74 Journal of the Mitchell Society [August 



Reforestration. In the Biltmore estate plantations at Biltmore, 

 North Carolina, the Southern Appalachians possess what is probably 

 the largest of the older forest plantations in the United States. Many 

 different tree species, both native and introduced, were planted there 

 from ten to thirty-five years ago, and the plantations noAV afford an 

 invaluable field for experiment as well as a practical test of the species 

 used. A study of the more important of these plantations is about 

 finished. Records are also to be kept of other plantations in the region, 

 and tests of a large number of native and exotic species are contem- 

 plated in different sites within the territory of the station. As a start, 

 seedings and plantings of exotics have already been made in the spruce 

 type in the Black Mountains of North Carolina, and elsewhere, in co- 

 operation with the administrative branch of the Forest Service, the 

 Champion Fibre Company, the State Forester of North Carolina, and 

 others. 



Forest MeasKrements. This is a very wide and necessary field of 

 investigations which has already been entered by the station in con- 

 nection with other projects. It embraces the study of the growth and 

 yield of stands; the rate of growth in height, diameter and volume 

 of individual species; and the form of trees with reference to their 

 merchantable contents for the construction of volume tables. Data 

 secured in such studies are essential to the preparation of forest man- 

 agement plans, and are necessary also in the other branches of the 

 research work. 



Forest management. This is one of the largest and most important 

 fields of endeavor which the station has before it. In a sense it is the 

 culmination of the other lines of research previously outlined, since 

 it depends upon them for basic data and is the means by which much 

 of the other investigative work will be made available for practical 

 application. 



The objects of forest management investigations are chiefly (1) to 

 discover means of encouraging reproduction of desirable species; (2) 

 to determine, for different forest types, the methods of cutting best 

 fitted to secure natural reproduction in the shortest possible time ; and 

 (3) to work out by experiment the methods and frequency of thin- 

 nings which are best adapted to particular species and sites. There 

 are other management problems but these are the most important and 

 the most in need of solution. The management studies are relied 



