498 JOURNAL OF FORESTRY 



final yield upon two assumptions — one that the stand should remain 

 untouched until maturity and the other that it should immediately be 

 treated for the release and stimulus of the valuable trees through an 

 improvement cutting. 



Table 2 is a specimen of the form of record used for this purpose. 

 It represents a quarter acre sample plot in a stand twenty years old. 

 The upper section of the table shows all the trees on the area by species, 

 by height, and according to whether they were (A) dominant, (B) 

 overtopped but still capable of recovery, or (C) completely suppressed 

 or dead. In the two succeeding sections of the table the same trees are 

 listed by diameter breast high and separated into two classes — one for 

 those to be taken out in the improvement cutting and the other for those 

 which would remain to form the final stand. The section listed by 

 height gives a significant representation of relative height growth. The 

 two other sections of the table furnish the basis for the computation of 

 final yield. 



First, as to silvical inferences which can be drawn from the table. 

 The site was, of all the plots dealt with, the poorest, being a flat, rapidly 

 drained area on the edge of a small sand-plain. As such it was dis- 

 tinctly less favorable for the better hardwoods than any of the other 

 situations considered. Nevertheless, at twenty years old, the majority 

 of the white pines were less than 15 feet high, and the main portion of 

 the dominant stand, consisting almost wholly of hardwoods, was over 

 25 feet high. The amount of true sprout growth was relatively small 

 and the main stand was made up of large-toothed poplar and gray birch. 

 Of dominant trees, 30 feet or more in height, there were 128. Of these, 

 95 were poplar and gray birch and only three were pines, two of which 

 were advance growth that had escaped the previous cutting. From the 

 point of view of silvicultural treatment, the significant thing was that 

 about half the white pines on the area (trees of class B) were still 

 vigorous enough to make normal growth if released. 



The last two sections of the table show how the stand would be re- 

 duced if this release were carried out. The separation into trees to be 

 cut and trees to be left was made after the stand had actually been 

 marked on the ground for the necessary cutting. The computation of 

 growth from this classification necessarily contains an element of silvi- 

 cultural judgment, but one which is justifiably based on the results of 

 similar cuttings carried out on the forest during the past nine years. 

 In the first place, it was a question of judgment which of the over- 

 topped trees were to be considered capable of resuming their normal 

 growth after being released. No trees were put into this class about 



