Quadrat Method in Forestry Investigations 15 



case of the chart quadrat, a matter which will be discussed later, 

 except that the total number of each species occurring within the 

 unit is given in figures in that unit quite regardless of exact 

 location. For example, if there are 14 specimens of Poa scabrella, 

 7 of Stipa occidentals and 30 of Polygonum douglasii within 

 one-hundredth unit of the plot, the vegetation would be listed as 

 p-14, s-7, po-30, one under the other, respectively, within the 

 unit or division in which these plants occur. (See Plot No. 26.) 

 From such detail it is possible to ascertain at any future time 

 the changes in the vegetative personnel, the density, as well as 

 other facts within any hundredth unit of the plot or in the plot 

 as a whole. 



Depopulated Plots: Vegetative depopulation is of much 

 value in the study of numerous plant activities which might fig- 

 ure in the ultimate management of one or several species. Often 

 the results from artificial depopulation apply more or less directly 

 to field conditions in so far as they throw light on the ultimate 

 management of cut-over and slightly depleted and denuded lands. 

 Radical changes in the personnel of a type, for example, com- 

 monly take place as a result of the application of one of the thin- 

 ning or clear cutting methods, through logging, or as a result of 

 forest fires. Likewise the herbaceous vegetation is readily affect- 

 ed by mismanagement in the handling of range stock. As a result 

 of overgrazing, even if only for a short time, the vegetative "per- 

 sonnel" may be temporarily diminished, both in number of species 

 and in density ; or because of destructive trailing of stock causing 

 a change in the edaphic conditions due to rearrangement in the 

 physical structure of the soil, conditions may favor the invasion 

 and succession of quite different species from those which origin- 

 ally predominated. 



These conditions of natural and utilitarian depopulation 

 often furnish data of direct value in connection with field investi- 

 gations. In the case of trees which reproduce vegetatively from 

 coppice and by root suckers, for example, cleared and thinned 

 lands are an asset to the determination of the best time of season 

 and methods of commercial thinning and clear cutting. Likewise 

 denuded herbaceous lands have given valuable general ideas of 

 vegetative changes and of methods of management of such lands. 

 To obtain data of such detail as to form a reliable basis for man- 

 agement and to show, for example, not only the life history per- 

 formances of individual species but something as to their seed 

 viability as well, carefully selected and established plots are in- 

 valuable. The value of field germination tests is not fully appre- 



