Current Literature. 425 



it would be a good investment to purchase second growth timber 

 which can now be secured cheap and to hold it for a later cutting. 



H. S. G. 



Paper Birch in the North-Bast. By S. T. Dana. Circular No. 

 163, U. S. Forest Service, Washington, D. C, 1909. Pp. 37. 



Mr. Dana has presented a very satisfactory account of the 

 Paper Birch as it grows in the North-East. The tree is de- 

 scribed from the commercial, botanical, silvical, and silvicultural 

 standpoints. There are excellent tables of growth, volume, and 

 yield. 



In the chapter dealing with management the author has de- 

 scribed three possible methods of silviculture: 



1. Cutting to a diameter limit to utilize the young growth to 

 the best advantage. 



2. Clean cutting of pure stands to secure sprout reproduction. 



3. Complete removal of the birch from mixed or changing 

 types to give way to species which are more valuable or better 

 adapted to the locality. 



It is made clear that the present birch types are transitional in 

 character and that a birch stand cannot be replaced by a birch 

 stand indefinitely except by planting or possibly by the use of 

 fire. The systems advocated are essentially methods of handling 

 the stands as they occur to-day. 



The first of the systems advocated is applicable to middle- 

 aged pure stands which are more or less even-aged but which 

 show considerable variation in diameters. The plan is to thin 

 out the larger trees and give an opportunity for the smaller ones, 

 which otherwise would be suppressed, to grow to a merchant- 

 able size. 



The second system is simple coppice applied to thrifty middle- 

 aged stands. 



The third system is applicable in mixed stands or where there 

 is already reproduction on the ground. It is designed to replace 

 the birch by other species. 



It would have been useful if the author had expanded this 

 chapter on silvicultural treatment of the birch and had illus- 

 trated it by diagrams and photographs. At the present time the 

 science of silviculture is in such formative stage that the most 



