ECOLOGY AND SILVICULTURE 349 



Study is no less extreme, but in the opposite direction. It is a program 

 of laissez faire. The scrubby, often burned ridge forests are in need 

 of rest and protection. . Their inaccessibility and low quality make 

 logging unremunerative at best. No cutting should be done in them 

 ordinarily until such a time as they show marked improvement in 

 thrift. Another consideration is the undoubted value of such stands 

 for watershed protection and the regulation of run-off. Eventually 

 we may hope to find conditions, both silvicultural and economic, 

 favorable to the removal of many of these stands by soine long-time 

 method which will permit the growing of a new crop during the period 

 within which the old is removed. 



These are the large general aspects of silviculture in the southern 

 Appalachians which lie within the power of a purely observational 

 method of study to solve. The time will come, however, and possibly 

 even before trees now started have reached their maturity, when we 

 shall need to practice far more intensive forestry. We shall be 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 

 experimental lines should not be undertaken at once. The program 

 of work should include first of all a thorough study of habitats, lead- 

 ing to their classification according, possibly, to the rate, of growth 

 of a chosen species or of several species upon each. The problems 

 of relative tolerance of all species at different ages should be solved 

 by measurement of light intensity and other physical factors in the 

 forest on different sites. The fertility of seed, occurrence of seed 

 years, and seed-bed requirements should be given continuous attention. 

 The field for experimentation is very large, and, once started, the 

 special direction in which the work can be of the greatest service will 

 become clear. 



