Silvlcal Experiments 



SALLAEER: There seems to be a widespread feeling 

 among the foroo at largo that silvioal experiments are not of 

 very much value, that they are a useless waste of money which 

 could "bo spent on improvement, fire patrol, eto. The first 

 thins to prove to you is that a Forest Assistant is not a 

 technical rsar. but c practical man First and Ir.st v.-e are 

 PRACTICAL mer. Whenever I hoar some one calling me a 

 technical men I wonder if I should not grow a stubby beard, 

 wear gold rimmed spectacles, end be called professor, as a 

 true technical 'men should. We ero Just as much practical men 

 ae the rangers, the only point of difference being that we try 

 to look out for the future, r.nd try to see what is going to 

 happen 50 years ahead. A trained forester who is not a 

 practical man, who dooa not work for the present as well ac the 

 future find who floes not keep a Just conception of the present 

 as well as the future is of absolutely no value to the"Porost 

 Service. On the other hand it is true that those who do not 

 believe in this xrork and who do not see that it must bo for the 

 future ao well as the present aro equally inefficient. The 

 rork of 50 years from today is Just as important as the work 

 of today. 



The object of scientific forestry which is the object 

 we are striving for is to produce a sustained annual yield of 

 timber and to keep this up forever, and make our forests 

 produce the maximum sustained annual yield In quality and 

 quantity. To accomplish this wo must strive in our timber sa3_efl t 

 to mark the timber so that re will secure a <>ood second cut, 

 reproduction, increased growth, and to favor the best species. 

 V/e don't laiow what is best, Ue nraot make some Investigations to 

 find out what is best. In order to produce this sustained 

 annual yield we hove ftot to have some figures on growth; wo 

 have got to have some rl jure s on reproduction; we 'have <;ot to 

 have something DEFINITE and the only way to _pet something 

 definite is to make investigations - to experiment . 



One of the most important studies which we have 

 started is the study of growth. On one of our large timber 

 seloe vre have laid off a 20 acre sample plot, surveyed this 

 accurately, mapped exactly the position of every tree end 

 stump, pieced numbered tags on each tree over six inches in 

 diameter and measured these to the nearest tenth of an ir.ch. 

 In certain periods about every five years we are going 

 back and measure those trees. V/o will find out whether those 

 trees are growing fast enough to produce a profit. At 

 present we do not know rhat sized tree it will pay to leave 

 and rhat size wo should remove. V/e will not ^cnow until we 

 find out how fcst our trees ere growing and whether or not they 

 will grow faster when we cut out'the larger trees. 3y 

 measuring the trees on our sample plot every five years for a 



-14- 



