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ECONOMICS OF FORESTRY
A REFERENCE BOOK
FOR STUDENTS OF POLITICAL ECONOMY AND
PROFESSIONAL AND LAY STUDENTS
OF FORESTRY
BY
BERNHARD E. FERNOW, LL.D.
DIRECTOR OF THE NEW YORK STATE COLLEGE OF FORESTRY, IN CORNELL
UNIVERSITY; LATE CHIEF, DIVISION OF FORESTRY, UNITED
STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE
SECOND EDITION
NEW YORK
THOMAS Y. CROWELL & CO.
PUBLISHERS
COPYRIGHT, 1902,
BY THOMAS Y. CROWELL & CO.
Published December, 1902.
3To fflg JFrtenti
EDWARD A. BOWERS
TO WHOSE PERSISTENT, UNSELFISH AND UNOSTENTATIOUS
EFFORTS, IN AND OUT OF OFFICE, IS SO LARGELY
DUE THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE
FEDERAL FOREST RESERVATION POLICY
EDITORIAL PREFACE.
SOME years ago I made a contract with Messrs.
T. Y. Crowell & Co. for the editorship of certain
volumes in their Library of Economics and Poli-
tics, and among them the present work by Dr.
Fernow was included. Although I have resigned
my position as general editor of this Library, I
am glad to accede to the request of the publish-
ers to continue the original arrangement for this
volume.
RICHARD T. ELY.
PREFACE.
IN this volume it is proposed to treat of for-
ests and forestry from the standpoint of political
economy.
The statesman, the student of economics, as
well as the layman who desires knowledge on
these matters, is to find here such information
as will enable him to form an intelligent view
and a true estimate of the position which forests
and forestry should occupy in our political house-
hold, or rather the position which the community
and governments should take with reference to
their forest resources ; it is to furnish a trust-
worthy basis for formulating public policy. At
the same time it is hoped that this presentation
of the subject will be acceptable to the growing
number of professional foresters, assisting them
in an intelligent survey of their art from a point
of view outside of that of the technicist.
Hitherto the questions arising in connection with
the proper utilization of our forest resources and
with forest preservation have, in the United States,
been largely discussed in a popular way, mostly
by amateurs and laymen, who were without a
viii PREFACE.
knowledge of the technical side of the subject;
the professional economists who, only incidentally
and sporadically, refer to the question have also,
at best, possessed only a reading knowledge of the
natural history of the forest and of the forester's
art. As a result of this insufficient knowledge,
these writings are only too frequently character-
ized by one-sided arguments and a partisan atti-
tude without sufficient basis in fact.
Nor is there, as far as the writer knows, any
book in the English language which attempts a
full and systematic discussion of the subject in
the manner in which it is to be treated here. This
book, then, is not intended as a popular discus-
sion, but proposes to supply a lack in the pro-
fessional literature of economics in the English
language ; in fact, even the Germans have with
perhaps one exception not yet produced a publica-
tion exactly analogous, as may be learned from
the annotated index to the literature given in the
Appendix.
The main difference between the present vol-
ume and other existing books may be found in the
fact that not only the things which directly inter-
est the economist have been discussed, but also a
more or less comprehensive exposition of the tech-
nical details of the forester's art is given, which
permits the forming of a judgment as to the condi-
tions and limitations under which this art, or how
much of it, can or must be practised.
PREFACE. ix
In discussing doubtful questions, the writer has
endeavored to maintain a judicial spirit of inquiry,
and to point out not only ideals, principles, and
truths, but also practical limitations which prevent
the attainment of the ideals.
In order not to encumber the text too much, an
appendix of notes, tables, and references has been
added, which will assist in verifying conclusions
drawn and give direction to those who desire to
study further.
To the unnamed friend who has kindly under-
taken to revise the proof-sheets I desire to express
my thanks.
B. E. FERNOW.
ITHACA, November, 1902.
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
PAGE
INTRODUCTORY: THE RELATION OF THE STATE TO
NATURAL RESOURCES i
CHAPTER II.
THE FOREST AS A RESOURCE . . . . .21
CHAPTER III.
THE FOREST AS A CONDITION 54
CHAPTER IV.
FOREST AND FORESTRY DEFINED . . . .81
CHAPTER V.
FACTORS OF FOREST PRODUCTION AND BUSINESS
ASPECTS 106
CHAPTER VI.
NATURAL HISTORY OF THE FOREST .... 140
CHAPTER VII.
METHODS OF FOREST CROP PRODUCTION: SILVI-
CULTURE 165
xii CONTENTS.
CHAPTER VIII.
PAGE
METHODS OF BUSINESS CONDUCT: FOREST ECONOMY 197
CHAPTER IX.
PRINCIPLES AND METHODS OF FOREST POLICY . . 228
CHAPTER X.
FOREST POLICIES OF FOREIGN NATIONS . . . 274
CHAPTER XI.
FOREST CONDITIONS OF THE UNITED STATES . . 331
CHAPTER XII.
THE FORESTRY MOVEMENT IN THE UNITED STATES 369
APPENDIX 413
BIBLIOGRAPHY 491
INDEX 509
ECONOMICS OF FORESTRY.
CHAPTER I.
INTRODUCTORY: THE RELATION OF THE STATE TO
NATURAL RESOURCES.
THE natural resources of the earth have in all
ages and in all countries, for a time at least, been Ot > . ',
squandered by man with a wanton disregard of the
future, and are still being squandered wherever
absolute necessity has not yet forced a more care-
J Ti)
ful utilization.
This is natural, as long as the exploitation
of these resources is left unrestricted in private
hands ; for private enterprise, private interest,
knows only the immediate future has only one
aim in the use of these resources, namely, to ob-
tain from them the greatest possible personal and
present gain.
Occasionally there may enter into its considera-
tion a desire to prolong the source of profit, so
that it may not only hold out during the lifetime
of the individual, but continue flowing for his
heirs ; or else other than business considerations
2 ECONOMICS OF FORESTRY.
may, for a while at least, preserve possible sources
of profit from mismanagement, usually by mere
non-use, much more rarely by conscious manage-
ment for continuity. In most cases it will be
found that the busy competition of- the present
has a destructive tendency and leads to wasteful
methods, especially if the resources are large in
comparison with the population and its needs.
Density of population is the index of the intensity
with which resources will be husbanded. Plenty
breeds extravagance ; dearth breeds care.
Thus in the United States, with its enormous
resources in fields and forests and mines, which
are open to the unrestricted, licentious use of a
comparatively small population, the destruction of
valuable material in the exploitation of these nat-
ural riches, the careless and extravagant use of
them, the neglect to which they are abandoned as
soon as the cream is taken, are simply characteris-
tic of all pioneering populations. With us, more-
over, the pioneering stage fell into a period when
the invention and development of railroad trans-
portation intensified the disproportion of popula-
tion and resources, opening up new territory and
making virgin supplies available more rapidly than
the needs of a resident population required, thus
creating destructive competition in the attempts to
profit from a non-intensive, rapacious exploitation
and exportation. For, in the absence of a resident
population to use the less valuable portions of the
INTRODUCTORY. 3
products, these had to go to waste, since only the
best portions could bear the cost of transportation
to distant centres of consumption.
The amount of waste in materials, natural re-
sources, and in energy, which this uneven settle-
ment and development of the country has produced,
has been enormous in all directions, and more espe-
cially in fields and forests. The desire for a tangi-
ble share in the wealth that can be derived by the
exploitation of these resources, the greed of the
individual, together with the unfavorable distribu-
tion of population, have led to their careless and
wasteful use.
From the standpoint of the individual, that use 3^**
of his opportunities which gives him greatest satis- 1 \ \ t v e i f / c<
faction in the present appears justifiable; while ( K<L\V(i'^
society may incidentally benefit from his efforts in
producing and distributing wealth, the individual,
as a rule, cares little about that result of his activ-
ity, nor does he care if the results of his endeavors
are the opposite from beneficial to society, unless
society itself step in and protect its interests.
From the fact that within any aggregation of
people inimical interests arise, that the interests
of one set of individuals may clash with those
of another set, or that the welfare of the whole
may be jeopardized by the unrestricted exercise
of the rights of the few, the necessity for the
limitation of the rights of the members arises,
which, as far as the exercise of property rights
4 ECONOMICS OF FORESTRY.
goes, finds expression in the old Roman law, "Utere^
tuo ne alterum noceas," namely, such use of the
property as shall not entail damage to another
party.
This ancient restrictive principle, which is rec-
ognized in. all civilized states, was at first probably
applied only to interferences between private inter-
ests ; but finally the protection of the interests of
the aggregation against those of the individual
must have necessitated its application, whenever
a communal interest would suffer by the unre-
stricted exercise of individual rights.
This restrictive function of the state, in addition
to that of defending the aggregation against out-
siders, will probably be admitted by all parties and
schools as elementary and essential to the existence
of the state. Divergence of opinion arises, how-
ever, not only when additional, more positive, and
directive functions are claimed for the state, as,
for instance, when the laissez-faire policy is to be
t^ vevTvvipk ' J \. v
supplanted by a faire-marcher promotive policy,
but also in the interpretation of the meaning of the
terms of the mere restrictive function, when the
question arises, what is to be considered damage
and who the other is that is to be protected.
The very nature of the modern civilized govern-
ment necessitates the very widest interpretation of
these terms. Civilized states of to-day are intended
and built for permanency ; they are not held to-
gether by mere compacts of the single members of
INTRODUCTORY. 5
society, which may be broken at any time. While "*>*.
forms of government may change, the organization, -** ! N\_
the state idea, promises to be permanent. This con-
ception of the permanency of the state, the realiza-
tion that it is not a thing of to-day and for a limited ***.*> k*'
time, but forever, widens its functions and extends < ^ y ;,
its sphere of action ; for it is no longer to be re-
garded as merely the arbiter between its present
members, but it becomes the guardian of its future
members ; government becomes the representa-
tive, not only of present communal interests, as
against individual interests, but also of future
interests as against those of the present. Its
object is not only for the day, but includes the
perpetuity of the well-being of society, and the
perpetuity of such favorable conditions as will con-
duce to the continued welfare and improvement
of the same ; in short, its activity must be with
regard to continuity, it must provide for the fu-
ture, it must be providential. We do not create
this special providence for the individual, but for
society ; the individual will have to work out his
own salvation to a large extent, with the opportu-
nities for advancement offered by society, but so-
ciety itself can only act through the state ; and,
as the representative of the future as well as the
present, the state cannot, like the individual, "let
the future take care of itself." In our present
state activity and legislation there is as yet but
little realization of its providential functions. Even
6 ECONOMICS OF FORESTRY.
the question of education, which in part provides
for future improvement, is only imperfectly con-
sidered from this point of view. The question of
the franchise, as well as that of immigration, both
of which are of the greatest influence upon the
future composition and condition of our society,
are much more often discussed with reference to
the rights of present members than with reference
to the future of society.
The one condition of social life in which the
action of the present influences the future almost
more than in any other direction, namely, the con-
dition of the means of material existence and their
economical use (the economy of resources), has re-
ceived perhaps the least recognition in practice as
well as in theoretical discussion ; and especially is
this absence of attention to this most important
branch of economics noticeable in English litera-
ture.
