424 Forestry Quarterly. 



resources. Some foresters have, however, expressed a disHke 

 for the term and have attempted to substitute the term "working 

 unit." Some of these, however, admit that they do not know a 

 reason for their disHke: "perhaps it is because of the foreign 

 origin of the term," one suggested, but this is manifestly not 

 an argument at all. Others fear that the word "circle" may give 

 the idea of a circular area. But certainly those who advocate 

 the term "working unit" can not claim that it conveys the idea 

 any better if as well as does "working circle." The word unit 

 expresses so many divisions both of land and material inside 

 and outside of the profession that its use here must be carefully 

 defined and restricted: and also it must be universally accepted 

 "before we dare hope to escape confusion. Are we then going 

 to beat about the proverbial bush merely to avoid a really excel- 

 lent term used by people whose language is ours, and who for 

 many years have practised a very effective and highly developed 

 kind of forestry? 



The word "block" for the subdivisions of the working circle, 

 and "compartment" for the subdivisions of the "block" are so 

 clear and expressive that there should be but little question of 

 their general acceptance. 



The principles on which divisions of the area in working plans 

 should be based are the following : 



Division into zvorking circles. The basis for this division is : 

 geographic situation, markets, and ability to produce sustained 

 yield ; the boundaries will generally, but not always (e. g. not in 

 flat country), be topographic. That is, two distinct parts of a 

 forest, capable of producing a sustained yield, tributary to dif- 

 ferent markets, and possibly separated by distinct topographic 

 boundaries, will form different working circles. A working 

 circle thus formed should be called a "Division" and given a suit- 

 able local name, e. g. "the Bear River Division of the Olympic 

 National Forest" or "the Crystal Lake Division of the New York 

 Forest." 



As the management become sufficiently intensive, forest types, 

 silvicultural systems and product may also form a basis for 

 working circles ; thus in a coniferous working circle managed 

 under the shelterwood compartment system for a sustained yield 

 of saw-timber, there may be certain areas of hardwoods or of 

 inferior coniferous species which, under a different silvicultural 



