chestnut blight that there is not a crying need for 

 thinnings on an extensive scale. The U. S. For- 

 est Service has studied this question of stimula- 

 t'on of growth of the remaining species after the 

 death of the chestnut. 1 In 334 trees of dif- 

 ferent varieties of oak examined it was found 

 that there was an average acceleration in the rate 

 of growth ranging from 26% in the white oak to 

 63% in red oak. Chestnut oak showed an aver- 

 age increase of 48% and scarlet oak of 38%. 

 These are increases over the growth during the 

 decade before the chestnut died. In spite of this 

 natural thinning there are, in this forest, clumps 

 of trees, in some cases an acre or more in extent, 

 which are too crowded to make the best devel- 

 opment. Wherever in such clumps trees can be 

 marketed for cordwood without involving a fin- 

 ancial loss, a thinning should be made in stands 

 between thirty and fifty years of age. All trees 

 to be cut will be marked by a forester. Domin- 

 ant trees of inferior species such as poplar, red 

 maple, gray birch, scarlet oak, and badly de- 

 formed or decayed specimens of any species 

 should be taken out in the first thinning. In the 

 second thinning which may be made 10 or 15 

 years after the first thinning more attention can 

 be given to the growth form, eliminating most of 

 the sprouts, thus leaving a stand of seedlings and 

 seedling sprouts of the valuable varieties to de- 

 velop large timber. The forest of the future, 60 

 to 100 years old, will therefore be made up chief- 

 ly of red, white, chestnut and black oaks, white 

 ash, tulip, basswood, white pine and hemlock. 



1 The Natural Replacement of Blight-Killed Chestnut Mis- 

 cellaneous Circulars No. 100 (U. S. Dept. of Agr.) By C. F. 

 Korstian. 



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