FBMIS Volume 1, 2006, 1–10 ISSN 1740-5955 http://www.fbmis.info/A/6 1 BathoA 1 Copyright c  2006 The FBMIS Group DE PERTHUIS AND THE ORIGINS OF SITE INDEX: A HISTORICAL NOTE ADRIAN BATHO AND OSCAR GARCIA University of Northern British Columbia, 3333 University Way, Prince George, B. C., Canada V2N 4Z9. batha000@unbc.ca, garcia@unbc.ca (Submitted 10th January 2006; Accepted 26th September 2006; Published 3rd October 2006) ABSTRACT. The use of height growth for assessing site quality in forest stands seems to have been first proposed by Remy de Perthuis de Laillevault, in the second half of the 18th Century. We reproduce a description of his work published posthumously in 1803, together with an English translation of the French original, and some biographical data. Keywords: site quality, productivity, forest, growth, forest history. 1 INTRODUCTION Site index, the height attained by a forest stand at a specified age, is widely used as an indi- cator of potential productivity in forest modelling and management (H¨ agglund, 1981; Vanclay, 1994). Cajander (1926) reviews some of the background of various methods of site quality assess- ment. On the height-age approach, called the strip method presumably referring to the bands between site curves, he writes: “One of the methods based solely on the yield of stands is the so-called strip method, the idea of which probably first originated with a Frenchman, De Perthuis (1788), but which was introduced into general use by a German, Fr. Baur (1877). Baur employed it in the preparation of yield tables.” He gives a literature reference for v. Baur (1876), but not for de Perthuis. Cajander also describes related height-age-based methods by Huber (1824, no reference), Heyer (1846), and Heyer (1857). Huber’s work may be in Huber (1824 and 1825), cited by Assmann (1970). We were able to locate and acquire an account of de Perthuis’ work published posthu- mously by his son L´ eon (Perthuis de Laillevault, 1803). He refers to his father only as “the late M[onsieur]. de Perthuis, member of the Agricultural Society of the Department of Seine”, and L´ eon’s name does not appear anywhere in the book (Figure 1). Notes in the catalogs of the French National Library identify father and son as Remy de Perthuis de Laillevault (1726–1802), and L´ eon de Perthuis de Laillevault (1757–1818), respectively. Additional biographical informa- tion is given in Appendix 1. A much shorter version had been published in 1800, together with a project on Forest Law (pages 53–90) which was omitted from the 1803 publication. In the next Section we include the relevant pages from the 1803 book, followed by an English translation, and some biographical notes. We close with a few comments on de Perthuis’ work. 2 ORIGINAL FRENCH TEXT In de Perthuis’ 1803 book, the site classification methods are discussed in the First Section of Chapter IV, pages 166–176, reproduced below. An English translation follows in Section 3. 1