Out of a total of 150 sq. miles of Govt managed forests of Sylhet, 65 sq. miles-may be classed as nahrral -bamboo forests, aa the crop in these areas is composed of almost pure bamboos. These Forests are typically located between the rivers Kushiyara to the north and Dholai to the south in three compact blocks, all touching
the Eastern boundary of the District with India. The location  falls between 24.3° and 24.8°N latitude and between 92° & 92.3°E longitude.

Air drying is an important mode of seasoning timber in Bangladesh where sawnjill owners and lumber dealers can hardly afford to possess modern dry kilns. Due to lack of adequate knowledge and absence of proper drying schedule, the method is not being practised effectively to get the best result. It is, therefore, considered ‘partinent to study the air drying characteristics of some of the important wood species of Bangladesh.

The establishment of efficient drying schedules for various species is dependent upon the rate at which a given species loses moisture. This is, also, affected by the drying condition existing in a particular region at any given time of the year. The present paper deals with the rate of moisture loss and air drying time of 10 indigenous wood species of Bangladesh under two conditions of exposure.

Soybean is a small genus of twining and sub—erect harbs, distributed throughout the tropics of Asia, Africa and Australia. Soybean, also called Chinese bean, is considered one of the most important cultivated legume and is one of the five sacred grains, rice, soybean, barley, wheat and millet, essential to the existence of Chinese civilization. It is learnt from the ’Meteria Medica’ written about A.D. 450 that soybean was not paisonous but regarded as a specific remedy for proper functioning of heart, liver, kidney, stomach and bowels. It was also used as a stimulant
for lungs, for eradication of poisons from the system, improvement of complexion and stimulant for growth of hair. It is also called poor man’s meant due to its high protein content (2).

The production of soybean which for many centrries was confined to the countries of Asia, spread rapidly to the rest of the world and in recent years, it has attained great importance in the U.S.A, as a raw material for industry. Cultivation of soybean has gained momentum in all the American countries and in the U.S.S.R., Rumania, Bulgaria, Yugoslovia, etc. However, attempts to popularise soybean in India as pulse was not met with success due to the presence of other widely used pulses.

In recent years, we have become used to soybean oil which is comparatively cheaper. Now, if cultivation of soybean is introduced in our country, we can meet our demand of edible oil, which has become a scarce material. Once it is grown abundantly, it will then surely find other uses as raw meterials of industries.

With the rapid industrialisation and establishment of wood based industries in our country,awide gap between supply and demand is being created. If we depend on our slow growing hardwood species for bridging the gap, it will widen the gap only, instead of closing the same. Secondly our wood based industries require softwood specially long—fibre species,.which cannot be met from our existing wood stands. Along with the growing of indigenous light wood species, search has to be made also to find out some conifers of exotic origin which can be established in oii soil and climatic conditions to meet the growing demand of long fibre species.

Summary of data for the month- of April to August, 1972-
Station: Forest Research Institute, Chittagong.
Time of observation: 0800 hours.

A study was made at the Forest Research Institute, Chittagong to determine the chemical requirements for bleaching kraft pulps obtained from Albizzia moluccana wood and the effect of bleaching on the strength properties of the pulps. The study also included attempts to prepare different varieties of papers.