Agricultural Science Digest
Purdue University
Volume 13, May-June, 1971

COMPUTERIZED WOOD ENGI- 
NEERING SYSTEM

	A new engineering system using a compu-
terized matrix analysis system for plane wood
structures has been devised by wood research-
ers .
The new program in which an unlimited
number of types of plane frames, arches,
trusses, continuous beams, etc. can be ana-lyzed and checked against certain built-in de-
sign considerations has been written and a
manual is available.
As with all systems, there are limita-
tions, but the user has unprecedented free-
dom in creating a mathematical model from
the ingredients provided to simulate the real
structure. The computer accepts the input
description of the analog and automatically
performs an analysis, regardless of the com-
plexity.
Structural analysis will be of value to de-
signers, specifiers of materials, setters of
construction standards, etc.

Journal paper 4461, S. K. Suddarth,
	Department of Forestry and Conser-
vation,

WESTERN HARVEST MICE IN INDIANA

Indiana has been recently invaded. In
the past two years, 182 western harvest mice
have been found in Newton County. There
are no previous records of this species in
the state.

The largest population presently occu-
pies a large rye field in Newton County.
They appear to be breeding from March to
November and feeding on seeds and green
shoots of rye and lepidopterous larvae.

The discovery of this population has en-
abled researchers to study the food, habitat,
reproduction and parasites of this mouse in
Indiana, which normally does not occur so
far east. Notably, the Indiana population
is larger than those found in Nebraska.

Scientific paper, J. O. Whitaker,
Jr., R. E. Mumford, Department
of Forestry and Conservation

MEASURING THE FOREST STAND

The computer, versatile tool that it is,
has proved valuable for measuring the dy-
namics of an uneven-aged forest. The for-
est represents a heterogeneous arrangement
of trees which varies in age, size, species,
use of energy food and water, death, growth,
etc., and is extremely difficult to measure,
since it is constantly in a state of evolution.

However, Purdue researchers have de-
veloped a system composed of several speci-
fied measurable components, which may be
used to measure the dynamics of the forest.

Successive measurements from docu-
mented growth plots register the history of
the forest as progressive changes in the dis-
tribution of the computer systems compo-
nents. With consecutive developments thus
recorded, observation and reasoning can be
used to derive analytical expressions for
the development -- and to predict the forest’s
development on the same basis. This pre-
dictive ability can be of extreme value to
forest managers.

Journal paper 4460, J. W. Moser,
Jr., Department of Forestry and
Conservation

PLAIN OR SPIRAL DOWELS?

Tests were carried out recently to

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