IX, A, 6 Brown and Mathews: Dipterocarp Forests 541 



therefore, be made of these conditions for every locality in the 

 forest in which a given set of forest conditions and distribution 

 by volume exists. 



While the above-outlined system for the setting of a diameter 

 limit will, in most instances, result in a fair measure of success 

 from the management standpoint, it is by no means sufficiently 

 elastic to meet entirely the conditions both of utilization and 

 of reproduction. Even if the localities for which the different 

 sets of diameter limits are constructed are very small, there 

 will be places in these localities whose conditions are not met 

 by the given diameter limits; in such areas the loggers will be 

 forced to leave trees, at a very considerable financial loss, which 

 could just as well be removed or they will be permitted to remove 

 trees necessary for the reproduction of the forest and, perhaps, 

 not as valuable for timber as some of the trees retained on the 

 area by the diameter limit. 



The next step in advance of any diameter-limit regulation is 

 the shelter- wood system properly applied by an intelligent forest 

 officer who marks the timber for removal. The forest officer in 

 charge of such an operation should take into consideration with 

 regard to every tree that he marks all the factors of repro- 

 duction, including climatic conditions, rates of growth of the 

 different species, the age at which each species produces its 

 greatest amount of seed, and species composition of the forest, 

 and also the utilization problem which must be met by the loggers. 

 An intelligent forest officer who has an appreciation of these 

 factors of utilization and reproduction is able to adjust the dif- 

 ferences in demand between the two, so that neither does the 

 forest suffer unduly for the lumbermen's advantage nor the 

 lumbermen in the interests of the forest and its reproduction. 

 In all but the most overmature and unsatisfactory forests, from 

 the standpoint of management, such an officer can make the needs 

 of the lumbermen serve those of the forest and actually improve 

 the forest both as to composition and rate of grov^^th by the log- 

 ging operation. 



PLANTING 



As has been indicated in other portions of this paper, the 

 planting of dipterocarps on any large commercial scale is im- 

 practicable at the present time. This is due chiefly to environ- 

 mental considerations. In few places in the Philippines are 

 there found conditions so suitable to forest trees that they can be 

 planted directly in the area and come to maturity without the 

 most serious competition with other species of plants which are 



