60 CIRCULAR 3 3 3, U.S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



PLOT INDEX 



An office index to plot establishment and remeasurements should 

 be kept up to date. A file of cards about 5 by 8 inches in size with 

 spaces provided for the required information will be useful, since 

 the cards for individual plots may be grouped at will according 

 to projects, localities, or years when remeasurements are needed. 

 The information for each plot should include : 



Project designation. 



Plot designation. 



Date of establishment. 



Treatment and date. 



Area and dimensions. 



Number of reproduction quadrats. 



Date of each remeasurement. 



Date next reexamination is required. 



The card for a new plot should be filled out and filed as soon as 

 the field work of establishment is complete. 



An alternative device is a plot calendar, recording the same infor- 

 mation as the index cards but taking the form of a large chart on 

 which each line represents an individual plot. Such a calendar has 

 advantages over a card index in that the records of all the plots of 

 a given locality or series can be seen at a glance and direct compari- 

 sons can be made immediately. 



PRESERVATION AND FILING OF FIELD RECORDS 



Original field notes, since they are irreplaceable, should be very 

 carefully protected against loss. Field data should be kept in a fire- 

 proof safe. In many cases, as an insurance against loss, field notes 

 should be duplicated, particularly those that will be needed in the 

 field for extended periods during remeasurements. One copy should 

 be kept always in a safe place, while the other may be taken into the 

 field at the time of remeasurement. In the field, all records should 

 be kept under lock and key when not in use, and should be checked 

 daily to make sure that none is lost. The duplicates may be made 

 with carbon paper when the original notes are written. If they are 

 not made then, to avoid errors that might occur in copying they may 

 be photostated. To reduce the cost of such reproduction, several 

 sheets of plot records can be photostated at one time. 



The records of each plot should be filed separately. Data applying 

 to a group of plots should have a separate folder and be filed ahead 

 of the records of the individual plots in the group. If maps and 

 photographs are filed separately from the measurements and plot 

 descriptions, a notice of their location should be placed in the plot 

 folder. 



PLOT ABANDONMENT 



Changes in silvicultural practice sometimes appear to destroy the 

 value of plots previously established to meet a specific condition. 

 Thus certain plots established to show damage due to horse logging 

 became valueless so far as their original purpose was concerned 

 because of adoption of machine logging. Plots established on a 

 diameter-limit basis may be rendered obsolete by a lowering of the 

 limit in practice. Plots for study of a favored species may lose much 

 of their accumulated research value when the associated species form- 



