SITE DETERMINATION, CLASSIFICATION, AND APPLICATION 563 



That evening in camp, when the party chief checks off the day's 

 accomphshment, he checks the forties off by the site numbers. Every 

 forty, or division of forty, that has a site number on it thus has been 

 cruised. In this manner both accomphshment and site are represented 

 by a single figure. 



The camp topographer then orients the site map (which is on trac- 

 ing vellum) over the site-and-accomplishment sheet, "which was pre- 

 pared by the party chief (see above), and writes in the sites. 



The sites are now bounded by straight lines, but this is not as they 

 are in the field. To correct this, the topographer orients the site map 

 over the topographic map, and, with the topography to guide him, 

 smooths out the site boundaries. He may now color in the sites. 



Cost. — Since the preparation of growth curves is a work that should 

 be done on every forest, this cost should not be charged entirely to the 

 cost of the site mapping. The work of the camp topographer is prac- 

 tically the only item whose cost can be directed against the operation. 

 This should not be more than l/25c. an acre. The time consumed by 

 the estimator in his determinations is believed to be negligible. 



Certainly this cost is nominal under any circumstances, but when 

 it is further considered that good forest regulation is impossible with- 

 out a site map, this cost appears to be amply justified. 



CONCLUSION 



It has been pointed out that there is no standard method in the 

 United States for the determination or the classification of sites. The 

 need of standardized methods is shown. 



In order to arrive at the best method for the determination of site, 

 the advantages and disadvantages of the more common methods in 

 practice are discussed. It was found that the best criterion of site 

 quality is the height of a dominant tree. 



Since there is not in use any standard method of site classification, 

 a method is suggested which was originally advocated by Roth. This 

 classification divides the trees of the country into six groups, and each 

 group is divided into four sites. 



In order to test the validity of the classification, it is applied to 

 western yellow pine. The classification is found to be adaptive to this 

 widely ranging species. 



To test the workability of the methods advocated, a feasible scheme 

 of application is described. The appHcation is found to be simple, 

 sufficiently accurate, and cheap. 



