ANOTHER WORD ON SITE 751 



respect to the excellent work of Frothingham, Ashe. Mattoon, Sterrett, 

 and Others, it is doubtful if we have anything more than a fair estimate 

 of growth of any tree excepting loblolly pine, and this only for its East- 

 ern range. A glance at the recent bulletin on red spruce is interesting 

 here. The growth of spruce on site I (p. 37) is given as follows: 

 Diameter at 65 years, 10.2 inches; diameter at 100 years, 11.5 inches — 

 a diameter growth of only 1.3 inches in 35 years. In another part it is 

 stated (pp. 34 and 35) that it takes trees 10 inch and upward about 

 10 years to add an inch, so that the table should give at least 3.5 inches 

 growth instead of 1.3 inches. And yet it is on this very spruce that 

 much work and good work was done as much as twenty years ago. We 

 are not even certain as to height and diameter of the individual tree, 

 how much less as to volume growth per acre of the properly stocked 

 stand. 



In fact, it is not even approximately known what is the most suitable 

 (normal) stocking for spruce for any given rotation or for any object 

 of management (chiefly pulp as against logs), and we are fairly certain 

 that the best number per acre for pulp would not be that for saw goods. 



That site is classified with respect to species, of course, is old and 

 might as well drop out of this study. The use of complicated classifi- 

 cation, la, lb, etc.. might as well wait until there are more data; the 

 starting with site I as the poorest land has been done abroad, and while 

 merely a matter of language and agreement, does not seem to appeal 

 to us. To call No. i land the poorest of all is contradictory to general 

 usage in our every-day affairs. 



The article forcefully brings up the (|uestion : What is it all for? 

 There is no statement as to how the current yearly growth per acre 

 might be' used by a survey party, granted even that it might be of serv- 

 ice. It admits that the matter of stocking is difficult to classify, as is 

 indicated on page 385. "A 'fully stocked stand' may appear to be a 

 vague thing." "The expression is. however, susceptible of exact defi- 

 nition, even if the determination of the condition of stocking is next to 

 impossible." Rut the survey party needs a measure ; the stand of wild 

 woods (and the same applies in cared-for stands) is overstocked on 

 one acre, understocked on another ; the determination of the current 

 growth of an acre of strip-survey is a difficult job and is never exact, 

 in most cases a mere estimate ; the age of the timber is generally not 

 known, varies and is difficult to find for an entire acre. 



And yet the survey should tell whether it is good or poor land for 

 the p.-irlicular species. To select a gixxl tree, cut it down, and count the 