The reason probably is that the need of careful
analysis of this factor of social life has as yet not
been pressing. But as the world has been explored
in all corners and the extent of its resources has
become more nearly known, and as it is being rap-
idly peopled everywhere and the causes of depopu-
lation are becoming less, the warnings of Malthus
and Mill come home to us with new force ; and the
study of the nature of resources, their relation to
social life and development, and their economy, be-
comes a most important branch of social science,
INTRODUCTORY. 7
which will overshadow some of the other branches,
now appearing all-important. When the questions
of the extension of suffrage to women, of tariff,
of taxation, of coinage and currency, which are
all merely incidents, will have sunk into the back-
ground, the question of the economy of the re-
sources which constitute and sustain the political,
commercial, and social power of the nation long
neglected will still claim attention ; for only those
nations who develop their natural resources eco-
nomically, and avoid the waste of that which they
produce, can maintain their power or even secure
the continuance of their separate existence. A
nation may cease to exist as well by the decay of
its resources as by the extinction of its patriotic
spirit. While we are debating over the best meth-
ods of disposing of our wealth, we gradually lose
our very capital without even realizing the fact.
As Marsh 1 points out in his classical work, man
is constantly modifying the earth and making it
more and more uninhabitable; he goes over its
rich portions and leaves behind a desert.
Whether we have a high tariff or no tariff, an
income tax or a head tax, direct or indirect taxation,
bimetallism or a single standard, national banks or
state banks, are matters which concern, to be sure,
the temporary convenience of the members of so-
ciety, but their prejudicial adjustment is easily
1 George P. Marsh, " The Earth as modified by Human Action,"
1874.
8 ECONOMICS OF FORESTRY.
remediable ; when iil effects become apparent, the
ft 3 1 1 MW inconveniences may be removed with but little
harm to the community, and none to mankind at
large or to the future. But whether fertile lands
are turned into deserts, forests into waste places,
brooks into torrents, rivers changed from means of
power and intercourse into means of destruction
and desolation these are questions which concern
the material existence itself of society ; and since
such changes become of ten irreversible, the dam age
irremediable, and at the same time the extent of
available resources becomes smaller in proportion
to population, their consideration is finally much
more important than those other questions of the
day. Increase of population and increased require-
ments of civilization call for a continual increase of
our total economic forces, and increased " intensity "
in the management of our resources ; and this re-
quires such continued care and administration, that
it is not safe to leave it entirely to the incentive of
private competition, which always means wasteful
use.
,l**f It is true that as individuals the knowledge of
the near exhaustion of the anthracite coal-fields
k r . prtvw <v.
does not induce any of us to deny ourselves a sin-
gle scuttle of coal, so as to make the coal-field last
for one more generation, unless this knowledge is
reflected in increased price. But we can conceive
that, as members of society, we may for that very
purpose refuse to allow each other or the miner to
INTRODUCTORY. 9
waste unnecessarily. That this conception is not
absurd, and may be practically realized without any
strain in our conceptions of government functions,
is proved by the fact that it has been carried out in
practice in several cases, in our country as well as
in others, without opposition.
Absurdly enough we have begun such action with
reference to our resources where it is perhaps of
least consequence, as, for instance, when, by the
establishment of hunting and fishing seasons and
by other restrictions, we seek to prevent the exhaus-
tion of the fish and game resources. This is a
good illustration of the fact that emotion rather
than reason, sentiment rather than argument, are
the prime movers of society. It was only partially
fear for the exhaustion of this readily restorable
resource or economic reasons which led to this pro-
tection of our fisheries and game, but love of sport
gave the incentive. And again, it needed the love
of sport to set on foot the movement for the im-
provement of the roads in the United States, which
the realization of true economy had not the power
to bring about.
While we do not prevent single individuals
ruining themselves financially and hazarding the
future of their families, we do prevent associated o '
portions of the community, corporations, towns,
,. . , . r i ^^.VAO-
and cities, from jeopardizing their future by pre- v ^^^.
venting them from extravagant expenditures and
contracting of debts. This, too, is perhaps less
10 ECONOMICS OF FORESTRY.
designed for the future, than to protect present
members against undesirable burdens.
There are, then, enough precedents established
to show that, whatever the greed and selfishness of
the individual may dictate, society recognizes its
right to interfere with the individual in the use
of resources, not only for its present objects, but
even for considerations of the future.
, To recognize how far to what degree and in
what manner any of the resources must become
^ c .. / ... ,
objects of national concern, it is necessary to under-
stand their relative significance for the present and
for the future development of society or of the par-
ticular aggregate of society called a nation. From
this poiitt of view resources may be classified under
four heads, namely :
1. Resources inexhaustible.
2. Resources exhaustible and non-restorable.
3. Resources restorable, but liable to deteriora-
tion under private activity.
4. Resources restorable, yielding increased re-
turns under increased activity.
Of the first class, hardly any can be mentioned
that are usually denominated as resources; land,
water, air, and the forces of nature would fall
under this class, but since it is not so much these
things themselves as the conditions in which they
are found that make them resources, and since
these conditions are alterable by human agency,
their inexhaustibility with reference to human re-
INTRODUCTORY. 1 1
quirements is not entirely established. With the
land it is rather the fertility of the soil that makes
it a resource, except so far as it serves for building
purposes. With the water, except for the absolute
necessity of life, it is its desirable distribution
terrestrial and atmospheric which constitutes it a
resource in the sense of satisfying human wants.
Of such resources as are in time exhaustible fy ,*-. f ,
without the possibility of reproduction, we may
mention the mines. The supply of coal, "the
bread of industries," in Europe is calculated to
last not more than three or four centuries, although
scarcity is expected long before that time ; and in
our own country we are told that anthracite coal
mines do not promise more than seventy-five to
one hundred years of supply under present methods
of working. 1 The silver and gold mines, upon the
basis of which Nevada became a state, are said to
show signs of exhaustion. Oil-fields and natural
gas wells of very recent discovery belong to this
class of exhaustible resources. With their con-
sumption in satisfying our wants, they are de-
stroyed forever.
The timber of the virgin forest and its game,
the waterjgower of the streams, largely dependent
on the conditions of the forest, the fisheries, and
to some extent the local climatic conditions, are
1 The present output of the anthracite mines is 50,000,000
tons, and the visible supply of the field is estimated at a little over
5,000,000,000 tons.
12 ECONOMICS OF FORESTRY.
resources of the third order, capable in most in-
stances of reproduction or restoration under human
care, after having been deteriorated by uneconomic
exploitation or by change of contingent conditions,
as when brooks and rivers are lessened in volume
or else filled with flood-waters and debris, in con-
sequence of forest destruction.
The extensive and absolute destruction of forest-
cover in Western Asia and portions of Eastern
and Southern Europe has desolated vast regions
and transformed them into lifeless deserts. Such
rapine has sterilized almost beyond recovery the
once highly productive regions of Sicily and Al-
geria ; and in our own country we can point to
similar results already apparent, as in Wisconsin,
where over 4,000,000 acres have practically been
turned into deserts, 1 in Mississippi, 2 and other por-
tions of our domain, where erosion carries the fer-
tile soil into rivers, occasioning, in addition to its
loss, disturbance of favorable water stages and
expenditures in river and harbor bills.
Even climatic conditions, a resource which we
have hardly yet appreciated as such, it seems, can
be changed by mismanagement beyond recovery,
as exemplified by the experience of France, where,
it is asserted, the cultivation of the olive has be-
1 See " Forestry Conditions and Interests of Wisconsin," Bulletin
No. 1 6, U. S. Dept. of Agriculture, Division of Forestry, 1898.
2 See J W McGee, quoted in " Forest Influences," Bulletin No.
7, U. S. Dept. of Agriculture, Division of Forestry, 1894.
INTRODUCTORY. 13
come impossible in the northern departments, due
to the removal of forest cover, which furnishes pro-
tection against northern winds.
Lastly, as resources restorable and yielding in-
creased returns to increased activity, we would find
most of those resources which are the product of
human labor, industry, and ingenuity: the accu-
mulated wealth, the accumulated educational fund,
and other conditions of civilization, the people
themselves, capable of performing labor.
It might appear that, of the natural resources,
the soil with its fertility, capable under intensive
cultivation of increasing its yield, should be placed
here ; but when this increased activity is unaccom-
panied by rational method, this resource, too, will
deteriorate almost to a degree where its restoration
is practically precluded.
Altogether, while possibility of restoration has
served in our classification, the practicability of^' L C <*-
such restoration, i.e. the relation of expenditure
of energy and money to the result, will have to be
taken into consideration when state activity with
regard to them is to be discussed.
From yet another point of view we can distinguish
between those resources, which yield directly a tan- ^^1
gible material, necessaries or conveniences of life,
serving the purposes of gain, and which are, there- -
fore, objects of industrial enterprise ; while others, - I*-*
though desirable and necessary, serving indirectly > /K*
for the comforts of society, industry, and progress
ECONOMICS OF FORESTRY.
of civilization, do not call for the exertion of
private enterprise and offer no incentive, or
only an imperfect one, for private action, or are
beyond the limits of control by private individ-
uals.
Thus, if there is the possibility of influencing
climatic conditions by human action, which is
doubted by some climatologists in defiance of
many patent facts, it would be a matter of public
concern rather than of private interest to preserve
favorable or improve unfavorable conditions. As
far as the forest yields useful material for the arts,
it is an object of private industry ; but when, by its
position on a watershed, the forest becomes an
influential factor in the water conditions of the
plain, it may still serve the purposes of gain and
wealth, which are the objects of private industry,
but its indirect significance for society at large
exceeds the private interest.
Of the proper condition of waterways, of navi-
gation and transportation, it may be said, that
while private interest may be concerned with it
for private gain, public interest is involved in it to
a much greater extent. For private interest lies
only in the direction of individual gain, while state
interest lies in the direction of social gain, of gain
for a larger number. Whenever, therefore, other
purposes, which do not contemplate the. highest
profitableness, are to be subserved, especially pur-
poses which are of interest to the community at
INTRODUCTORY.
large, this class of resources must become an ob-
ject of public economy by the state or community.
Often it will be a difficult task in practice to
assign a particular resource to a proper position
with regard to its bearing upon social interests, but
conservatism, which is the logical policy of society,
will lead us in cases of doubt to lean toward the
presumption that the interests of society are more
likely to suffer than those of the individual; and
a mistake in curtailing private interests will be
more easily corrected than a mistake in not hav-
ing in time guarded social interests. Thus it has
been urged against the selection of forest areas
as state reserves for the purpose of protecting
watersheds, that it would be difficult to decide
which areas are necessarily comprised in such
selection, without withdrawing those of simply
commercial value. That the widest construction
of the idea of protective forests will be safer than
the opposite, and should be the one adopted by
the government, seems quite reasonable.
To properly appreciate the position in any
given case, we will have to weigh the present and
future significance of the resource, the likelihood
of its permanence, and the likelihood of its fate
under private treatment, whence the necessity of
bringing it under sovereign control of the state
and the quality of the control will appear.
That each individual case will require its own
consideration and adjudication holds there as well
ft i
16 ECONOMICS OF FORESTRY.
as with legislation in reference to industrial action,
and the general classification here attempted offers
simply a suggestion as to the general points of view
from which each case must be considered.
With the conception of the government before
us, as outlined, namely, as the instrument to secure
the possibility of not only social life but of social
progress, the representative of communal interests
as against private interests, of the future as
against the present, we can get an idea as to how
far the providential functions of the state are to be
called into action.
The policy of governmental control over water-
ways, roads, and lands falling under the operation
of eminent domain is well established in most gov-
ernments. The ownership and management of
railways has proved itself to be in the interest of
society in several countries. It should be extended
with even more reason to all exhaustible, non-
restorable resources. That in the interest of soci-|
ety and of production as well the mines should
belong to the state in order to prevent waste, we
may learn from the actual experience of France,
where they are state property, and only the right
to work them under supervision is leased to private
individuals.
