153 



Some Elementary Notes on Stem Analyses of 



White Oak. 



Burr N. Prentice. 



In the fall of 1915 I had the opportunity to gather some facts concerning 

 the groAvth of White Oak (Quercus alba). The opportunity was in the 

 form of a small logging operation which took place in a woodlot of mature 

 White Oak belonging to Mr. George Justice, in Tippecanoe county, Indiana, 

 about seven miles north of Lafayette. The woodlot is located on rolling to 

 flat land only a short distance from the Wabash river. The soil is typical 

 of that region, being a sandy loam underlain with gravel. The cutting was 

 not a large one, only covering about thirty trees, but the majority of the 

 trees were old and fully mature, so that a good idea of the life history and 

 growth of White Oak on similar situations in Indiana could be ganied by 

 a study of their stems. 



Complete stem analyses of the trees were taken. These included the 

 following measurements on each bole; the diameter at the stump, together 

 with the distance from the center to each tenth ring, counting from the out- 

 side in, and similar measurements at each of the other crosscuts on the 

 tree, thus getting the diameter of each section at any decade throughout 

 the life of the tree. The diameter at breast height, i.e., four and one-half feet 

 from the ground, was taken in each case. The following height measurements 

 were also included; height of stump, length of each section above the stump, 

 length of tip above the last section, and the length and width of crown. Care- 

 ful record was kept of the number of rings in decades at each section since 

 by these are determined the various periods of growth. 



From this data was worked out the mean annual volume growth of the 

 average tree of the stand for the entire period of its life. The method out- 

 lined by Mlodjianski, as modified by Graves, was followed. This requires 

 the construction of a height growth table showing the average time reqixired 

 for the trees to grow from the ground to the various crosscuts. The accom- 

 panying curve drawn from plotting height in feet against age in years shows 

 how such a table was obtained. This height table is given as a part of table 

 three. 



