UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



4Hfc BULLETIN No. 275 ( 



Contribution from the Bureau of Plant Industry 

 WM. A. TAYLOR, Chief 



Washington, D. C. 



PROFESSIONAL PAPER. 



April 7, 1916 



FOREST PATHOLOGY IN FOREST REGULATION, 



By E. P. Meinbcke, 



Forest Pathologist, Office of Investigations in Forest Pathology. 



CONTENTS. 



Page. 



Introduction . 1 



Regulation of yield 2 



Working plans 2 



Rotation 6 



Cutting cycle , 8 



Cumulative risk 9 



Period of transition 15 



Condition of timber stock 16 



Total loss 16 



Inferior species 19 



Methods of investigation 22 



Choice of species and site 22 



Field methods 23 



Pathology of white fir 27 



Description of areas 33 



Page. 

 Methods of investigation— Continued. 



Local pathology of white fir 35 



Tabulation of data 36 



Condensation of data 41 



Interpretation 46 



Conclusions and outlook 53 



Decay in relation to wounds 54 



Forest regulation 54 



Care of virgin forests 54 



Forest regulation through timber 



sales 55 



Marking 57 



Pathological rotation and cutting 



cycles 59 



Outlook 62 



INTRODUCTION. 



At the time of the creation of the national forests in the United 

 States the Government very suddenly found itself confronted with 

 the problem of organizing an enormous acreage of practically virgin 

 timber. It was natural that American forestry turned to the expe- 

 rience of the Old World for guidance in this huge task; it was quite 

 as natural that the present state of European forestry should have 

 served as the ideal to be reached in the shortest time possible. In 

 organizing the administrative machinery, European precedent could 

 be followed more or less closely, but not so in almost all other phases 

 of forestry. Except for certain economic factors and the develop- 

 ment of modern machinery, conditions influencing the lumber 

 industry in the United States are very dissimilar to those in the 

 typical forest countries of central Europe. Our virgin forests them- 



Note.— This bulletin discusses the bearing of modern forest pathology on forest regulation, 

 98035°— Bull. 275—16 1 



