146 Forestry Quarterly. 



They were written, not with the idea of aiding in the manage- 

 ment of a forest, but simply as a report called for by the District 

 Forester. After being written they were promptly filed. For 

 example, most of the plans devote much time to silvical and type 

 descriptions and past timber operations. Of the future and of 

 silviculture they say very little. In fact some of them say nothing 

 of this. 



On several of the Forests working plans have also been made 

 by specialists. These have for the most part also failed for the 

 same reasons. An added reason for the failure of these plans 

 •is that most of them were written with the idea of publication, 

 instead of making them plans, which would actually aid in ad- 

 ministration. Plans written so as to be interesting to the lay- 

 man, will rarely be of actual practical value in the administration 

 of a forest. 



The main reasons for the failure of past plans of the Forest 

 Service are as follows : 



1. They are long reports and largely silvical. 



2. They give in detail unimportant considerations and often 

 slight the important ones (Good silviculture). 



3. They fail to take local and American conditions into con- 

 sideration (Accessibility). 



4. They are too academic. 



5. They attempt to regulate the yield by scientific and mathe- 

 matical principles, based on insufficient data without reference to 

 local conditions. 



6. They are not practical. 



I. They are long reports which are largely silvical. Most of 

 the plans are very long. For the proper administration of a 

 forest, plans must be short and concise since the man on the 

 ground does not care to, nor has he the time to go through a 

 long report to look up some point, say on policy, especially when 

 the greater part of the report consists of silvical data. The im- 

 portant facts and deductions may be hidden somewhere among 

 unimportant details. The result is that the plan is not referred 

 to when it should be. Instead, the Supervisor makes a guess at 

 the point in question. 



Large parts of the plans consist of silvical data. Much of this 



