14 



CHESTNUT IN TENNESSEE. 



Table 2 : Growth in diameter of sprout chestnut stands ; time 

 required to grow one inch in diameter. Based on 117 sample plots. 

 Quality I. Quality II. Quality III. 



The rate of diameter growth decreases uninterruptedly after the 

 first few decades. In stands of the first quality during the first 

 decade it takes only three years to grow an inch; by the fiftieth 

 year it takes six years. 



MANAGEMENT. 



By the management of a forest is meant the use of a definite 

 system of protection and cutting which seeks to perpetuate it and 

 to increase its productive value. Protection may consist in prevent- 

 ing fires and overgrazing, controlling insect attacks or sparing the 

 young growth during lumbering. A stand may be perpetuated by 

 cutting so as to obtain sprouts or seedlings; it may be cut at a 

 period to develop its maximum yield; it may be thinned to accel- 

 erate its growth, or to produce material most suitable for special 

 uses. The same methods of management are not applicable to all 

 conditions. 



Chestnut is a large component of several mixed types of 

 forest, although it also forms pure stands. It is found in exten- 

 sive even-aged stands of second growth, as well as in uneven- 

 aged, old forests; it has a slow rate of growth on poor soils, and 

 on better situations its growth is rapid. Some of it is still quite 

 inaccessible, so that only the large timber is merchantable; other 

 stands are close to market, which makes possible a much more 



