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SOME ELEMENTARY NOTES ON STEM ANALYSES OF 
WHITE OAK. 
Burr N. PRENTICE. 
In the fall of 1915 I had the opportunity to gather some facts concerning 
the growth of White Oak (Quercus alba). The opportunity was in the 
form of a small logging operation which took place in a woodlot of mature 
White Oak belonging to Mr. George Justice, in Tippecanoe county, Indiana, 
about seven miles north of Lafayette. The woodlot is located on rolling to 
flat land only a short distance from the Wabash river. The soil is typical 
of that region, being a sandy loam underlain with gravel. The cutting was 
not a large one, only covering about thirty trees, but the majority of the 
trees were old and fully mature, so that a good idea of the life history and 
growth of White Oak on similar situations in Indiana could be ganied by 
a study of their stems. 
Complete stem analyses of the trees were taken. These included the 
following measurements on each bole; the diameter at the stump, together 
with the distance from the center to each tenth ring, counting from the out- 
side in, and similar measurements at each of the other crosscuts on the 
tree, thus getting the diameter of each section at any decade throughout 
the life of the tree. The diameter at breast height, i.e., four and one-half feet 
from the ground, was taken in each case. The following height measurements 
were also included; height of stump, length of each section above the stump, 
length of tip above the last section, and the length and width of crown. Care- 
ful record was kept of the number of rings in decades at each section since 
by these are determined the various periods of growth. 
From this data was worked out the mean annual volume growth of the 
average tree of the stand for the entire period of its life. The method out- 
lined by Mlodjianski, as modified by Graves, was followed. This requires 
the construction of a height growth table showing the average time required 
for the trees to grow from the ground to the various crosseuts. The accom- 
panying curve drawn from plotting height in feet against age in years shows 
how such a table was obtained. This height table is given as a part of table 
three. 
