2 BULLETIN 275, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



selves, and consequently the timber for sale, are more or less in the 

 condition of European forests of several hundred years ago. The 

 administration found itself then in the position of a man forced to 

 take over not only an obsolete factory producing at random arti- 

 cles of daily necessity in enormous quantities without having any 

 control whatever over the quality turned out, but also a huge stock 

 of products of all kinds and all values. Modern sales methods 

 alone can not make the product any better, and the sudden adoption 

 of modern methods of efficiency in the manufacturing end of the 

 business would soon disorganize the entire factory. 



It is clear that in the most important branch of forestry, silvi- 

 culture, the blind adoption of European methods must encounter 

 serious difficulties. Perhaps we are too prone to look upon Euro- 

 pean forestry as a science worked out in all its details, the results 

 of which are universally accepted as definitely settled. Critical 

 perusal of modern European forestry literature shows an entirely 

 different state of affairs. Even in Germany many of the funda- 

 mental problems of forest organization are steadily discussed and are 

 far from being considered as settled. Furthermore, what Gaskill * 

 said 11 years ago is true to-day, namely, that " European foresters 

 have not developed a true system or science of silviculture capable 

 of being applied to virgin conditions or to all conditions." 



The lessons taught us by earlier forest history in Europe, the 



adaptation rather than adoption of European principles to American 



conditions, and the development of new principles to suit our own 



special needs are therefore the means by which forestry in the United 



States will finally solve the silvicultural problems before it at the 



present day. 



REGULATION OF YIELD. 



WORKING PLANS. 



One fundamental problem has occupied the administration of the 

 national forests ever since their creation, that of working plans as the 

 expression of forest organization leading to sustained yield. 



Any speculation with regard to the adoption of a system of regula- 

 tion must necessarily refer to the normal stand, whether this is clearly 

 understood and stated or not. Now, there is no such thing as the 100 

 per cent normal stand. Consciously or subconsciously the normal 

 stand is taken as the ideal, and from this allowances are made accord- 

 ing to the degree in which the stand deviates from the normal. It is 

 a remarkable fact that even in European forestry no working system 

 has developed of expressing with accuracy the value of allowances 

 to be made. This is partly due to the fact that the managed Euro- 

 pean forests are relatively closer to the normal. Frequent thinnings 

 and improvement fellings eliminate most of the undesirable indi- 



i Gaskill, Alfred. Silviculture applied to virgin forest conditions. In Proc, Soc, Amer. Forest., v. 1, 

 no. 2, pp. 62-69, 1905. (Seep. 67.) ' 



