56 graves: place of forestry among sciences 



ratio between which expresses thejorm of the tree in a sufficiently 

 accurate manner. It was found that trees having the same 

 total height, the same diameter breasthigh (4^ feet from the 

 ground) and the same ratio between the diameter at half the 

 height of the tree and the diameter breasthigh, must invariably 

 have the same cubic contents irrespective of the species of the 

 tree or the region in which it grows. Thus whether it be a Scotch 

 pine of northern Sweden, a yellow pine of Arizona, a mahogany 

 of the tropics, or a scrubby birch of the Arctic Circle, the volume 

 of the tree may be expressed by means of one simple relation- 

 ship. The discovery of this very simple relation provides, for 

 the first time, a basis for the construction of a universal volume 

 table. The mathematicians of the earlier period sought in vain 

 to find a formula by which the cubic contents of a tree could be 

 expressed. What the mathematicians failed to develop by the 

 deductive method, foresters have found by the inductive method. 

 With a reliable table for converting cubic measure into board 

 measure for trees of different sizes, the universal volume table 

 expressed in cubic feet could be translated into a universal 

 table expressed in board feet, which is the measure peculiar to 

 this country. 



There is another contribution of which I am somewhat hesi- 

 tant to speak, for it is not a contribution to pure science, if by 

 science is meant only the physical or natural sciences. Since, 

 however, it touches the interests of a large number of people, 

 I may be forgiven if I say a few words about it. It is a contri- 

 bution to what one economist has aptly called the "science of 

 social engineering." The transfer of the forest reserves in 1905 

 to the Department of Agriculture marked a new departure in 

 the national economic life. It recognized the new principle 

 that the Nation's resources should be managed by the Nation 

 and directly in the interests of the whole people; it recognized 

 that these resources should be developed collectively rather 

 than individually and indirectly. Nearly ten years have now 

 passed since the inauguration of this policy. The record of what 

 has been accomplished and the manner in which many of the 

 problems have been approached and solved must unquestionably 