Of the restorable resources it is apparent that,
with regard to those which yield increased returns
to increased labor, the interests of society and of
the individual run on parallel lines. Where inter-
INTRODUCTORY. 17
ference of the state in their behalf exists it is not
from providential reasons. The ameliorative func-
tions only are called into requisition. Whatever
tends to stimulate private activity is to be pro-
moted, whatever retards development of intensive
methods is to be removed, by government. Indus-
trial education, cultural surveys, bureaus of infor-
mation, experiment stations, and other aids to
private enterprise constitute the chief methods
of expressing/state interest with regard to these
resources.
The three great resources upon which mankind
is most dependent, and which, therefore, demand **vf
foremost attention of the state, are the soil as food
producer, the water, and the climatic conditions..
The utilization of these three prime resources by
agriculture forms the foundation of all other in-
dustries, or, as Sully puts it, " Tillage and pastur-
age are the two breasts of the state." It is true
the manufacturer increases the utility of things,
but the farmer multiplies commodities ; he is crea-
tive, and he therefore above all others can claim a
right to first consideration on the part of the state.
The soil is a valuable resource as far as it is
fertile and capable of agricultural production ; the
fertility, while liable to deterioration, can, with few
exceptions, be said to be restorable, and it cer-
tainly yields increased returns to intelligent in-
creased labor. It ranks, therefore, with those
resources which can be left to private enterprise,
1 8 ECONOMICS OF FORESTRY.
calling only for the ameliorative functions of the
government. But while this condition prevails
when the soil is put to agricultural use, it does not
exist as long as the soil is not so utilized. By the
withdrawal of large sections of land from such
use, society is harmed, and deprived of the benefit
which it would derive from the use of its property.
The proper disposal and the appropriation of the
soil to proper use form, therefore, fit functions of
government control.
The rational appropriation of soil for either
farm use, pasturage, or timber production, one
would think, could be left to the regulation of
private intelligence ; yet the fact is, that the thin,
rocky soils of mountain districts are worked for a
scanty agricultural crop, when they should be left
to timber ; while thousands of acres in fertile val-
leys are still under the shade of virgin forests.
Water and climate are the accessories to agri-
cultural production, and supplement the resources
of the soil. Not objects of private enterprise
directly, except in a limited manner, it is evident
that, as far as they or the conditions which influ-
ence them can be at all controlled, they should be
under the direct control of the state. A rational
management of the water capital of the world in
connection with agricultural use of the soil will
become the economic problem of the highest im-
portance as the necessity for increased food pro-
duction calls for intensive methods. And in
INTRODUCTORY. 19
connection with this problem, it must become a
matter of state interest, by a rational management
of existing forests and by reforestation at the head
waters of rivers and on the plains, to secure the
conditions which make a rational utilization of the
waters possible. For without forest management,
no satisfactory water management is possible for
any length of time, no stable basis for continued
productive agriculture, industries, and commerce !
It is the object of this volume to elucidate in
greater detail the significance and character of the
forest resource, to show its relationship to the con-
ditions of social life, to point out the various
aspects from which it can be viewed, with the final
object of determining the position which the state
should take with reference to it, based upon the
conception of state functions as outlined in this
chapter.
We shall recognize that to the individual it is the
timber, the accumulated growth of centuries, which
is of interest, and which he exploits for the purpose
of making a profit on his labor and outlay without
any interest in the future of the exploited area.
The relation of the forest to other conditions,
direct or indirect, immediate or future, hardly
ever enters into his calculations.
On the other hand, the function of the forest,
which it exercises as a soil cover by preventing ero-
sion of the soil, by regulating water flow, changing
surface drainage into subsoil drainage, and thereby
20 ECONOMICS OF FORESTRY.
influencing the water stages of rivers, and its
possible relation to the local climatic conditions,
preeminently renders it an object of government
consideration.
Here the general principle of the Roman law,
Utere tuo ne alterum noceas, prevention of the ob-
noxious use of private property, readily establishes
the propriety of state interference, and by alterum
we are to understand, not only the other citizen of
the present, but of the future as well.
We will see, that the forest resource is one which,
under the active competition of private enterprise,
is apt to deteriorate, and in its deterioration to
affect other conditions of material existence unfa-
vorably ; that the maintenance of continued sup-
plies as well as of favorable conditions is possible
only under the supervision of permanent institu-
tions with whom present profit is not the only
motive. It calls preeminently for the exercise of
the providential functions of the state to counter-
act the destructive tendencies of private exploita-
tion.
CHAPTER II.
THE FOREST AS A RESOURCE.
IT may be stated without fear of contradiction
that outside of food products no material is so
universally used and so indispensable in human
economy as wood. Indeed, civilization is incon-
ceivable without an abundance of timber.
The nomad of to-day, who herds over the treeless
plains and prairies, is still like the Scythian of
ancient times ; his life, his culture, his attainments,
are no more advanced. The successful settlement
and civilization of our own treeless regions of the
West became possible only through the develop-
ment of means for the transportation of this most
needful material. So general and far-reaching
has its use become that a wood famine, however
improbable its occurrence, would be almost as
serious as a bread famine. We may become less
wasteful, both as regards food and wood, but the
necessity of wood, as far as we can foresee at
present, will always be second only to the neces-
sity of food, and far greater than that of any other
material used in the arts.
The necessity to us of any material depends on
the extent and nature of its use, and on the possi-
22 ECONOMICS OF FORESTRY.
bility of replacing it by other materials. If we
regard the chair we sit on, the table we eat from,
the paper we write on, as necessities, it is fair to
say that over 99 per cent of all wood is used in
supplying real wants, while less than i per cent
is used to furnish luxuries, such as fancy articles,
carvings, and other decorations. But even if only
the use of wood as fuel, for the construction of
shelter for man and goods, for the building of
bridges and harbors, for purposes of transportation,
agriculture, mining, and manufacture, is considered
as necessary in distinction to unnecessary or luxu-
rious uses, it may still be asserted that there is
more than 95 per cent in bulk or weight thus
consumed.
Our civilization is built on wood. From the
cradle to the coffin, in some shape or other, it
surrounds us as a convenience or a necessity.
It enters into nearly all our structures as an es-
sential part. Over half our people live in wooden
houses, and the houses of the other half require
wood as an indispensable part in their construc-
tion. It serves to ornament them, to furnish them
with conveniences, to warm them, to cook the food.
More than two-thirds of our people use wood as
fuel, and until recent times it was the only or prin-
cipal means of melting the ores and shaping the
metals with which to fashion the wood itself (see
Appendix). For every hundred tons of coal mined,
two tons of mining timber are needed, and wood
THE FOREST AS A RESOURCE. 23
in large quantities is needed to mine our metals.
Every pound of iron, every ounce of gold, requires
wood in its mining, wood in its manufacture, wood
in its transportation. There is hardly a utensil, a
tool, or even a machine, in the construction of
which wood has not played a part, were it only
to furnish the handle or the mould or pattern.
The articles, useful or ornamental, made wholly
or in part of wood, are innumerable. Our houses
are filled with them, our daily occupations necessi-
tate them wherever we are. For our means of trans-
portation we rely mainly on wood. Our 260,000
miles of railroad track (190,000 miles railroad), j.*^
the carriers of civilization, lie on not less than
700,000,000 of wooden ties and need 140,000,000
annually for renewals ; l they run over more than
2000 miles of wooden trestles and bridges, they
carry their passengers and freight in over i ,000,000
wooden cars, and much of the millions of tons of
freight is shipped in wooden boxes and barrels, and
1 This drain on our forest resources for railroad ties or sleepers,
which requires a wasteful use of our most durable timbers, is gradu-
ally being reduced by preservative processes which lengthen the
" life " of ties, and it bids fair to be soon avoided by the use of
metal ties, which, except in initial cost, have proved themselves
superior in all other respects. Their use is long past the experi-
mental stage in other countries, there being, in 1894, not less than
35,000 miles, or 9 per cent, of total track lying on metal, while the
cheap initial cost of wooden ties in the United States has retarded
their use here. Very exhaustive reports on the metal tie question
were published by the U. S. Dept. of Agriculture, Division of For-
estry, in Bulletin No. 4, 1889, and Bulletin No. 9, 1894.
24 ECONOMICS OF FORESTRY.
-
stored in wooden sheds. Ten million telegraph
poles are needed to keep up communication be-
tween distant markets.
The forest furnishes the cooperage to market
our vintage, to store our flour and fruit. The
forest furnishes the plough handle and harrow
frame to cultivate, the threshing machine and
windmill to prepare the crops, the cart to bring
them to market, the bottoms in which they cross
the ocean to foreign marts, and even the tar and
pitch needed to keep the cargo safe. While iron
ships have largely replaced the wooden bottoms in
ocean travel, our coastwise and inland shipping,
which requires a tonnage twice as large as the
transatlantic trade, is carried mostly in wooden
ships. 1 We are rocked in wooden cradles, play
with wooden toys, sit on wooden chairs and benches,
eat from wooden tables, use wooden desks, chests,
trunks, are entertained by music from wooden in-
struments, enlightened by information printed on
wooden paper with black ink made from wood, and
even eat our salads seasoned with vinegar made
from wood.
1 According to the report of the Commissioner of Navigation,
there were in the merchant marine of the United States in the year
1900, 2,507,042 tons of sailing vessels, practically all of wood, and
2,657,797 tons of steam vessels, of which, undoubtedly, a large
part was in wooden hulls, besides over 4,000,000 tons unrigged
vessels, wooden barges, etc., permitting the above estimate. During
the year 1900, 1447 vessels, with a tonnage of 393,790, were built,
of which only half the tonnage was of iron and steel.
THE FOREST AS A RESOURCE. 25
The uses of wood, multifarious now, are con-
stantly increasing. With the manufacture of wood
pulp and cellulose, an entirely new direction of use
has been opened ; originally designed to furnish a
cheap substitute for linen paper, its application in
many ways is growing daily, and promises for the
future the largest drain on our forest resources,
the manufacture of wood pulp having increased
more than threefold in the last ten years (see
Appendix).
To give briefly an idea of the extent of our own
wood consumption, we may say that, if 5 persons
are counted to a family, each family in the United
States uses on an average about 2000 cubic feet or f t
about 80,000 pounds of dry wood per year, the
annual product of at least 50 acres of forest.
The reasons for this universal and varied appli-
cation of wood may be found in several directions.
In the first place, the general occurrence of forest
growth and the ease with which wood could be
obtained and shaped directly to the purpose in
hand made it naturally the material of earlier
civilizations, but there are certain qualities in
addition which will make its use always desirable,
if not necessary. In the combination of strength,
stiffness, elasticity, and relatively light weight, it
excels all other known materials. Not only is a
stick of long leaf pine superior in strength to one
of wrought iron of the same weight, but employed
as a beam it will bear without bending a load six to
26 ECONOMICS OF FORESTRY.
eight times as great as an iron bar of the same
length and weight. Moreover, the wooden beam
will endure greater distortion than the metals with-
out receiving a " set " or permanent injury.
The ease with which it can be shaped and keeps
its shape, the softness and yet unchangeableness, its
non-conductivity of heat, of electricity, which makes
its use more comfortable than that of metals, in
addition, its light specific weight and many other
qualities, recommend it for many purposes in pref-
erence to other materials.
But above all things its cheapness recommends it,
we are paying now, leaving out fancy woods, at
the most 60 cents per cubic foot for the best wood,
shaped, as against $5 to $10 per cubic foot for iron
in sheets or bars. Moreover, it is the only material
of construction which we can produce and repro-
duce at will, while we know that most other mate-
rials now in use must be sooner or later exhausted.
