874 JOURNAL OF FORKSTRY 



limited a scope, representing, as it so often does, a pureh' local test of the 

 'best method' of performing some silvicultiiral operation. This is true of 

 nearly all of our work in reforestation, natural regeneration, and thinnings." 



The author at various times (^, '', "j has pointed out the need of 

 silvical and silvicultural research, the value of purely scientific investi- 

 gations, the necessity of freeing research men from administrative 

 organizations, and many other matters already mentioned above. 



I suppose I could go on almost indefinitely quoting passages from 

 recent forestry literature upon the necessity of conducting silvical and 

 silvicultural investigations, but time and space will not permit it. Be- 

 fore leaving the large number of citations which I have collected upon 

 this subject and which I have before me as I write, I wish to quote one 

 more passage, which is probably more specific and more to the point 

 than any I have seen. The passage in question is from a recent article 

 by Dr. C. D. Howe, a Canadian Forest ecologist, entitled "Forest Re- 

 generation on Certain Cut-over Pulpwood Lands in Quebec," reprinted 

 from the Ninth Annual Report of the Commission of Conservation, 

 Ottawa, 1918. What he has to say is just as applicable to American 

 conditions : 



"We talk easily of what we should do with a forest. In this particular case 

 we want to increase the proportion of spruce, the most valuable species at 

 present on this cut-over land, or at least we would like to restore it to its 

 former position in the forest. How can this be done? One man says: 'Cut 

 heavier, open up the crown cover, let in the light.' Another man says : 'Make 

 a lighter cut, disturb natural conditions as little as possible.' The result can- 

 not be obtained by methods so directly opposed. What is the answer? The 

 answer is that neither man really knows what he is talking about. Your opinion 

 may be just as good as mine, because both have been spun out beneath our hats, 

 or evolved from smoke rings, as we sat in our ofifice chairs. We have no 

 accurate knowledge, no definite records, no actual measurements by instruments 

 of precision, of the conditions as they really exist in Canadian forests. I ^re- 

 peat what I said in the beginning. We have been discussing the management 

 of our timber resources for 30 jears, but, as yet, we have not the fimdamental 

 knowledge of conditions on which it is necessary to base our plans, if we were 

 asked today to put them into operation. What definite knowledge we do have 

 as to conditions in which trees grow is borrowed from other countries, even 

 European countries, whose conditions are not our conditions. Is it any wonder 

 that we are groping in the dark? And we will continue to grope in the dark 



' R. H. Boerker : vSome Notes on Forest Ecology and Its Problems. Proc. 

 Soc. Am. Foresters, X : 4, pp. 405-22, 1915. 



' : Ecological Investigations upon the Germination and Early Growth 



of Forest Trees. Nebraska Studies, XIV : i, pp. 1-89. Lincoln, Nebraska, 1916. 



® : A Historical Study of Forest Ecology; its development in the 



fields of Botany and Forestry. Forestry Quarterly. XIV : 3. pp. 380-432, 1916. 



