CHAPTER IX 

 GOVERNMENT REGULATION AND WORKING PLANS 



Mensuration in Working Plans (p. 206). Summary, Units of Measure, Volume 

 Tables, Rule-of-Thumb Methods, Ocular Estimating, Calipering; Stands, Stand Graphics. 



Regulation of Cutting (p. 215). Broad Aims of French Regulation Policy, 

 Application to United States, Abuses Led to Legislation, The Policy of "Reserves," 

 Summary of Principles and Methods, Management Subdivisions, Rotations and Cutting 

 Cycles, The Normal Forest, Regulation of Cut, Pure Area, Diameter Limit by Single 

 Trees, Area and Age, Method of 1883, Area (Volume) Allotment by Periods, The 

 Gurnaud Method. 



Working Plans (p. 243). General, The Working Plan Report, Chamonix Working 

 Plan. 



MENSURATION IN WORKING PLANS 



Summary. — The greatest achievements of French mensuration are: 

 (1) The recognition that mathematics and formulae are distinctly second- 

 ary to silviculture and that exactness in forest mensuration, especially 

 in yield data, is relatively unimportant if there is frequent stocktaking 

 and good silviculture. (2) The use of graphics in depicting the stand 

 instead of cumbrous, unintehigible tables. (3) The development of 

 empirical data for selection forests. (4) Simple and workable methods 

 unfettered by the application of theory. ''. . . it^ heads straight 

 for the desired goal." 



Broilliard, a leader in French silviculture, said, in the preface to the 

 second edition of his "Le Traitment des Bois en France" 



" . . . fearing to give too many figures to readers, persuaded, as I still am to-day, 

 that mathematics leads silviculture into errors and that equations . . . never dis- 

 close the secret of the living forest. The increasing weight of mathematics in forest 

 studies is full of dangers, notably in Germany (where the experiment stations engage in 

 calculations without end). Too often mathematics works on a false base; it leads to 

 the idea of absolute conclusions, always different with the phenomena of nature; mathe- 

 matics does not give, moreover, the solution of this simple problem: What is the future 

 of a tree, of a stand? . . ." 



On the other hand there are weaknesses: (1) Confusion and variation 

 in the use of the cubic meter and in squared log content formulae, and in 

 the use of diameters or circumferences. There is a distinct lack of 

 standardization. (2) The excessive use of short-cut methods. (3) The 



1 Mensuration in France, by Donald Bruce, pp. 686-690, Journal of Forestry, No. 6, 

 Vol. XVII. Donald Bruce and H. H. Chapman kindly reviewed Chapter IX. 



206 