Other materials have displaced wood in some
uses, but other uses have arisen for wood, and often
the substitutes have again been displaced by wood,
when its superiority or peculiar qualities have been
more fully recognized. Even in such nicely bal-
anced structures as the bicycle, for which metal
seemed the only proper material, wood has proved
itself superior, at least in certain parts.
A remarkable instance of this return to the use
of wood instead of metal is that for factory and
warehouse construction in order to reduce danger
THE FOREST AS A RESOURCE. 27
from fire, it having been found that in case of fire
iron beams and posts are twisted out of shape by
the heat, causing the collapse of the whole build-
ing, while with wooden posts and beams the chances
of keeping the walls intact are much greater.
Coal has largely displaced wood as fuel, yet ac-
cording to the census of 1880 more than half of
our population relied still on wood for fuel, and
there is no reason to believe that the proportion
has changed measurably. In fact, if we may be
allowed to consider the figures of the census of
1880 still proportionately true, as far as bulk is
concerned, our fuel consumption represents about
three-fourths of our total wood consumption, and
even in value this part represents nearly one-half
of our entire enormous consumption of forest prod-
ucts, and exceeds in bulk more than ten times the
iron and steel handled in this country.
Very interesting statistics regarding the displace-
ment of wood by coal in Germany show that from
the beginning of the last century, when coal began
to be generally used as fuel, the consumption of
wood increased in the same proportionate rate as
the consumption of coal.
The development of the cellulose and wood pulp
industry, with the consequent extension in the use
of paper made from this material for all kinds of
purposes where elasticity and durability combined
with strength and lightness is demanded, from
collars and cuffs and combs to car wheels, has
28 ECONOMICS OF FORESTRY.
given new and constantly growing employment to
wood.
Considering, moreover, the very extensive and the
very varied employment of wood, it will be appar-
ent that substitution by other materials cannot be
readily accomplished and means inconvenience,
and, in many cases, decrease of comfort. Hence
large wood supplies are, and unquestionably will
continue to be, an indispensable requirement of
our civilization, almost like water, air, and food.
Besides wood supplies, the forest furnishes other
materials of no small value. Of these, two classes
at least give rise to industries of considerable ex-
tent, namely the tanning industry and the naval
store industry.
The bark of certain trees, notably the hemlock
and the oaks among our native species, contain the
chemical compounds known as tannic acids, which
serve for the manufacture of leather. The fact
that this property of the bark has made the value
of the same to exceed by far the value of the wood
itself, especially as it is easier to transport the
former, has led to an enormous waste of useful
wood material, the trees, in mountainous regions
especially, having been peeled and left to rot in
the woods ; and in certain mountain regions diffi-
cult of access this waste still continues.
Thus 1,500,000 cords of tan bark worth about
$10,000,000, which we use annually, entailed for-
merly a sacrifice of nearly 1000 feet of lumber per
THE FOREST AS A RESOURCE. 29
cord of bark ; of this now probably the larger part
is saved.
Lately, too, it has been found that the wood itself
of some species yields paying quantities of tannin,
which can be and are being extracted by special
processes, thus again widening the field of useful-
ness of the wood article itself ; while the metallic
substitutes for tannins have so far not been able to
displace the same to any great extent.
The naval store industry, concerned in extract-
ing from the living trees of certain kinds of pine,
especially the Southern long leaf pine, and from
other species, the resinous contents, and by distilla-
tion obtaining turpentine, rosin of various kinds,
and tar, is indebted to the forest to the extent of
about $8,000,000 per year in our country. 1 This
industry could be carried on without any direct
injury to the wood product, provided the utilization
of the trees followed at once the operations of the
turpentine gatherer; but under the neglectful
methods pursued, with fires sweeping through the
woods, the scarred trees are to a large extent either
burnt beyond usefulness, or injured by fungus and
insects and laid low by wind storms, so that here
again is an enormous and largely unnecessary loss to
the forest resources, entailed in this industry. Here
too, of late, improvement is observed, the sawmiller
following more closely the turpentine gatherer.
1 In 1899 the value reported by the census was over $20,000,000,
as against the above figure for 1889.
30 ECONOMICS OF FORESTRY.
A similar industry is the tapping of the maple
for sugar, which is peculiar to the United Stales,
producing, with over 50,000,000 pounds of sugar
and 3,000,000 gallons of syrup, values to the extent
of $6,000,000 annually.
Finally, by distillation of the wood itself and
condensing of the gaseous products, considerable
amounts of wood alcohol, wood vinegar, and ace-
tates, creosote and other tar oils useful in the arts,
are derived, adding another $3,000,000 or more to
the annual revenue furnished by our forest resource.
In addition to these materials, which come from
the tree growth itself, there are many useful things
growing in the forest, which in our country have
hardly yet attained the dignity of industrial devel-
opment; although the distillation of wintergreen
oil from birch brush and the gathering of ginseng
occupy quite a number of people industrially, while
the huckleberry and cranberry crops furnish con-
siderable additions to the fruit supply of gardens
and orchards.
How much may be obtained from the careful
use of these by-products of the forest may be seen
from the statement that in the Prussian state forests
the revenues for 1894-1895 were:
For wood .... $ 14,500,000
For by-products . . . 1,000,000
For game ! 90,000
It is seen that the by-products furnished about
7 per cent of the total income.
THE FOREST AS A RESOURCE. 31
In one small village of Pomerania (Prussia),
the amount paid for huckleberries which the
poor population gathers in the forest amounts to
$20,000 or $30,000 a year. In another small
forest district it is calculated that the berry and
mushroom harvests represent to the gatherers an
annual income of $22,500, showing that even the
revenues derived from the minor products of the
forest may attain a considerable economic signifi-
cance.
What relative position from the standpoint of
wealth production the forest resources and their
exploitation take in the household of the nation
may best be learned from a comparison with other
sources of wealth and their production, considering
the revenues from the different forms of wealth, the
capital invested, the value of product, the number
of people employed, and the wages paid. Unfor-
tunately for such comparisons the data are, at
least in our own country, but unsatisfactory,
since the statistics of an industry like the forest
industries, which are largely removed from centres
of production, and in which a large number of
people are occupied only occasionally and for
parts of the year, are necessarily deficient and
must remain below the truth to an uncertain
extent.
It is, for instance, impracticable to ascertain the
amounts of wood cut and used on farms for home
consumption, or to apportion the employment of
32 ECONOMICS OF FORESTRY.
labor in this home exploitation. In addition, the
values of a material which on account of its bulki-
ness is only to a limited degree object of the world
trade, are but little influenced by the world's de-
mand, and dependent much more than food sup-
plies on home demand only ; and hence the values
of such material as wood are at a disadvantage, or
at least on a different footing, when compared with
other export materials.
While the value of the raw forest products con-
sumed every year in the United States at places of
consumption, roughly shaped for further use, may
be placed at $600,000,000, this is enhanced by their
further manufacture to over $1,200,000,000, thus
making the result of the forest industries second
only to those of agriculture, the value of whose
products reached in the census year (1890) nearly
$2,500,000,000, while the total production of metals
which could in any way replace wood gold and sil-
ver and iron included reached only $270,000,000,
and the entire mining industry (quarries and every
kind of mineral or earthy product included) but
little over $600,000,000. (See Appendix for details. )
Although the forest industries are carried on
with proportionately small capital, over $560,000,-
ooo were invested in the mere exploiting and first
preparation of the material in the lumber business,
while another $900,000,000 are employed in manu-
factures which rely either entirely, or to an extent
of over one-third of their product, on wood.
THE FOREST AS A RESOURCE. 33
Of the total value of manufactured products,
aggregating nearly $10,000,000,000 worth in the
census year 1890, 17 per cent is to be credited to
the forest resource, and nearly 20 per cent of the
capital invested, of labor employed, and of wages
paid in all manufactures.
In addition to the capital and labor involved in
the exploitation of the forest, we have to consider
the large but indeterminable amount of labor in-
volved in the transportation of the material from
points of manufacture, which adds to the eco-
nomic importance of these industries in the same,
in perhaps greater proportion, than other indus-
tries.
So large is the money value resulting from the
mere conversion of the products of our wood-
lands that it equals at present annually a 2 per
cent dividend on the entire wealth of the nation
($65,000,000,000, according to census in 1890).
This dividend, to be sure, is unfortunately largely
< paid, not from surplusage, but from capital stock,
and a future generation will have to make good
tlie deficiency.
One very important factor often overlooked by
laymen in appreciating the economic value of the
forest resources of a country is the fact, that it
is not wood simply that is wanted, but wood of
certain quality useful for given purposes. A
country may be well covered with woodlands and
yet lack those valuable kinds of woods which lend
34 ECONOMICS OF FORESTRY.
themselves readily to the everyday uses of civil-
ized life.
Again, it may be well supplied with valuable
kinds, but these are found so scattered among
the less valuable growth, the tree weeds, that
their exploitation becomes cumbersome and ex-
pensive.
Thus we see Brazil and other South American
countries, and Australia, in spite of their extensive
forest areas, come to the United States for their
lumber supplies, lacking as they do the soft, easily
worked, yet strong and elastic coniferous kinds,
which are par excellence the materials of construc-
tion.
Again, the valuable Hardwoods of those coun-
tries, possessing excellent qualities, besides their
beauty, for which alone we use them at present,
will never be able to compete or supplant our own
materials, for they occur in single individuals scat-
tered among hundreds of other species, so that to
supply any considerable quantity of any one kind
requires culling over many acres, which renders
them too expensive for general use.
There is therefore nothing but ignorance in the
comfortable ideas of those who look forward to
a supply of wood from those countries when our
own supplies give out.
A proposition to secure statistics of the produc-
tive forest area and timber supplies of the world
ready for the axe, and of the consumption by the
THE FOREST AS A RESOURCE.
35
population, was brought before the International
Forestry Congress at Paris, in 1900. The attempt
to secure such statistics in any way reliable is
almost hopeless, when we cannot even in our own
country get more than the roughest approxima-
tions ; moreover, even if it were possible to secure
some approximate figures, as long as there are no
attempts at management of the resource, the knowl-
edge would not be worth the expense it would en-
tail to gather it, since the conditions would change
without record being kept, hence the value of the
figures would be most ephemeral.
A rough approximation would bring out the fol-
lowing condition of the earth's surface, from which
at least the potential forest area, that which, under
natural conditions, did or does or is able to produce
timber forest, can be estimated :
PERCENTIC DISTRIBUTION OF LAND AREA
Potential and
actual forest
soils.
Prairie.
Plains and
Barrens.
North America . . .
45
5
5
South America . . .
78
12
IO
Europe
84
IO
6
4^
3
52
60
12
28
Australia
37
38
25
60%
7%
33%
In billion acres . . .
18
2
10
ECONOMICS OF FORESTRY.
One-third of the land area, then, is incapable
of forest growth (not tree growth), 7 per cent is
unfitted for it, and 60 per cent must be divided
between farm and forest. How much is actually
wooded it is impossible even to estimate, and
how much contains available wood supplies, still
less so.
The world's requirement of wood materials may
be estimated as follows, actual figures and statistics
in some cases allowing reasonable approximations,
but lacking, of course, for all oriental countries,
Africa, Australia, South America, any tangible
basis : for these, therefore, merely allowances by
guess are made :
WOOD REQUIREMENT.
Inhabitants,
millions.
Per
Total
Of which
Per capita,
ft. B.M.
capita,
million
ft. B.M.
cu. ft.
cu. ft.
million.
North America
80
300
2,400
40,000
500
Europe ....
