14 THE FOUNDATION OF ECOLOGY 



terms denoting abundance, which prevails in lists and manuals, should be 

 replaced by the exact usage which the quadrat method has made possible 

 lor vegetation. The designation of habitats could be mad^e much more 

 exact, and the formation, as well as the habitat-form or ecad, and the vege- 

 tation-form or phyad, should be indicated in addition. The general terms 

 dra:wn from pollination, seed-production, and dissemination might also be 

 included to advantage. 



20. Forestry, if the purely commercial aspects be disregarded, is the 

 ecology of a particular kind of vegetation, the forest. Therefore, in point- 

 ing out the connection between them, it is only necessary to say that what- 

 ever contributes to the ecology of the forest is a contribution to forestry. 

 There are, however, certain lines of inquiry which are of fundamental im- 

 portance. First among these, and of primary interest from the practical 

 point of view, are the questions pertaining to the distribution of forests and 

 their structure. Of even greater significance are the problems of forest 

 development, movement, and of reforestation, which are comprised in 

 succession. The gradual invasion of the plains and prairies by the forest 

 belt of the east and north is in full conformity with the laws of invasion, 

 and the ecological methods to be employed here serve not merely to de- 

 termine the actual conditions at present, but also to forecast them with a 

 great deal of accuracy. The slow but certain development of forests on new 

 soils, and their more rapid re-establishment where the woody vegetation has 

 been destroyed by burning or lumbering, are ordinary phenomena of suc- 

 cession, for which the ecologist has already worked out the laws, and de- 

 termined the methods of investigation. Having once ascertained the original 

 and adjacent vegetation and the character of the habitat, the ecologist can 

 indicate with accuracy not only the character of the new forest that will 

 appear, but also the nature of the antecedent formations. A full knowledge 

 of the character and laws of succession will prove of the greatest value to 

 the forester in all studies of forestation and reforestation. Forests which 

 now seem entirely unrelated will be seen to possess the most intimate de- 

 velopmental connection, and the fuller insight into the life-history gained in 

 this way will have a direct bearing upon methods of conservation, etc. It 

 will further show that the forester must know other vegetations as well, 

 since grassland and thicket formations have an intimate influence upon the 

 course of the succession, as well as upon the advance of a forest frontier. 



One of the greatest aids which modern ecology can furnish forestry, 

 however, is the method of determining the physical nature of the habitat. 

 So far, foresters have been obliged to content themselves with a more or 

 less superficial study of the structure of forest formations, without being 



