538 JOURNAL OF FORESTRY 



cedures and methods of investigation used since 1892 in the treatment 

 of a little fir stand in the Vosges at an average altitude of 600 meters 

 on gres vosgien. General stock-taking was made in 1892 and in 1900 

 and showed per hectare: In 1892, 320 trees containing 198 cubic 

 meters, with 19.9 square meters of basal area; in 1900, 359 trees meas- 

 uring 214 cubic meters, with a basal area of 21.5 cubic meters. From 

 1892 to 1900, 62.64 cubic meters were cut, indicating a growth per hec- 

 tare and per year of 9.83 cubic meters. With this explanation, we will 

 describe in detail the operations and experiments made to determine 

 the theoretical composition and normal type of stand, as well as the 

 yield and method of recruiting it. 



PRELIMINARY OPERATIONS 



Map. — At the start a detailed and exact map must be drawn. The 

 ground relief may be represented by contour lihes simply established 

 by means of an aneroid barometer. All the variations of ground will 

 be shown : thalwegs, ridges, roads, etc. 



Compartments. — The forest is then divided into compartments hav- 

 ing good natural boundaries and each connected by logging roads. In 

 principle their area should not exceed 10 hectares They should include 

 stands either homogeneous or not, but the fixed factors of production 

 (exposure, quality of soil, etc.) should be about the same for each 

 compartment. 



General Stock-taking. — The stock-taking by compartments of all the 

 growing stock must be made by diameter classes of 5 centimeters, 

 measured at breast height, beginning with 20 centimeters. (Stock- 

 taking costs about I franc per hectare.) The volume calculations will 

 be made by means of appropriate volume tables. . . . 



BASIS OF MANAGEMENT 



With good compartment division and a complete inventory, it is then 

 necessary to determine : 



1. The exploitable size. 



2. The ideal or normal type of stand. 



3. The yield. 



4. The recruitment of the yield. 



I. Fixing the Exploitable Size 



The basis of this determination for the private owner should be the 

 rate of return which he desires his capital invested in the forest prop- 