360
40
1,440
22,OOO
60
All other countries,
1,160
19
2,200
4,500
4
This, for the 1,600,000,000 inhabitants, would
average about 38 cubic feet per capita, of wood of
all descriptions, of which 6 to 7 cubic feet are saw
material equivalent to 40 feet board measure.
The following countries furnish about the fol-
lowing quota of the saw material :
THE FOREST AS A RESOURCE. 37
Million feet,
B.M.
United States 37,ooo
Russia 12,000
Austria
3,50
Germany 3,000
Canada ........ 3,000
Sweden and Norway 2,000
China and Japan 2,000
France . . . t . . . . 1,500
South America ...... 1,000
India 500
All others 1,000
66,500
The use of wood per capita in the United States,
with about 350 cubic feet, exceeds that of all other
civilized nations ; nearly one-quarter of this wood, or
85 cubic feet, is log material (100 cubic feet log ma-
terial may be roughly figured as producing 600 feet
B.M. sawed material), while England, importing
nearly all her requirements, can get along with about
13 cubic feet of log material, and Germany with a
consumption of 43 cubic feet of wood per capita,
of which 1 5 cubic feet is log material. Both these
countries, Great Britain importing practically all
and Germany over 25 per cent of her needs, would
indicate that a civilized nation in a northern coun-
try requires between 1 2 and 1 5 cubic feet of log
material. Outside of the United States and Canada,
which export 280,000,000 cubic feet, the countries
which cut more than they consume are Russia with
420,000,000, Austria with 240,000,000, Norway and
38 ECONOMICS OF FORESTRY.
Sweden with 400,000,000 cubic feet ; these export-
ing countries, with additional small exportations
from India and South America, supply the 1,400,-
000,000 cubic feet which Europe imports, and for
which she pays $200,000,000.
For the United States the available timber ready
for the axe has been estimated variously at from
1,380,000,000,000 to 2,300,000,000,000 feet B.M.,
corresponding to 35 to 50 years' requirements,
which, if only a distant approach to the truth, im-
presses the need of careful husbanding and attention
to reproduction. 1
If one would wish to know what the needs of a
people for wood supplies is (when there is no ex-
travagance permissible, and when every stick is
used down to the brush, and when coal is not so
plentiful as to supplant all firewood), the figures
for Germany, which possesses unusually good sta-
tistics to make such calculation possible, furnish a
good basis.
Its 50,000,000 people live on 133,000,000 acres
of land, i on 2 acres as against I on 26 acres in
the United States, hence forest growth is mostly
confined to the poorer soils, which are not fit for
agriculture. From their 35,000,000 acres of such
forest growth | acres per person the Germans
1 Many foolish assertions regarding existing wood supplies in the
United States and Canada, which are rehearsed by pseudo-statis-
ticians to show inexhaustible supplies, are not worthy of considera-
tion.
THE FOREST AS A RESOURCE.
39
take mostly only the annual accumulations, striv-
ing to keep their stock, or wood capital, intact and
in good reproductive condition. The annual cut
amounts to 1,870,000,000 cubic feet of all sorts
and sizes, or 53 cubic feet per acre, of which, how-
ever, only 27 per cent, or round 500,000,000 cubic
feet, is of size fit for manufactures. These amounts
are, however, not sufficient for the needs of the popu-
lation ; and hence, although some 48,000,000 cubic
feet of wood and woodenware, worth $26,700,000,
are exported, over 305,000,000 cubic feet of wood
and wood articles, worth $53,500,000, are imported ;
so that nearly 10 per cent of the total consumption
comes from outside, not counting auch wood that
forms part of manufactures imported, like pianos,
wagons, etc.
We have tljen here a consumption of 43 cubic
feet per capita, of which 15 cubic feet is sizable
material, and the value would figure to little less
than $3 per capita, or say $ 1 50,000,000 is the wood
bill of these economical people annually, as against
7 times that amount, which we spend. If you ask
as to relative cost or price of these wood materials,
one interesting fact stands out, namely, that while
the value of their imports is $141 per ton, the value
of their exports is $255 per ton; in other words,
Germany is careful to export more manufactured
and high-priced material than she imports ; thus,
the exported lumber and wood brings her 32 cents
per cubic foot, while she pays only 23 cents for the
40 ECONOMICS OF FORESTRY.
imported wood. Again, the exported wood manu-
factures bring her at the rate of $4.20 per cubic
foot, while she pays only $2.40 for the imported
ware. We, on the other hand, export twice as
much as we import, and that mostly raw materials,
namely, twice as much in value of raw materials as
of manufactures, and by so much decimating our
resources, which we exploit beyond their power of
reproduction.
The temperate zones are the favored ones in
that they abound not only in a variety of woods
which are most readily turned to use in all the
various directions in which wood is required in our
civilization, but the most useful ones occur more or
less gregariously, so that their exploitation can be
most readily and cheaply accomplished. This is
especially the case with the conifers, spruces, firs,
redwoods, and above all, the pines, which cover
large areas exclusively or nearly so, and excel in
the combination of desirable qualities all other ma-
terials, so that without them our civilization would
be badly crippled. Of the enormous yearly lum-
ber consumption in the United States, amounting
nearly to 40,000,000,000 feet of board measure
(enough to make a plank walk 300 feet wide around
the world, or floor over entirely the states of Dela-
ware and Rhode Island), the conifers furnish more
than | and the pines alone ^ ; and again the white
pine of the lake states furnishes f of this half, giv-
ing to these supplies of one species an economic
THE FOREST AS A RESOURCE. 41
significance beyond all others. The amount of vir-
gin coniferous material standing ready for the axe
amounts, probably, to less than 1,500,000,000,000
feet.
This lumber consumption, to be sure, represents
only one-quarter of our wood consumption ; but it
is the important part, to supply which trees of large
size, of good form, of special quality, must be on
hand, and which it has taken a century or more to
produce, most of our lumber is furnished at pres-
ent by trees over 200 years old. The other three-
quarters of our consumption, for firewood and small
dimensions, can be easily supplied from inferior
material, the offal of the lumber trees and young
growth, although at present much body wood is
still cut into billets for firewood.
The layman, who has no experience with the
requirements and practice of lumber production,
can hardly realize what a small percentage of the
actual wood in a tree or an acre of forest growth
reappears in useful shape from the sawmill. Not
only is a large part of the tree in the virgin woods
often altogether unfit for sawing, being crooked or
knotty or rotten or windshaken, but the unavoidable
waste at the mill in shaping the material reduces
the output by at least one-third to two-thirds
of the contents of the logs that are placed before
the saw. That this mill waste increases rapidly
with the reduction in size of the log will become a
significant fact, when the heavy sizes of the virgin
42 ECONOMICS OF FORESTRY.
forest are exhausted and smaller sizes must satisfy
our demands.
It is, then, not woodlands, not the area of wooded
country, which has a meaning as far as material
forest resources are concerned, but the composition
and condition of the timber on that area determines
its value.
Thus nearly 50 per cent of Massachusetts is cov-
ered with a wood growth, but the lumber product
of that state would not suffice to supply the needs
of one-tenth of its population. Not only is there
hardly any lumber to be found ready for the axe,
but the percentage of growth capable of produc-
ing desirable material is exceedingly small.
Thousands of square miles in the United States
are in similar condition ; they are woodlands, but
the composition and condition of the forest growth
is such as to have no significance as regards lumber
supply for the present and for a long future.
The capacity of the forest to produce new sup-
plies depends both as to quantity and quality on
the climate, character of the soil, and still more on
the care which the forest receives.
In the uncared-for, natural, or virgin forest the
production is always much smaller than in the
forest properly managed, and, on the average, of a
much inferior kind. Not that the magnificent clear
lumber which we find in virgin woods could be
much improved in quality, but considering the
time and space, the product has been obtained
with the maximum waste of both.
THE FOREST AS A RESOURCE. 43
The virgin forest is always stocked largely with
very old, and necessarily often decaying trees,
which are doing little or nothing in the way of
growth or else are deteriorating faster in quality
than they increase in quantity ; then there are
myriads of saplings and small brush either of kinds
which are undesirable or of individual trees which
under the shade of the older will never have oppor-
tunity to develop into valuable wood. Moreover,
the virgin forest rarely covers fully the ground it
occupies, but usually leaves larger or smaller open-
ings growing to grass or shrubs, and among the
trees forming the forest there are a large number
which are not useful in the arts, tree weeds.
In addition dead trees and fallen timber always
occupy considerable space which is thus withdrawn
from wood production. Hence it is almost impos-
sible to give even an approximate estimate of what
the virgin forest actually produces, how much per
acre and year grows in it.
This is certain, that while the few trees which
overtower the general level of the rest of the
growth and. are fully developed, may have made
as much wood as the species in the soil and climate
could make, yet the useful wood production on the
whole acre has been far below its capacity.
The timber in our pineries which is considered
fit for sawing is mostly over one hundred and fifty
years old, and it has, therefore, taken at least a
century and a half to produce the five to ten thou-
44 ECONOMICS OF FORESTRY.
sand feet B.M. per acre, which are ordinarily har-
vested from these virgin woods. But this product
was probably ready for the axe these thousand
years, without increasing, the decay balancing the
new growth ; generations of similar large trees have
come to maturity, have fallen and decayed before
and during the one hundred and fifty years in
which the present crop developed. At the same
time, to judge from the number and character of
the decaying trunks which are found covering the
ground, these generations have not been very
many during the time that the present crop has
been growing : the land has largely been wasted
in producing useless material, brush and tree
weeds.
In other words, the natural forest resource as we
find it consists of an accumulated wood capital lying
idle and awaiting the hand of a rational manager
to do its duty as a producer of a continuous highest
revenue.
Such management, however, it does not receive
in the crude exploitations to which it is subjected
in all newly developed and developing countries ;
on the contrary, the wasteful use of the soil is only
intensified; for these exploitations, the operations
of the lumberman, consist in a mere removal of
the valuable portions of the growth, a cashing oi
the accumulated wood capital, without the slightest
reference to future revenues which might be
derived from it in the shape of wood growth. In
THE FOREST AS A RESOURCE. 45
fact he does not recognize or consider that the
forest is not merely a mine, but a reproducible re-
source, a living, growing crop, the product of the
soil and climate, which can be reproduced ad libi-
tum, in even superior quantity and quality to what
nature alone and unaided has done.
His methods of removing the standing timber
are not only wasteful, for under the present
economic conditions prevailing in most parts of the
United States hardly more than 20 to 30 per cent,
rarely 40 to 50 per cent, of the material in the felled
trees is utilized, but they decrease the capacity
of the land for producing valuable timber.
By culling out the most valuable kinds, leaving
undesirable kinds and poor trees to shade the
young growth that may have developed, he pre-
vents the reproduction of a valuable crop, and
hence such culled areas, while they still appear as
forested, have often lost their entire value as pro-
ducers of useful material ; the growth on the land
being an encumbrance rather, to be got rid of first,
before profitable use of the soil either for agri-
cultural crops or for useful wood crops can take
place.
It thus may happen that the charcoal burner,
who cuts the entire growth of wood, produces less
injury to the future condition of the forest resource,
for he gives at least equal chance to the valuable
and less valuable kinds to reoccupy the ground,
while the lumberman gives the advantage to the
46 ECONOMICS OF FORESTRY.
weeds in tree growth whenever he culls the better
kinds. Under these conditions, when the timber
is harvested and the land burned over, the condi-
tions are so changed and so variable as to preclude
every estimate of future supplies that might be
reproduced.
