SOME SILVICULTURAL PROBLEMS IN PENNSYLVANIA 



By J. S. Iluck 



Silviculture has been practiced in Pennsylvania for almost 250 years. 

 In 1681 William Penn in his Charter of Rights prescribed a method of 

 handling forest properties. The treatment which the founder of the 

 Commonwealth prescribed never has been applied extensively, but a 

 rough form of silviculture has been practiced by some private owners 

 of forest properties ever since this early provincial recommendation, 

 that is, long before any forest school opened its doors or any profes- 

 sional forester "hung out his shingle." Many of the early settlers who 

 came to Pennsylvania emigrated from countries where forestry was 

 being practiced rather intensively, and insofar as it was economically 

 possible, they applied the simple methods and fundamental principles 

 of silviculture to their new and cherished holdings. 



It may appear academic, but it is my purpose to discuss briefly the 

 meaning and scope of silviculture ; and rather than impose upon you 

 my definition, a number now extensively used will be considered. 

 Fernow ^ writes that forest crop production or silviculture, in its 

 widest sense, may be called applied dendrology. He also writes that 

 silviculture considers primarily methods, that is, the technique of pro- 

 ducing the crop and influencing its progress, and that silviculture is 

 the art and operation of securing reproduction and wood crops. 

 Toumey - defines silviculture as a branch of forestry that deals with the 

 establishment, development, and reproduction of forests. He also says 

 that it is an art which depends for its intelligent practice upon the prin- 

 ciples of silvics. Schenck ^ writes that silviculture comprises all human 

 activities by which trees, wood, bark, and any other forest product 

 imaginable are raised and tended. Zon * writes that silviculture is the 

 application of the knowledge of the requirements of different kinds of 

 trees to the perpetuation of the existing forests, or to raising new ones 

 and working them to the best advantage of the forest owner. In the 



^Fernow, B. E. : Economics of Forestry, pages 101, 104. 



TouRNAi, OF Forestry. Vol XVII. No. 7. page 882. 

 ' Toumey, J .W. : Seeding and Planting, page 3. 

 'Schenck, C. A.: American Sylviculture, page 11. 

 * Zon, Raphael : Canadian Forestry Journal, Vol. XII, No. 8, page 686. 



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