COXSIDERATIONS IN SILVICUL'i LKAI. KKSKAKCII 873 



Statement indicating the projects investigated and the scope of the 

 work; (2) the correlation of forest researcli work carried on by the 

 numerous and scattered agencies all over the United States and co- 

 operation among these agencies; and (3) the stimulation of research 

 among those agencies not sufficiently active. Tiiis is, we will agree, 

 sound advice. 



Frothinghanv' presented a paper about the same time, at the New 

 York meeting of the Ecological Society of America, in which he pointed 

 out how ecological knowledge must be applied in handling the forests 

 in the Southern Appalachian Mountains. He said : 



"Before the management of tliis great forest can be attempted intelligently 

 we must know more about the species and their habitats. This basic information 

 centers around the selection of species for management as one of the first aims 

 of silviculture." 



lie then went at length in enumerating what silvical knowledge must 

 be secured. He explained the two methods which must be followed to 

 secure this knowledge: one, a long-time intensive investigation; the 

 other, short-time extensive observation. For immediate practical re- 

 sults the Forest Service has used the latter. This has given valuable 

 data which is to serve as a groundwork for general silvicultural polic}". 

 Concerning the intensive method. Mr. Frothingham said: 



"Tile lime will come, however, and possibly even before trees now started 

 have reached their maturity, when we shall need to practice more intensive 

 forestry. We shall ])e sadly negligent if before this time silviculture has not 

 at hand all the data needed for intensive practice, and to this end the intensive 

 method of study must be used. There is no good reason why work along ex- 

 perimental lines should not be undertaken at once. . . . The field for ex- 

 perimentation is very large, and, once started, the special direction in which 

 the work can be of greatest service will become clear." 



Bates.'' in a pa])cr presented at the Xew ^'(lrk meeting of the Society 

 in ii^iT). (•;/ passant referred U> the friendly critici>m of certain foresters 

 ( ' and - I concerning the forest investigations of the Forest Service. 

 These criticisms, he said, have convexed the idea tlial the investigations 

 are not producing their share of fundamental scientific knowledge. 

 However, he added : 



"i must confess to feelings, at times, entirely in keeping with tile ideas ex- 

 pressed by them. It has struck me that our exi)erimenlation has been of too 



^ E. H. Frothingham: Ecology and Silviculttire in the Southern Appabichians : 

 Old Cuttings as a Guide to Future Practice. Journal of I'orcstry. XV: 3, pp. 



343-49. >0i7- 



" C. (i. I5ates : Tin i'.iology of Lodgejjole Pine as Revealed by the liehavior 

 of Its Seed. Journal of Forestry. XV : 4, pp. 410-16. IQ17. 



