46 FOREST RKGUT.ATION 



the matter seemed largely optional, much information was gathered 

 for one forty and little for the next one, and much information was 

 fragmentary. When these field sheets came to the office, only that 

 part of the notes could be compiled which was gathered uniformly 

 and consistently, such as the tally matei'ial, and the rest was not 

 copied at all, or else "doctored" and inferred, and statements of the 

 most extraordinary kind were often the result.' 



In deciding this matter, it is well to keep in mind the follow- 

 ing points : 



a. The information must serve all lines of work. It should 

 tell the owner what the land is, upon which the entire forest enter- 

 prise rests and depends; the proportion of good, medium and poor 

 land, exactly as in farming. 



For Silviculture one must know site and species, and behavior 

 of the species ; difficulties and dangers to be met and avoided. 



Utilization requires knowledge of material on the ground, 

 topography, obstacles and advantages (streams, etc.) affecting par- 

 ticularly transportation. For Protection the above, and also matters 

 of debris, windfalls, fire and insect injured .stuff and everything that 

 affects the safety of this property. And it is not enough to know 

 that a large windfall of inflammable material exists, btit it is essential 

 to know exactly where this menace lies, and what stands of green 

 timber are endangered by it. 



Regulation and Administration recjuire all the foregoing, and 

 much more, and need to have all this information by definite location. 



b. The gathering of this information costs time and money 

 and cannot be repeated, except at long intervals, (ten years, even in 

 intensive work). 



Probably over 75% of the money is .spent in getting the man 

 to and over the particular forty and not 25% is spent in actually 

 describing the forty and measuring and tallying the timber. To save 

 on this part of the work then is generally false economy. 



c. The man on the ground is the only man who counts, meas- 

 ures, and describes with conditions before and around him ; what he 

 puts down, then and there, is fact, or, at least, it is fair estimate ; 



' In one case the soil was evidently neither descritied nor examined regu- 

 larly, and the final report stated that an area of about 60,000 acres was "sand 

 over hardpan,'' a condition probably not applying to 1% of the area. 



