Abstract: The distribution of diameters of wood is the most simple and effective factor in the depiction of a stand of trees and the most important factor in forest resource inventories, but attempts undertaken in the study of diameter distributions have not been very successful so far.Beta, SB, Weibull, lognormal, Gamma and normal distributions are discussed in terms of their flexibility on the skevvness squared (B1)-kurtosis (B2) plane. Five kinds of distributions have been drawn up on the basis of the data gathered from the stands and forests in broad areas and the Beta distribution gives the best performance in terms of its applicability to various sample distributions. Moment estimators, maximum livelihood estimators and estimators usi ig skewness and kurtosis for the Beta distribution are given. The estimators using skewness and kurtosis are most desirable.