FOEEST GENETICS 



By Llotd Austin 

 In Charge, Institute of Forest Genetics, Placerville, Calif. 



[With three plates] 



The widespread interest in conservation and reforestation through- 

 out the nation today is focusing attention more and more upon the 

 need for improved strains of forest trees. People are awakening to 

 the realization that the commonly used forms of even the best species 

 of existing timber trees are, in most instances, comparatively ill- 

 adapted to planting under present economic conditions. 



Is it not too much to expect that the wild types of trees as found 

 in nature would be ideally adapted to meet the exactmg demands of 

 the present day? Centuries ago the agriculturists realized the 

 inadequacy of wild plants and animals and began their efforts to 

 develop superior strains. Today, after an extended period of breed- 

 ing and selection by innumerable individuals and organizations, 

 there are available for the use of modern farmers a great many im- 

 proved types of farm crops, orchard fruits, and domestic animals. 

 Most of the original wild types have long been abandoned for 

 economic production. 



It is little short of amazing then, that at this same period of develop- 

 ment almost all reforestation activities are seriously encumbered, and 

 rendered only partially effective, by the fact that they must, of 

 necessity, utilize the wild, primeval types of forest trees that have not 

 been improved from those that were available when the white man 

 first trod upon American soil. 



Why such a paradoxical situation? There are probably two 

 fundamental causes. In the first place, so long as there was an 

 abundance of virgin timber, forestry was, to a considerable extent, 

 merely a matter of protecting, harvesting, and marketing nature's 

 accumulation of centuries. But now that man must take an active 

 part in restocking the vast areas of denuded land, timber must be 

 regarded as a crop, and as such falls naturally and properly within 

 the domain of the plant breeder or geneticist. Secondly, it seems 

 likely that the great longevity of timber trees, and the infinite com- 



1 Reprinted by permission from American Forests, vol. 43, No. 9, September 1937. 



433 



