IX, A. 5 Brown and Mathews: Dipterocarp Forests 451 



reaching a height of more than from 35 to 40 nieters. The main 

 canopy is not only low, but it is also very open, so that both 

 the lower stories and undergrowth are well developed. 



The original forest on the lower slope of the mountain must 

 certainly have been more distinctively dipterocarp than is the 

 forest which we now find in a virgin condition at and above 400 

 meters in elevation. The management problem presented by 

 the forest is the same as that presented everywhere throughout 

 the Islands by forests which are located within easy reach of a 

 large agricultural population. Such forests are always drained 

 of their more valuable species throughout a long period of years 

 until the species most sought after disappear; after this the 

 edges of the forest pass through a period of extremely heavy 

 culling, which leaves them in an almost hopeless condition. The 

 edges of the Maquiling forest will certainly not return to their 

 original composition and volume in any reasonable period, with- 

 out the aid of actual reforestation. The complete closure of 

 such areas as have been most heavily cut over will result in the 

 gradual entrance of dipterocarp species, but at the same time 

 many other species of less desirable character will gain the 

 ascendency and the forest will necessarily pass through a period 

 of, perhaps, from two hundred to three hundred years during 

 which dipterocarps will remain inconspicuous elements. That 

 portion of the forest lying a little farther to the interior in which 

 dipterocarp seedlings and saplings are fairly well represented 

 will return to its original composition and volume in a much 

 shorter period of time and without actual reforestation. The 

 problem presented is that of removing a considerable portion of 

 what is at present the dominant story, and of removing it in 

 such a manner that the dipterocarp element in the forest will 

 have a chance to develop at least as rapidly as the other com- 

 ponents. Were there any market for the trees which make up 

 the bulk of the present canopy, the matter of making the neces- 

 sary opening would be very easily handled. For the most part, 

 however, the species which make up this canopy have no market 

 whatever, and unless a market could be developed for them the 

 only possible way of giving the dipterocarps and other valuable 

 species an equal chance in the present mixture would be by 

 girdling and cleaning operations, which would necessarily be 

 conducted at a very high cost. 



PLANT ASSOCIATIONS ON CLEARED LANDS 



Land which has been cleared of forest usually passes over 

 either to second-growth forest or to grassland. 



