SOME OBSERXATIOXS OX EMTIRICAL FORESTRY IX 



THE ADIRONDACKS ' 



By Harold Cahill Belyea, 



Assistant Professor of Forest Engineering. New York State College 

 of Forestry 



It can be claimed with some degree of correctness that the greater 

 part of the trend of forestry thought and practice in this country has 

 been developed from the various experiments in the Adirondack region. 

 And as an unfortunate climax it has followed that the thought and 

 ideas produced by these experiments have developed faster than their 

 results have justified. Following the investigations of Fernow and 

 Graves, the conclusions of our professional foresters swung in a circle 

 away from the idea of clear cutting and planting, through all the 

 variations of the selection system as applied on a diameter limit basis, 

 until now, backed by the opinion of a number of men, there is a distinct 

 trend back to the old idea of clear cutting and planting. Before our 

 ideas become crystalized into conclusions, and these conclusions into 

 practice, it is only fitting that we stop and note some of the results of 

 forestry and forestry practice as demonstrated by actual results within 

 this region. This article does not presume to oflfer anything further 

 than that, and as such it is presented. It is based on a series of obser- 

 vations extending over a period of three years in that part of the 

 Adirondacks between W'anakena and Axton, north and west. 



TYPE 



The Fundamental Importance of Type 



Division of the Adirondack forest into types is necessary. Opera- 

 tions or investigations on any extensive Adirondack area bring out the 

 great differences in forest composition and topography, and these 

 diflferences have been used as the basis of the definition and delineation 

 of the major types of the region. While but four major types are 

 recognized and described, it is believed that very little intensive work 

 can be accomplished until a viore minute division is made, and the 

 physical factors which create the minor diflferences are recognized and 

 studied. Changes in soil depth and composition, drainage, depth of 



' Read before the annual meeting of the Society of American Foresters, at 

 New York. N. Y.. December 20, 1919. 



