CONCERNING SITE 

 By Filibert Roth* 



The classification of lands into more fertile and less fertile ones 

 is as old as agriculture itself and antedates all written history. 



The farmer today classifies lands into good and poor lands and 

 uses the volimie (rarely quality) of the crop produced as his meas- 

 ure. This measure is usually local; good corn land is determined 

 by a different limit in Michigan than in Iowa or Texas. That the 

 classification varies with the kind of crop and is therefore different 

 for com, wheat, potatoes, etc., is self-evident. And not only do 

 we expect a much larger niimber of bushels of potatoes from 

 good potato land, but good potato land is not necessarily good 

 corn land, in fact, generally, it is not. With more extended inter- 

 course and the development of agricultural research and literature 

 the old local classifications of land are not always convenient or 

 sufficient and more general classification has become desirable at 

 least for certain purposes of comparison. In addition, the classi- 

 fication is being extended, and the farmer speaks of good corn 

 country and good corn land as two things not at all synonymous, 

 the idea of corn sites is developing. 



Classification of land by the forester is old also, it is based on 

 volimie as standard, and developed locally. But unlike agricul- 

 ture, forestry early combined land and climate into site, and 

 instead of leaving the standard undefined, made it a matter of 

 written record and of definite agreement and use. As in agricul- 

 ttire, the development of a science called for comparison of results 

 and measurements, and after long controversy the question of 

 site and the limits of site classes were settled in 1888 at least for 

 Germany, by the Association of Forest Experiment Stations. 



The following table gives yields in cubic meters per hectare of 

 the stand 100 years old and the relative values where the yield 

 of site I is set at 100. 



* Professor of Forestry, University of Michigan. 