The rational way in treating the resource of
virgin woods, from national economic if not from
private pocket interest, would be as far as possible
to prepare first for a desirable reproduction by cut-
ting out the poor kinds and the useless brush, then
logging out first only the largest trees of the bet-
ter kinds with proper precaution against injury to
younger growth, and against fires, then gradually,
as younger trees grow on, the older ones may be
harvested and as much as possible in such a man-
ner that the young aftergrowth is given room and
light.
Thus, by mere care in utilizing the resource, not
only can all the product be harvested but a new
crop, increased in quantity, can be secured. From
such simple care we come to the finest methods of
forestry, for these are only different in the degree
of care, hardly in the kind.
By these methods man makes the forest resource
produce easily ^the treble and quadruple of what it
does when left alone; so that merely by*t4^ judi-
cious use the capacity of useful production grows.
How much intensive management can increase
the yield of the resource may be judged from the
THE FOREST AS A RESOURCE. 47
experiences of German forest administration. Here
the forest resources are nearly if not entirely
brought under rational management and are
treated as a crop, constantly furnishing harvests,
and being reproduced without diminishing the
wood capital.
The results in quantity of raw product depend
of course largely on soil, climate, and species, and
in amount of money returns, also on market con-
ditions and means of transportation.
These last conditions, if favorable, may render a
more intensive management and especially a closer
utilization of all kinds and classes of wood possible,
and hence the results differ widely.
Thus the more extensively managed Prussian
government forests, which with an area of 6,750,000
acres are perhaps also stocked on poorer soils and
are less favorably situated, produced as an average
for a series of years 42 cubic feet of timber wood
(over 3 inches diameter) per acre, those of Bavaria
55, those of Baden 59, of Wiirtemberg 67, while
the most intensively managed state forests of
Saxony of only 430,000 acres extent produced 90
cubic feet of wood per acre per year, of which 68
cubic feet was timber wood, the highest produc-
tion for such a large area.
In Austria from nearly 25,000,000 acres the cut
in 1890 was 43 cubic feet per acre ; and for France
the cut in the state forests, supposed to equal the
annual growth, was stated for 1876 at 50 cubic
48 ECONOMICS OF FORESTRY.
feet, while the more poorly managed communal
forests were capable of furnishing only 40.6 cubic
feet per acre.
The money returns depend, of course, in some
degree on the quantity of product, quality, and
local demand. In the densely populated, highly
industrial state of Saxony they were $4.00 per acre
net, as against $1.19 and $0.96 in the same period
for Bavaria and Prussia respectively. 1
A further illustration of the increase in yield
which comes with proper management of this re-
source is furnished by the Prussian state forest
administration; while during the years from 1829
to 1867 the cut was increased from 28 to 37 cubic
feet per acre and to 46.7 cubic feet in 1880, nearly
double what it was in 1829, yet the proportion of
old timber over 80 years, or stock of merchantable
timber on hand increased during the last 20 years
of the period from 23 per cent to 27 per cent,
1 How much the money results per acre vary according to the
species and the fact whether the production is directed more to the
production of firewood or of saw timber may be seen from a calcu-
lation by Schwappach (Forstpolitik), according to which the net
yield on an acre, stocked on best soil for a rotation of 1 20 years, i.e.
the crop being allowed to grow that length of time, would be, when
mainly firewood is produced, for pine, $375; for spruce, $672; for
beech, $456; when the management is directed to a greater pro-
duction of saw timber, these results can be increased for pine to
$1,470; for spruce, $3,195; for beech, $836, making the acre pro-
duce respectively 3 times, 4 times, and double the result. This con-
sideration may serve as a pointer to our New England woodland
owners, who are satisfied with the production of firewood.
THE FOREST AS A RESOURCE. 49
showing that the cut remained below the produc-
tion. In Saxony, the cut in the most intensively
managed state forests has been doubled in the last
fifty years, and yet the stock of wood capital
standing has increased over 16 per cent; while, in
1845, of the cut per acre of 56 cubic feet, n per
cent was saw timber, in 1893, of the 90 cubic feet
cut, 54 per cent was timber fit for the mill. The
gross revenue increased in that time 234 per cent,
and the net revenue over 80 per cent. A financial
calculation shows that the state's property has not
only paid 3 per cent continuously in revenue, but
has appreciated in value 24 per cent by mere
accumulation of material.
Since, then, these yields have been kept up
for a considerable period without decreasing the
amount of wood capital on hand, it is fair to
assume that these figures approach nearly to the
true producing capacity of these forest lands under
the methods employed.
Altogether, the 10,000,000 acres of German j,
state forests, managed in a conservative manner
for continuous production, average about 46 cubic
feet of wood (exclusive of brush and rootwood)
per year per acre, in which about 50 per cent, or
22 cubic feet, are millable product, log or bolt size.
It is significant to note that the private forests ]>
of the empire fall much below these amounts,
producing not more than 30 and 12 cubic feet per
acre respectively.
50 ECONOMICS OF FORESTRY.
According to a conservative calculation based
upon these experiences, the forest resource of Ger-
many represents, in round numbers, a capital value
of $180 per acre ($25 for the soil and $155 for the
stock of wood), paying a constant revenue of 3 per
cent on such capitalization; or since there are some-
what over 35,000,000 acres of forest, their capital
value is equal to $6,340,000,000, producing a con-
tinuous annual income of $190,000,000. The state
properties are, moreover, constantly improving, and
the revenue constantly increasing.
While, to the casual reader, this showing may
hardly appear as a very profitable business, we
must not forget that the result is obtained for the
most part from soils which would otherwise be
unproductive, for the forest areas in these coun-
tries are in the main confined to the non-agricul-
tural lands, and to such as may not with impunity
be deprived of their -forest cover.
Furthermore, from the standpoint of national
economy the productive employment of labor
directly or indirectly concerned is of moment,
representing in laborers' wages annually round
$150,000,000, namely, $35,000,000 for exploitation,
planting, road building, and hauling of forest prod-
ucts, not including rail and water transportation, .and
$115,000,000 for labor in industries concerned in
shaping the wood, so that not less than 1,000,000
laborers' families may be estimated to find support
from the forest.
THE FOREST AS A RESOURCE. 51
Although we are without the statistics which
would permit a similar statement regarding the
value of our own forest resource, especially as it
has not yet come to a stable condition as a man-
aged property, yet we may venture to make a rea-
sonable guess at some of its conditions, based upon
such statistical data as are at hand, and judgment
of probabilities.
Our consumption we can reasonably approxi-
mate with a round 25,000,000,000 cubic feet of
large-size material, for we do not use the brush-
wood to any extent. This, with an estimated
area of round 500,000,000 acres, means a cut per
acre of 50 cubic feet, while even the most san-
guine estimate of new growth for this vast and
variously stocked area could not be made to
exceed 10 cubic feet of such wood as we utilize
per acre and year, and is probably far below
this.
Of this large consumption, however, only one-
quarter, or 6,000,000,000 cubic feet goes into bolt
or log-size material for mill use, the rest being fire-
wood, for which, to be sure, also mostly log-size
material is used. The value of the mill material,
two-thirds of which is coniferous wood, represents
about $500,000,000.
An extravagant estimate of the available timber
supplies ready for the axe a guess which the
writer has ventured upon the basis of various
statistical data, experiences, and considerations of
52 ECONOMICS OF FORESTRY.
possibilities and probabilities would make the
stock on hand about as follows :
Billion feet,
B.M.
Western States
800
It is apparent that we are bound to exhaust these
stores in less time than they can be replaced, that
we are not living on interest, but are rapidly at-
tacking our wood capital, a process fully in keep-
ing with the development of any new country, but
also one against which reaction must set in in time,
if serious consequences are to be avoided.
Such reaction may be secured first through a
more economical use of the timber resources, for
our per capita consumption falls hardly short of
350 cubic feet, nearly nine times that of Germany
and twenty-five times that of England, and hence
a large margin is left for such economies.
Finally, however, forest management, as prac-
tised in other countries, will become an unavoid-
able necessity to secure the continued production
of needed wood supplies.
There is. one factor of national importance re-
sulting from the industries concerned in the con-
version of our virgin forests, which does not at all,
or not to the same extent, attach to them in other
countries, and which, in the end, is of more
moment than estimates of stumpage or land values
or values of products can express.
THE FOREST AS A RESOURCE. 53
Not only does the lumberman with the system-
atic development of his business, which has enabled
him to supply a superior article as cheaply as the
inferior one is sold in Europe, give rise to many
manufactories and industries and render possible
the development of distant agricultural regions,
which in turn renders profitable the building of
railroads and the employment of labor, but he has
been the pioneer in bringing the wilderness itself
within reach of civilized influences ; and while this
has often been done at an unnecessarily extrava-
gant sacrifice of much of our natural forest
resources, the opening up of these backwoods
must nevertheless be considered as a potent influ-
ence for good, resulting from his business.
Per aspera ad astra, through rough work to civ-
ilization, is the history of the settling of. the back-
woods, which the logger has accomplished.
Such settlement is necessary before forest man-
agement can be profitably applied to the remnants
of woodlands ; and while we may regret the waste-
fulness with which this settlement has been made,
we must consider it as a necessary step toward
an extension of civilized conditions.
CHAPTER III.//
THE FOREST AS A CONDITION. .
THE earth may be said to be a potential forest.
A cover of tree growth more or less dense is or has
been the natural condition at least of the larger
portion of the habitable earth; and of the entire
land surface not less than 60 per cent may be
classed as actual or potential woodland.
In the struggle for existence and for occupancy
of the soil between the different forms of vegeta-
tion, tree "growth has an advantage in its perennial
nature and in its elevation above its competitors for
light, the most essential element of life for most
plants. These characteristics, together with its
remarkable recuperative powers, assure to the
arborescent flora final victory over its competi-
tors, except where climatic and soil conditions are
not adapted to it.
The entire absence of tree growth from some
localities, such as the northern tundras and the
high peaks above timber line, is due both to tem-
perature and soil conditions. Here the two char-
acteristics of perennial life and persistent height
growth, become unfavorable, since extreme winter
54
THE FOREST AS A CONDITION. 55
temperatures above the snow cover, droughty
winter storms, and frosts every month in the year
can be endured only by those plants which have a
rapid cycle of development, or are sheltered near
the ground by the snow cover; the wet soil on
the tundras, frozen for most portions of the year,
or the thin soil on the Alpine peaks, adds to the
difficulties for deep-rooting species in their contest
with the lower vegetation. Again, in the interior
of continents and other localities unfavorably situ-
ated with reference to the great sources of mois-
ture and moisture-bearing currents, deficiency of
water, namely scant rainfall or low relative humid-
ity, or both, and excess of evaporation, are inimi-
cal to tree growth. Occasionally soil conditions,
especially with reference to drainage, and climatic
conditions combined, may be more favorable to the
graminaceous vegetation, at least for a time, giving
rise to pampas, prairies, and savannas ; or else the
unfavorable conditions combine to such a degree
as to give rise to deserts.
In addition, there are other inimical agencies in
the animal world, which prevent the progress of
forest growth and tend to preserve the prairie :
locusts, rodents, ruminants, buff alo, antelope, horses,
etc., impede the growth and spread of trees ; and
especially where compact soil and deficient mois-
ture conditions are leagued with these animals, the
change from prairie to forest is prevented, at least
for a time.
56 ECONOMICS OF FORESTRY.
Woodlands are the most unfavorable form of
vegetation for the life of ruminants, and therefore
for tl\e support of the largest number of men. For
food production, for agricultural pursuits, man
must subdue and remove the tree growth. Hence
forest devastation, forest destruction, is the begin-
* Tiing of civilization, its necessary prerequisite.
