I IO 



THE FORESTER. 



May, 



charitable trees left for the production of 

 seed or as soil cover, or it may involve the 

 expenditure of money for marking tim- 

 ber, for protection or for planting. But 

 the forester has no right to advise the ex- 

 penditure of a single dollar unlsss he can 

 show that it is necessary. 



Often tree planting on a large scale is 

 recommended where the conditions of 

 natural reproduction have not been studied 

 at all. A forester should never advise the 

 expenditure of money for planting unless 

 he can show that the returns on the in- 

 vested capital will be greater than by 

 waiting for natural reproduction, or give 

 a reason equally good. 



In many sections of the country the 

 methods of practical forestry will not for 

 the present differ very radically from the 

 methods of the careful lumberman. The 

 silvicultural methods, which can be used 

 in most of the spruce forests of Maine, 

 will not at first be very different from 

 those already in use by certain farsighted 

 lumbermen. But the fact that lumber- 

 men have been clever enough to use 

 systems of practical forestry without the 

 advice of scientific foresters is no reason 

 why these methods should not be classed 

 as true forestry. 



The fact that our conditions are rough 

 and that our silvicultural methods must 

 be at first crude, has caused a tendency 

 among some American foresters to under- 

 estimate the value of a thorough knowl- 

 edge of the practice of European silvicul- 

 ture and of the importance of silvicultural 

 study in this country. Some have shown 

 a tendency to study the questions of ex- 

 ploitation and other subjects of forest 

 management alone and to consider silvi- 

 cultural study, except as it has to do with 

 growth and yield, merely of scientific 

 interest. 



Forest management in most parts of the 

 country has for its first object the removal 

 of the merchantable timber in such a way 

 that the productiveness of the forest will 

 not be impaired. No person is in a posi- 

 tion to accomplish this object who does 

 not have a knowledge of the methods of 

 forestry used elsewhere and who does not 

 have an intimate knowledge of the silvi- 



cultural character of the forest which he 

 is handling. 



The American forester will have to use 

 considerable ingenuity to devise systems 

 of management which will accomplish his 

 purpose, and he will be able to devise them 

 only when he understands the require- 

 ments of every species in the forest which 

 he is treating. A forester who neglects 

 his silvicultural study is apt to use some 

 system of management with which he is 

 already familiar. In order to justify the 

 use of any system a second time he must 

 study the forest with as much care as if 

 he were introducing an entirely new 

 method of management. The silvicultur- 

 ist should get into the closest touch with 

 the needs of the different trees under all 

 circumstances. He should study the re- 

 production of each species, obtaining infor- 

 mation relative to the production of seed, 

 the amount produced and the frequency of 

 seed years, the conditions most favorable 

 to germination of seed, the requirements 

 of the seedlings with regard to light, soil 

 moisture, effect of wind, frost, fire, etc. 

 He should study the requirements of every 

 tree at each period of its life with respect 

 to every influence which affects its devel- 

 opment. The forester should carry on his 

 silvicultural study according to a syste- 

 matic plan and not rely on haphazard ob- 

 servations. Unfortunately, most of the 

 silvicultural observations which have been 

 gathered about our trees have been made 

 when merely passing through the woods. 

 This is very well when the lack of time 

 prevents further study, but where a work- 

 ing plan is made and a new system of 

 treatment is developed, the silvicultural 

 study ought to be backed up by data col- 

 lected in a systematic and scientific man- 

 ner. And when the final method is evol- 

 ved the forester should have a clear notion, 

 based on comparative observations, of what 

 will take place when the forest has been 

 treated. He should know how each tree 

 will develop, presupposing that there are 

 no disturbing conditions, and should be 

 able to prophecy, so far as this is ever 

 possible, what the character of the repro- 

 duction will be. 



The forester should have an intimate 



