40 THE THEORY AND PRACTICE OF WORKING PLANS 



are lettered; e.g., a paper-birch thicket in midst of spruce 

 compartments on the lower slopes of Mount Tecumseh block 

 in the Waterville, N. H., basin, would be designated as 29a, 

 Tecumseh Block, Waterville Unit. 



Boundaries of Divisions. — Before designating the boundaries 

 of any working-plan divisions, either in the field or on the map, 

 the forest organizer, in consultation with the owner and the 

 administrator of the forest, or both, should decide just what 

 divisions are to be made and on what basis. The determination 

 of working units is a sine qua non, but whether blocks, com- 

 partments, and subcompartments are also to be segregated 

 depends entirely on the specific needs of the forest. Large 

 forests should almost always be divided into blocks. The 

 further subdivision into compartments and subcompartments 

 is necessary only where intensive working plans are practicable. 



Having decided just how far to go in the matter of divisions, 

 the forest organizer keeps this in mind during his preliminary 

 reconnaissance and during the entire progress of the field work. 

 The details of forest description and the unit described depend 

 on the extent of subdivision. That is, if blocks are the minimum 

 divisions possible, the organizer needs only the briefest descrip- 

 tions by sections or other survey units and a more detailed gen- 

 eral description by watersheds or other appropriate units. 

 If, on the other hand, the refinements of compartments and sub- 

 compartments are possible the unit of description must be the 

 stand, and the forest description of each stand must be suffi- 

 ciently detailed so that the forest organizer can determine 

 therefrom whether to make it a subcompartment, and its func- 

 tion in regulating the cut. 



Obviously, therefore the provisional boundaries of the 

 minimum unit of division decided upon must be noted in the 

 progress of the forest survey and noted on the map. 



As the work of gathering the data progresses, the forest 

 organizer keeps always in mind the possible division of the 

 forest and, map in hand, goes through the area to determine 

 its most advantageous arrangement. His task will be the 