But while the 'removal and repression of the
wood, as an impediment to culture and foc^d pro-
duction, is a necessary step toward a higher ci^jli-
zation, the fact that at the same time it furnishes
material equally indispensable in building up a civ-
ilization requires consideration also, and the neces-
sity for its preservation in part, its continuance in
possession of some portions of the soil, is indicated.
Happily, the very soils and situations which are
not fit for agriculture are still capable of support-
ing tree growth ; and although the best timber, no
doubt, may be grown on land most favorable to
agricultural crops, the poorer soils and mountain
slopes unfit for plough land will still yield wood
crops of useful description.
In reducing, therefore, the woodland condition
to one adapted to the highest civilization, the rele-
gation of the different soils and sites to the differ-
ent uses to which they are best adapted, as fields,
pastures, or forest, is a problem of true national
economy.
Besides the consideration of a proper proportion
of woodlands to furnish the needful supply of wood
THE FOREST AS A CONDITION. 57
material, supply forests, there are other consid-
erations which enter into this problem of the eco-
nomic use of the soil and of distributing the various
conditions of its occupancy. These are based upon
knowledge of what we may call forest influences :
the influence which the existence of a forest cover
as a surface condition of the soil exerts upon soil
conditions, temperature conditions, and water con-
ditions, and by virtue of which we may charac-
terize them as protective forests. While the most
economic use of the soil for material production
necessitates relegation of forests to the poorer soils,
protective considerations necessitate its relegation
to certain localities.
While our modern philosophy of nature readily per-
ceives that all things are interdependent, and hence
no change can take place in one condition without
corresponding changes in other conditions, even
the oldest civilized men intuitively recognized or at
least suspected and appreciated the fact that the
forest cover had some influence upon its surround-
ings, upon climate, health, and water conditions of
a country, as is evidenced by many sayings of
Mosaic, Roman, and Greek writers, by which far-
sighted priests prevented their destruction. The
consecration of groves to religious use and various
mythological conceptions connected with them,
point in this direction.
Thus Homer calls the mountain woodlands the
habitations of the gods (re^evrj aOavdrow), in which
58 ECONOMICS OF FORESTRY.
the mortals never fell the trees, but where they fall
from age when their time has come. His tree and
woodland nymphs, originating in springs, seem to
suggest the suspected relation of forests and springs.
The legend of Erichthonios most beautifully hints
at the dependence of agriculture and forest cover :
when, by the felling of a holy oak, he has of-
fended the dryads, Ceres, the patroness of agricul-
ture, is asked to send one of their number to the
mountains of the Camasus to fetch Famine, who
takes hold of Erichthonios and kills him.
These relations, thus darkly hinted at in earliest
times, became more clearly recognized by philo-
sophical writers. While Aristotle, in his " Na-
tional Economy," points out that an assured supply
of accessible wood material is one of the necessary
conditions of existence for a city, Plato, in his
" Civitas," writes of the " sickening of the country "
in consequence of deforestation. The Roman
" Twelve Table Laws," the organic law of the
republic, recognizes the necessity of forest protec-
tion, and Cicero, in his second Philippica, designates
as enemies to the public interest those engaged in
forest devastation. Laws prohibiting forest de-
struction in the mountain forests of the Apennines
were generally enforced in the early middle ages ;
as, for instance, in Florence, where deforestation
within one mile of the summit of the Apennines
was forbidden, and it was only about the first part
of the eighteenth century that these wise provisions
THE FOREST AS A CONDITION. 59
which had preserved the cover of the higher
mountain ranges were abolished and the present
sad condition of things was inaugurated in Italy.
Mesopotamia, once praised as the paradise of
fertility, where, according to Herodotus, the cul-
ture of the grape could not succeed on account
of its moisture, has become a sand waste, in which
the Euphrates, once an ample source of water sup-
ply, is drowned. Most of the springs and brooks
of Palestine, and with them the fertility still cele-
brated in the early middle ages, have gone. Greece
shows the progress of a similar decadence ; Sicily,
once the never-failing granary of the Roman Em-
pire, once well wooded, now entirely deforested,
suffers from repeated failures of crops. The so-
called fumari, deep gullies in gravel, filled with
washed debris, encroach after every rain upon the
fertile fields, emptying them of water in a few hours.
The first definite expression of such relations
of forest cover to climate appears in a biography
of Admiral Almirante, written before 1540, by
the Spaniard, Fernando Colon, in the following
words :
" The Admiral ascribed the many invigorating,
cooling rains, to which he was exposed while sail-
ing along the coast of Jamaica, to the extent and
density of the woods which covered the slopes of
the mountains, and adds that formerly Madeira,
the Canaries, and Azores enjoyed the same abun-
dance of water, but that since the woods which
60 ECONOMICS OF FORESTRY.
had shaded the ground have been decimated, the
rains have become less frequent." Similar lan-
guage is laid into the mouth of Christopher Colum-
bus in the " Historia de S. D. Fernando Columbo,"
1571, which is supposed, however, to be a spurious
work.
But it was not until the beginning of the eigh-
teenth century that both in France and Germany
voices became loud regarding the evil effects of
forest devastation, and then, too, the growing
deficiency of material supplies formed a still
more prominent argument for action. Thus, in
France, where in spite of Sully's celebrated
epigrammatic warning, "La France pMra faute
des hois," and Colbert's forest ordinance of 1669
only indifferent attention to a conservative forest
policy was paid, the members of the academic
royale, Buff on (1739), and later the Marquis de
Mirabeau (1750), exerted themselves to bring
about a better conception of the value of forests.
Buffon expressed himself, as a result of extended
observations, that " the longer a country is inhab-
ited, the poorer it becomes in forest growth and
water." But the most forcible demonstration of
this relation between woods and waters was had
as a consequence of the extensive forest devasta-
tion which took place during the years of the
French Revolution, when an unrestricted people
in their greed denuded' large tracts of mountain
woodlands in the southern mountain districts of
THE FOREST AS A CONDITION. 6 1
that country. So soon did the evil effects become
apparent, that even in 1792 the governor of the
Department of Basses- Alpes reported : " The clear-
ings progress rapidly ; from Dique to Entrevaut
the mountain slopes have been denuded of the
finest forest growth ; the smallest brooks have
grown into torrents, and several communities have
lost by floods their harvests, herds, and houses."
In 1803 the agricultural society of Marseilles
complains as follows : " The winters have become
severer, the summers drier and hotter, the bene-
ficial rains of spring and autumn fail ; the Mejeanne
river, flowing east and west, tears away its banks
with the smallest thunder-storm, and inundates the
richest meadows ; but nine months of the year its
bed is dry, since the springs have given out ; irregu-
lar destructive thunder-showers are of yearly occur-
rence, and rain is deficient at all seasons."
Yet, in spite of these early warnings, which were
supported by theoretical discussions of such sound
reasoners as Boussingault, Becquerel, and others,
action to stem the destruction and to recuperate
the lost ground was obtained only within the last
forty years, after at least 1,000,000 acres of moun-
tain forest had been denuded, and all aftergrowth
had been destroyed by fire and excessive grazing,
in consequence of which the mountain streams,
turned into torrents, had laid waste about 8,000,000
acres of tillable land, and the population of eigh-
teen departments had been impoverished or driven
62 ECONOMICS OF FORESTRY.
out. Now, although with the expenditure of more
than $40,000,000 only a small part has been recu-
perated, the efficiency of a forest growth in hold-
ing the soils of the slopes and retarding the
run-off water seems experimentally demonstrated
beyond peradventure.
In Germany the greatest exponent of natural
philosophy, Alex, von Humboldt, from observa-
tions in many parts of the globe, came to the
conclusion that forest conditions and climatic
conditions are intimately related. Among the
causes which tend to lower the mean annual
temperature, he cited in his " Cosmos," " extensive
woods, which hinder the insolation of the soil by
the vital activity of their foliage, producing in-
tense evaporation owing to the extension of these
organs, and increasing the surface that is cooled
by radiation, and acting consequently in a three-
fold manner, by shade, evaporation, and radia-
tion ; " and in another place he gives expression
to his conviction of the relation of forest cover
and water conditions in the often-cited words,
" How foolish does man appear to me in destroy-
ing the mountain forests, for thereby he deprives
himself of wood and water at the same time."
In the beginning of this century, when the
tendency of dismembering and selling the forest
property accumulated by the state governments
began to spread, in part as a consequence of
Adam Smith's doctrine, those opposed to such a
THE FOREST AS A CONDITION. 63
policy, especially in Germany, made vigorous prop-
aganda for the theory of the protective value of
forest cover, and, as is natural for propagandists,
made many sweeping and extravagant claims, and
an extensive literature, characterized by vigorous
declamation of unsubstantiated facts, and by ab-
sence of exact data, was the result.
The condition of Palestine and other Eastern
countries, of Greece, Sicily, and Spain, once fertile,
now more or less desolate, was cited, and morals
were drawn from these experiences ; discrimina-
tion as to historic evidences of cause and effect
was mostly wanting, so that this historic method
of discussing the problem has been largely dis-
credited.
Systematic attempts to establish by experiments
and exact methods the truth in the matter, at least
as far as climatic influence is concerned, were made
only within the last thirty-five or forty years. In
France, Becquerel began in 1858 a series of obser-
vations on temperatures within and without a forest
cover; in 1866, the forestry school at Nancy was
engaged in determining moisture conditions at sta-
tions in the forest, and later in the open ; and
several other investigators, both in France and
Germany, carried on such observations about the
same time. In 1868, the Bavarian government in-
stituted an exhaustive series of observations under
Dr. Ebermayer, to determine the climatic condi-
tions within a forest area. Switzerland followed
64 ECONOMICS OF FORESTRY.
with three pairs of parallel stations, and in 1875
Prussia established an investigation, which still con-
tinues, with seventeen stations, observations being
taken at each on instruments set up within the
forest and another set in a neighboring field. In
1884, Austria instituted a series of radial stations
at which not only the difference of meteorological
data within and without a forest, but the influence
of the forest on its surroundings, were to be meas-
ured directly.
Although, by these many and long continued
observations, some valuable facts have been estab-
lished, and our ideas as to the elements which enter
into the problem have been cleared up, the real
object of inquiry, namely, whether and how far
forests exercise an influence upon climate, cannot
be said to have progressed far to a solution, and it
is questionable whether the present methods will
ever lead to a solution.
The reasons for this failure are at least three-
fold. Both instruments and methods of meteoro-
logical inquiry are as yet unsatisfactory. When,
for instance, rain gauges will, according to their
construction, the manner of their position, and the
character of the wind and rain, during the same
storm, register amounts varying from 7 to 40 per
cent, we are without any means of applying a con-
stant factor of correction, and it would appear that
no reliance can be placed on such measurements for
the purpose of determining the difference of rain-
THE FOREST AS A CONDITION. 65
fall within and without the forest. The difficulty
of finding stations within and without the forest
which differ in no other respects than the forest
cover, excluding all topographic and other influ-
ences upon meteorological phenomena, is well-nigh
insurmountable.
Finally, whatever we may be able to do in ascer-
taining the single meteorological data that give us
an insight into the differences regarding these single
elements under varying conditions, the difference
in their combined effect, which we know as climate,
still requires the application of a philosophical mind
to the interpretation of the data. Hence we find
that not only are the collected data often discord-
ant, but the same data have been used by students
of the question both to assert and to deny proof of
the existence of forest influences. In other words,
the problem is too complicated for our present
means and methods to be settled by the mathe-
matical method.
We are, therefore, for the present, thrown back
upon the method of general observations in the field
and the application of reasoning from well-known
physical laws, for this is one of those problems
which withdraw themselves from exact mathemati-
cal treatment now, and we must rely upon empiri-
cism until we have further advanced in developing
the means and methods of meteorological inquiry.
