APPLIED ECOLOGY 321 



would support stands of different composition, but presumably 

 these species would be making their best growth although a mini- 

 mum of management would be involved. This is not to imply that 

 silviculture is unnecessary. For example, artificial planting is fre- 

 quently economically justifiable since it assures uniform stocking 

 and even-aged stands and may speed stand development by several 

 years. If there are few seed sources of desirable species, succession 

 may be so long delayed, by shrub stages perhaps, that planting be- 

 comes a necessity. 



Silviculture is usually desirable and sometimes a necessity, but 

 it should be emphasized that its practices, to be most effective, 

 should be governed by ecological knowledge. The less cultural 

 practices tend to modify the natural trends of succession, and the 

 more nearly the desired forest is to the climax of the region, the 

 less the effort and expense there will be in developing and main- 

 taining it. Here is an economic reason for learning the nature of 

 virgin forest wherever it still remains and for determining all that 

 is possible of its variations with habitat. Similarly, successional 

 trends must be known in detail for every major soil type and situa- 

 tion if cultural practices are to be adjusted accordingly. Secondary 

 successions are of major importance these days, and they can be 

 worked out for any region. Climax forest in virgin condition is 

 rapidly disappearing and usually only remnants remain for study. 

 Their characteristics should be recorded at every opportunity. 

 When possible, representative portions of these virgin forests 

 should be saved intact for future study. 



RANGE MANAGEMENT^ 



The objective of range management is to produce the highest 

 possible forage yield while the condition of the range is maintained 

 or actually improved. To this end, the methods of ecology have 

 been used to such an extent that range management is largely ap- 

 plied ecology, and just as silvics is the basis of silviculture, so is 

 range ecology the basis of range management. 



Range ecology has, on the one Hand, concerned itself with the 

 purely ecological concepts of regional climaxes with grazing value 

 and the patterns of succession for each. On the other hand, there 

 has been the practical consideration of the quality and type of 



