552 ^^^ Philippine Journal of Science lai* 



by strangling figs, and all trees of undesirable species which' are 

 hindering the development and reproduction of the desired 

 species. Unless the market becomes less selective in the Philip- 

 pine Islands, such operations will never be financially success- 

 ful here. Even when the demand for timber becomes much 

 greater here than it is at present, it will probably be impossible 

 to carry on such operations anywhere except in forests located 

 near large centers of population where timber of any size or 

 quality can be utilized. Due to financial considerations, we can- 

 not at present make any considerable attempt toward active 

 management of this vast area of low-grade forest. The best 

 that can be done for this forest for the next fifty or one hundred 

 years is adequately to protect it both from fire and further over- 

 cutting, restricting all cutting of the species with which it is 

 desired to reforest the area and confining such cutting as is neces- 

 sary to species of the lower stories. Such protection and strin- 

 gent cutting regulations will lead to the improvement of the 

 forest and bring it into a much better condition for rational 

 management when this becomes possible in later years. 



In the forest above 300 meters on Mount Maquiling and ex- 

 tending to an altitude of 600 meters we have a forest in which 

 conditions are about intermediate between the virgin forest of 

 Bataan and those of the lower portion of the forest on Mount 

 Maquiling. Here management is very necessary, and can ac- 

 complish immediate results. The dipterocarp type is usually 

 not so pronounced in such areas, but dipterocarps grow here 

 mixed with second-story and third-story trees of considerable 

 value. The system of management to be recommended is that 

 of the selection system carried on under the supervision of a 

 trained forest officer. The forest officer in charge of such an 

 operation should be thoroughly acquainted with the silvicultural 

 requirements of all of the important species of his forest, their 

 age of seeding, rate of growth, and other similar data. Trees 

 for removal should be marked in accordance with the demand 

 of the species, and no attempt should be made to regulate such 

 a forest, which is necessarily of a very mixed character in regard 

 to distribution both by volume and by species, by one arbitrary 

 diameter limit. 



SUMMARY 



1. The dipterocarp forest is the most extensive and important 

 lowland forest of the Indo-Malayan region. 



2. In the Philippines it would naturally occupy all of the best 

 sites, but owing to the combined influence of man and climate 



