ADMINISTRATION 85 



merely aggregations of individual trees; but they 

 are complex communities of living organisms, which 

 are affected in many ways by climate and soil and 

 which, in turn, affect in no small degree the climatic 

 and soil conditions in their immediate vicinity. The 

 forester cannot treat the forest as an aggregation 

 of individuals, for forests have laws which govern 

 their behavior which are entirely different from 

 those that govern the individual tree. Some for- 

 esters and botanists prefer to call this science by 

 the name of "tree sociology," and they compare it 

 with human sociology. Individuals, as we well 

 know, are governed by different natural laws than 

 communities. Just so with trees and forests. In 

 order, therefore, to grow a never-failing supply of 

 timber intelligently and economically we must un- 

 derstand these complex organisms and communities, 

 we must study their behavior under different soil 

 and climatic conditions and ascertain the conditions 

 under which they grow best. Only by doing this 

 can the forester achieve all the objects of forestry, 

 namely, to help Nature to produce more and better 

 timber, in a shorter length of time and at the 

 smallest possible cost. 



The experimental work of the Forest Experi- 



