11 



TABLE I. PERCENTAGE OF THE VARIOUS SPECIES IN 

 MIXTURE, CLASSIFIED AS TO TYPE AND SITE CLASS 



The question of handling chestnut as a species in the con- 

 struction of the yield tables presented the greatest difficulty 

 encountered, for while all indications are that future stands 

 will contain no merchantable trees of this species it is im- 

 portant in the majority of the present stands. By careful 

 selection of the plots the number of chestnut trees was re- 

 duced to six per cent or less, though they might make up as 

 high as ten per cent of the volume. An examination of the 

 tally sheets of all plots showed the chestnut to exceed the oak 

 on the same plot by two diameter classes. That is, if the 

 diameters of the oaks on a given plot ranged from five to 

 nine inches with the average 7.2 inches, the diameters of the 

 chestnuts on the same plot were found to range from 9-11 

 inches with the average at 9.2 inches. Moreover, measure- 

 ments of projected crown areas showed that the crown of a 

 9.2 inch chestnut, due to difference in habit of the species, 

 occupied approximately the same space in the dominant 

 stand as the crown of a 7.2 inch oak. This was taken to indi- 

 cate that where chestnut trees now occur, oaks two inches 

 less in diameter may occur in future stands. That they will 

 occur in many instances seems almost certain since oak is the 

 most abundant species in present stands where the percent- 



1 Under miscellaneous are included all species whose representation in the 

 plots of any one type or site class is less than five per cent of the total number 

 of trees. These species are : white oak, black cherry, pignut hickory, white 

 pine, hemlock, elm, butternut, hop hornbeam, black birch, flowering dogwood 

 and shad bush. 



