92 AN AUSTRALIAN STUDY OF AMERICAN FORESTRY. 
Sections and parts of sections were to be “ revised and made more complete 
and final in character as the need arose and more data became available. A 
satisfactory working plan must necessarily be built up gradually as more is 
learned about the forest or district and about the best ways of handling it.” 
The object was to furnish the information currently needed, and its best 
application to the present work of the forest in the form which would be of the 
greatest possible assistance in each phase of administration, not only to rangers 
or supervisors, but also to the district forester.” 
Working plans had reached at last a stage of normal development. 
In May, 1912, the “standard outline for forest working plans” was 
adopted. 
Its essential purpose was to provide a framework upon which to hang the 
data that had accumulated in the office files and other records which would 
be collected from time to time. No expense was to be incurred in specially 
designing plans, but the matter was to be kept in mind and dealt with as a 
necessary section ef the administrative work. 
Timber reconnaissance was to be restricted to areas in immediate demand 
for purchase, or which’ were required to complete working plans necessitated 
by urgent local circumstances. 
The “outline” is of peculiar interest as indicating the American struggle 
for clearness in despite of the native passion for detail. Where the European 
plan is now a definite set of directions with regard to fellings, regeneration, 
and thinnings, the American has become both a history and a compendium. 
Overlooking the inaugural caution against “unnecessary detail,” the authors 
have established the headings for a large book on every National Forest. In 
offering criticism, however, one may not forget that the United States Forest 
Service had to deal with undivided regions rather than with chess-board 
wocdlets, and that many issues were involved besides those of pure silvi- 
culture. Nor had silviculture yet emerged as the final fact. The search for 
light was proceeding momentously, but the clear-cut instructions of the 
European working plan had not yet crystallised from the mass. The American 
working plan at this date represents the accumulated information which the 
Forest Service has acquired with regard to each of its million-acre timber 
tracts. 
I reproduce the “Standard Outline” here :— 
OUTLINE FOR FOREST WORKING PLANS. 
To be effective, working plans must be designed wholly for use in forest 
administration. They must be concise, complete, and intensely practical. 
While they must be based upon the best technical data which can be 
obtained, and must take into-account service regulations and policy and apply 
all specifically, they must exclude academic discussion, material with no 
bearing on the plan, and unnecessary detail. Unnecessary discussion may be 
eliminated by tabulation wherever possible, and by statements of requirements, 
principles, conclusions, &c., and 1, 2, 3, order. Plans will consist of a state- 
ment of— 
(1.) The resources of the forest with necessary description. 
(2.) The conditions governing their use. 
(3.) The measures to be followed in their administration and develop- 
ment. 
Unless otherwise specifically provided, the plan should outline the general 
management for a long period, usually a rotation in silviculture, and in detail 
