110 JOURNAL OF FORESTRY 



then rested for a while and later added 2 feet and 4 inches. The other 

 laid on the height growth of the season in three installments of 30, 

 18, and 24 inches, respectively, with a resting period between each 

 elongation. 



The diameter growth of chestnut oak is also worthy of some con- 

 sideration. Its rate of growth is given in the Woodsman's Handbook 

 as 3.3 inches breast-high diameter and 20 feet in height at the age of 

 30 years, and a breast-high diameter of 5.6 inches and a height of 35 

 feet at 50 years. These figures are exceptionally low. A few of the 

 trees in the 17-year-oId plantation on the Mont Alto Forest have a 

 breast-high diameter of 3.5 inches and most of them exceed 2.5 inches. 

 Sample plots have been established in which the chestnut oak trees 

 show a breast-high diameter of approximately 6.5 inches at 30 years, 

 and 10 inches at 50 years. Trees upon dry, steep, and extremely rocky 

 hillsides show a diameter of 1 1 inches, a height of TO feet with a clear 

 length of 54 feet at the age of 65 years. It should be realized that this 

 growth took place with the chestnut oak growing in constant and keen 

 competition with the rapid-growing chestnut. It seems reasonable, 

 therefore, to assume that a better growth would have been possible if 

 the chestnut oak would have grown up with an equal competitor or 

 unhindered. The belief that the chestnut oak was held back consider- 

 ably by the chestnut is supported by the fact that an acceleration of 

 growth is now beginning to show up on the trees which grow up in 

 mixture with chestnut, the latter having been killed several years ago 

 by the blight. 



The foregoing facts and figures about the actual growth of the 

 chestnut oak, the good quality of its w^ood, the richness of its bark 

 in tannin, its unusual capacity to sprout in youth, its adaptation to the 

 dry sites now occupied by the disappearing chestnut, and the short 

 rotation under which it may be handled, recommend a fuller study 

 of its real silvical characteristics and economic possibilities. 



The chestnut oak will replace the blight-killed chestnut to a greater 

 degree than any other single species, for in most places it is the prin- 

 cipal companion of the chestnut. Along the base of mountain slopes 

 in southern Pennsylvania, chestnut oak frequently comprises 20 per 

 cent of stands, while along the middle slope it comprises from 30 to 40 

 per cent, and toward the top of the slopes and upon the ridges it fre- 

 quently comprises 60 per cent. On many acres there exist also from 

 2,000 to 5,000 seedlings, ranging in height from six inches to six feet, 



