipment. Much of the damage is preventable through properly constructed boxes. Tests conducted at the Laboratory have shown for canned-food boxes an increase in strength of 300 per cent, by the use of four additional nails in each end of the box. The results of these tests are being rapidly adopted by manufacturers and canners. The dyeing principle of the Osage orange wood was not used prior to the investigations conducted by the Laboratory. The value of this material has been so conclusively shown that about one million dollars' worth of the dye is now being manufactured annually in the United States and practically all from material which was formerly wasted. The discovery that sodium fluoride is superior to sodium carbonate in preventing sap stain in lumber promises to reduce materially the present estimated loss of $7,000,000 from this cause. _Industrial Investigations._ The function of the Office of Industrial Investigations of the Branch of Forest Research is to conduct statistical and industrial studies of uses of wood in the United States. The aim of these investigations is to determine methods and conditions under which wood is now used; the marketable products obtained from it; tendencies in methods of manufacture; and improved methods possible, especially in the utilization of waste. When practicable, such investigations are followed by the commercial application of their results. This office also conducts all statistical investigations of the production and use of forest products. The work of industrial investigations includes the following: collection and compilation of statistics on the production and consumption of forest products, prevailing market and stumpage prices, imports and exports, and transportation rates; the compilation and study of specifications of rough and manufactured forest products; studies of lumber manufacture and wood-using industries as to methods, forms of material, waste, costs, equipment, substitution of one species for another, and improvements through a more conservative use of raw material; studies of special problems or features of wood-using industries; advice and assistance to States, industries and individuals along such lines of work; and the dissemination of results by publications. Many studies in wood utilization are made not only of certain industries like the shingle, or the lumber industry, but also dealing with the industries of particular sections of the country and with the various States. These investigations in the States show the kinds and amounts of woods required by the various industries, the purposes for which the various species are employed, and the extent of their use. So far the wood-using industries of 35 States have been studied and the results published.