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This book makes no attempt at being the last word on any topic. Its avowed purpose is to establish an idea, to convince persons of creative intellect that here is a great field meriting scientific, experimental exploration. The preceding chapters have attempted to establish with some degree of thoroughness an idea of the importance of certain fields for work. A tree crop may receive considerable space in this book, but that does not necessarily mean that it is of more ultimate importance than are others which have received briefer treatment or have even been omitted altogether. The limitations of time, space, and knowledge have prevented covering the whole field with uniform thoroughness. Therefore, some of those which appear to have been slighted may, after a few decades of experimental work, prove to be of greater importance than those which have received more space here.

This chapter, therefore, makes brief mention of a number of possibilities—mere suggestions.

The beeches, Fagus species, are northern members of the mast family, as the chestnut is a southern member of the same