REGENERATION OF PULPWOOD LANDS 13 



measurements by instruments of precision, of the conditions as they 

 really exist in Canadian forests. I repeat what I said in the begin- 

 ning. We have been discussing the management of our timber 

 resources for 30 years, but, as yet, we have not the fundamental 

 knowledge of conditions on which it is necessary to base our plans, 

 if we were asked to-day to put them into operation. What definite 

 knowledge we do have as to conditions in which trees grow is bor- 

 rowed from other countries, even European countries, whose con- 

 ditions are not our conditions. Is it any wonder that we are groping 

 in the dark? And we will continue to grope in the dark with this 

 matter until we obtain actual experimental records of those environ- 

 mental conditions that fashion a forest. 



Let me illustrate what I mean by using the Quebec 

 Procedure 1 ** cut-over pulpwood lands as an example. Here we 



have over 700 young spruce trees to the acre growing 

 beneath a birch-maple forest. Normally, only one per cent of them 

 lives long enough to make a commercial tree. The problem is to 

 determine whether opening up the overshading crown cover to 

 various degrees would bring a larger number of these suppressed 

 spruces to maturity and thus increase the value of the land to the 

 owner. To solve the problem, in 'certain plots, a light cull, a 

 medium cull, a heavy cull, and a clear cut of the over- topping 

 hardwoods should be made; and then, a definite record of results 

 kept during a series of years. The intensity of the light exposure 

 on each plot should be measured periodically; the rate of the filling 

 up of gaps by the side growth of the tree crowns should be measured ; 

 the behaviour of the shrubby layer should be noted ; any changes in 

 the humus content or in other soil conditions should be studied ; the 

 height growth and the diameter growth of the little spruces should 

 be measured periodically, at least every fifth year. The trees that 

 show stimulated growth should be studied very carefully in respect 

 to their root development, the moisture condition of the soil in 

 which they are growing, the relative number and the size and vigour 

 of their leaves. 



The necessity of studying the successful trees is 

 Inherent emphasized because they may be the key to the 



Dominants . . . ... 



whole situation. In a nursery bed, certain seedlings 

 are more vigorous than the majority, making three or four times 

 as much growth in a season as their companions. Now, it may be 

 that they are inherent dominants, and once dominant, always 

 dominant. We know there are inherent dominants among animals, 

 including man. Why not among trees? If this be the case, why 

 waste time and money planting any trees but dominants. It may 



