NOTES AND COMMENT 



The growing economic importance of tropical countries, especially 

 those of Latin America, has focused the attention of scientis;ts on the 

 research problems connected with the development of the natural forest 

 resources of those countries. The Amazon forest region of South 

 America covers an area of approximately 1,600,000 square miles. The 

 heavily forested portion of the Indo-Malayan region, comprising the 

 Philippines, Borneo, Sumatra, Malay Peninsula and parts of Burma, 

 has an estimated area of not less than 500,000 square miles, which is 

 nearly that of the United States. Recent investigations in the Philip- 

 pines and Borneo have shown that the forests of these regions contain 

 suitable kinds and sufficient quantities of timber to supply the needs 

 of a general market, and recent lumbering activities in the Philippines, 

 Borneo and Sumatra have proved that their timbers, with modern 

 logging and milling methods, can be placed on the market cheaply and 

 in large quantities. Recent investigations in at least two forest regions 

 of South America show that, like the Indo-Malayan region, soft and 

 medium hard woods compose 50 per cent and more of the stands. 



The School of Forestry at Yale has established courses in tropical 

 forestry with the hope of drawing students from South America who 

 will on graduation return to their respective countries and be the 

 means of awakening their governments to a realization of the useful- 

 ness and conservation of the forest resources. In connection with in- 

 struction the Forest School is planning investigative work along all 

 lines of tropical forestry, and this will include ecological investigation. 

 One phase of this work that is necessary to the proper development 

 of forestry policies is the classification of the different kinds of forests. 



If the work of ecologists and foresters in the Phihppines has shown 

 anything, it has demonstrated that there is a wrong conception of the 

 nature and value of tropical forests. This is due entirely to the fact 

 that there has not been a proper analysis of the forest vegetation. So 

 far, such analyses have usually been qualitative. What is needed is a 

 quantitative analysis. Not only is it necessary to show the number ot 

 individuals of each species, but to arrange them in diameter classes. 

 By this means one arrives, by the process of elimination, at the compo- 

 sition of the dominant species. Such a study is only a modification of 

 the quadrat or transect method on a large scale, covering acres in ex- 

 tent instead of small areas. In a word it is the cruising method of 



227 



THE PLANT WORLD, VOL. 20, NO. 7 