The immaterial influence of the forest is claimed
to extend in at least four or five more or less sepa-
66 ECONOMICS OF FORESTRY.
rate, yet, nevertheless, more or less closely related,
directions, namely :
1. Upon the climatic conditions within its own
limits and beyond.
2. Upon the distribution and character of the
waterflow.
3. Upon the mechanical condition and erosion
of the soil under its cover.
4. Upon the health conditions.
5. Upon the ethics of a people.
This last influence is one which we cannot measure
or even argue with any determinable force, but
which we ourselves may feel more or less strongly,
according to the degree to which our emotions in
general are susceptible. In either of the other
directions in which an influence of forest cover
is asserted, the mechanical obstruction which it
represents is the principal effective element; the
physiological functions of the living plant playing,
to be sure, a part, but of much less importance,
probably, than has been often supposed.
It requires no instrument to find out that the
effective temperature is higher when the sun has
full sway upon our skulls than if we interpose the
shade of a densely foliaged tree to obstruct the
sun's rays ; on the other hand, the cooling breeze,
which may pass over the open field, is also ob-
structed by the forest growth, and its absence may
make the air temperature appear higher, even in
spite of the shade. Again, it stands to reason
THE FOREST AS A CONDITION. 67
that a dense old growth, such as one may find
here and there on the Pacific coast, with trees
towering 250 to 300 feet above ground and so
close together that no ray of light reaches the soil,
must have a different effect from the low and
scanty growth of cedar and pinon which we find
on the slopes of the Rocky Mountains and else-
where, or the young coppice growth of New Eng-
land, interposing but little shade. Whether the
forest lies to the leeward or in the direction of the
prevailing wind, whether it be coniferous and ever-
green through the year, or only summer-green, will
also have to be considered in estimating its pro-
tective value.
While the single tree undoubtedly acts in the
same manner as a collection of trees, its influence
cannot reach very far beyond its surroundings, nor
can it be very appreciable. It is also quite evi-
dent that neither a few scattered trees and bushes,
nor a belt of trees, like a wind-break, nor a small
clump of trees in a large open field, nor even an
extensive orchard, can act singly as practically
appreciable climatic factors, although all these
aggregations of trees must have their influence
upon their surroundings.
It is the effectiveness with which sun and wind
are excluded from the soil, and thereby air tem-
peratures and air humidity are modified, that de-
termines also the degree and distance beyond the
limits of the cause to which the modification is felt.
68 ECONOMICS OF FORESTRY.
In other words, while the quality of the influence
remains the same, its degree, and especially its
effective and appreciable value, must vary as much
as there are varying local conditions possible. The
size and character of the forest, its density, height,
situation, and composition, are of more importance
in determining its influence than is usually realized
by those who discuss the question.
Another matter which it is also necessary to
accentuate, because it is usually overlooked, is that
the influence, if any, can only be of local charac-
ter, it must therefore be discussed only with refer-
ence to given local conditions. It cannot be put
in comparison with that of the large oceans, the
great air currents, the extensive mountain ranges,
which determine the general or cosmic climate.
The forest can modify only locally the effects of
this general climate, in about the same manner as
we modify it by building houses around us and
heating them, whereby we change the temperature
and moisture conditions at least in our habitation ;
or by building cities, which we know differ, as far
as our feeling is, concerned, from the climate of
the adjoining country.
It may also be proper here to state that, in view
of the fact that whatever influence exists, it is
dependent on local conditions, the attempt to fix
a certain general percentage of forest cover as
necessary for a country is childish, and also that
there are conditions where the existence of forest
THE FOREST AS A CONDITION. 69
growth is at least practically prevented by climatic
conditions, although the limits are by no means
known, and hence no expectation can be had of
utilizing this influence in these conditions.
Again, since undoubtedly the forest influence
on surroundings, as far as climatic factors are con-
cerned, can extend only to a limited distance, the
most effective result must be secured by alterna-
tions of forest cover and open land, hence the dis-
tribution of these two conditions is of as much
importance as the relative size of the parcels.
Without going into the detail of the difference
of meteorological conditions that may exist in the
forest and the adjoining open country, it may be.
briefly stated that the tendency of a forest cover
is to reduce extremes of high and low temperature
in about the same manner as does a sheet of water,
and this effect is most noticeable in the hot months.
But whether and how far this temperature differ-
ence is felt outside is not as yet determined. Nor
do we know much regarding the important influence
on the moisture conditions of the air and on the
rainfall. The tendency of a forest growth would
be, on account of its cooling effect, to keep the air
within and to some extent above it nearer satura-
tion, and as a consequence it might occur that
moisture-bearing currents passing over would pre-
cipitate their moisture more readily above or near
the forest growth. Whether they do is still doubt-
ful, and indeed, to make an appreciable difference
70 ECONOMICS OF FORESTRY.
in the amount of rainfall, it would appear that the
forest area must be of considerable extent.
Although some writers have, from existing meas-
urements, argued an influence on precipitation,
others have denied it. As stated above, we hold
that no reliable rainfall measurements are, as yet,
obtainable, and we must leave the question open.
The more readily conceivable effect of a forest
growth on moisture conditions of the air is that
which it has in common, probably in increased
degree, with the so-called wind-break. By break-
ing the velocity of dry winds and possibly enriching
them somewhat with moisture, the rate of evapo-
ration over a neighboring field is considerably re-
duced, so that, in regions where winds are common,
the protection shows itself in increased crops on
protected fields.
The same protection against cold winds may
make life more bearable, and enable the growing
of crops which could otherwise not succeed. Thus
it is believed that during the abnormal frosts
which a few years ago killed most of the orange
groves in Florida, many which had good forest
shelter survived. It is also reported that in France
the cultivation of the olive has become impossible
in the more northern departments, owing to de-
forestation. On the other hand, it may happen
that the opening toward warmer southern winds
may modify a severer climate favorably. This
consideration again points to the entirely local
THE FOREST AS A CONDITION. 71
character of forest influences, which may change
their value.
As far, then, as forest influence on climate is
concerned, we must admit that no satisfactory con-
clusions have been reached, excepting as to the
favorable wind-break effect. That wholesale forest
destruction and removal must change the climatic
conditions of the denuded area seems an entirely
reasonable assumption.
The climatic influence of the forest upon its
neighborhood would finally consist in the commu-
nication of its own climatic characteristics; i.e.
shorter range of thermometrical extremes and more
even humidity, in general modifying extremes of
winter and summer.
The influence on waterflow, although much fewer
attempts at exact determination have been made,
seems much more generally admitted. Here, too,
extravagant claims have been made as to the
efficacy of forest cover, while other factors which
influence waterflow have been often given less
consideration than they deserve. Thus the topog-
raphy and the geologic structure exert necessarily
a potent influence, which a forest cover may either
not be sufficient or else is not needed to modify.
The philosophy of the influence on waterflow
rests mainly upon the recognition that the rain and
snow waters penetrate more readily a forest-cov-
ered soil than one that is bared of this protective
cover. The action here is of a threefold nature :
72 ECONOMICS OF FORESTRY.
first, the mechanical obstruction which the foliage
offers reduces the amount of the water which
reaches the soil and lengthens the time during
which it can do so ; the foliage, together with the
loose litter of the forest floor, also reduces the
compacting effect of the raindrops and the drying
effect of sun and wind, and keeps the soil granular,
so that the water can easily percolate ; then the
mechanical obstruction which the litter, underbrush,
and trunks, and possibly here and there moss, offer
to the rapid surface drainage of waters, lengthens
the time during which this percolation may take
place; and thirdly, the network of deeply pene-
trating roots, live and decayed, offers additional
channels for a change of surface drainage into sub-
drainage. In addition, it is claimed that, owing to
the influence on temperature and moisture condi-
tions of the air, together with reduced evaporation,
more water becomes available to the soil, and cer-
tainly the fact that the water, by ready percolation,
is withdrawn from the dissipative effects of sun and
wind must tend in this direction.
The sponge theory so often proclaimed by lay
writers is rather a misconception of physical laws
and of the behavior of a sponge, although a moss-
cover which is by no means the usual cover of
a forest soil may be of great value in preventing
rapid surface drainage. This is attested by Robert
Gerwig, the builder of the St. Gotthard railway :
" One German square mile of moss-cover," he
THE FOREST AS A CONDITION. 73
says, "can retain 1,000,000 to 1,500,000 cubic
meters of water (i English square mile will hold
14,000,000 to 20,000,000 cubic feet). It will, in
many cases, depend on a difference of 20 to 30
cubic meters (700 to 1000 cubic feet) per second
of waterflow from the surface of a square mile,
whether a flood will be dangerous or not. The
bare slope would give up these 20 to 30 cubic
meters per second, and deliver the 1,000,000
to 1,500,000 cubic meters in 15 hours. If it is
remembered that damaging flood-waters are of
short duration, it becomes evident how even mod-
erate assumptions regarding the amount of water
retained in the moss-cover (or in the forest litter
and soil of a forest) produce favorable results."
It stands to reason that in this direction the con-
dition of the forest cover must have much to do
with the degree of its effectiveness, and that in
this connection the condition of the forest floor is
of more moment than that of the leaf canopy.
Hence we may find that while the tree growth
may be left intact, yet, if the loose litter and under-
brush has been burned off and the soil been com-
pacted by the tramping of sheep and cattle, the
effectiveness in regulating waterflow is much im-
paired.
It is also apparent that with heavy rainfalls
and on steep declivities on compact and sparsely
fissured limestone rock, even the best-kept forest
growth may not be capable of retarding the surface
74 ECONOMICS OF FORESTRY.
drainage long enough to prevent a resultant flood
in the river.
Particular interest in this connection attaches to
the influence of forest cover on the melting of snow
masses, which gives rise to spring floods. In the
dense forest, the snow is usually less deep, a part
being intercepted by the crowns of trees and evap-
orated, and lies more uniformly, owing to the absence
of drifting winds. It is a well-noted experience
that it will lie in the shade of the woods from one
to two weeks longer, i.e. melt so much more slowly.
These elements of distribution in space and time
must have an influence upon the rapidity of sur-
face flow, and if the soil is not frozen, time is
given for percolation and gradual removal.
Here, again, weather conditions may be unfavor-
able, the soil remaining frozen and the melting
proceeding rapidly, when the forest effect may be
lost. Nevertheless, while the forest effect may
become powerless in exceptional cases and under
special conditions, the tendency of changing sur-
face drainage into subterranean drainage must be
beneficial in the majority of cases. It may also
happen that the soil conditions, by their loose
structure, as in cinder cones, lava, or loose sand
hills, are such as to permit percolation readily,
when the office of the forest cover can be dispensed
with.
The value of the change of surface drainage
into subterraneous drainage becomes apparent in
THE FOREST AS A CONDITION. 75
the more even riverflow. While the waters that
run off over the surface collect rapidly and are car-
ried away in floods, giving rise to high water stages,
the percolated water finds its way into the river
slowly by underground channels, feeding, on its
way, springs and brooks, or is collected as ground
water by seepage at lower levels.
This distribution of the water, which lengthens
the time during which the atmospheric precipita-
tion can be usefully employed, and which, under
circumstances, may lengthen the supply for years,
the water reaching the river years after it fell on
the mountain top, renders the riverflow indepen-
dent of wet and dry seasons, and equalizes its
flow, a condition of most importance for all in-
dustries dependent on water-power, navigation, irri-
gation, etc.
This forest effect on the run-off of terrestrial
waters is naturally greatest and most important in
mountainous regions, where the water has the
tendency to collect quickly and to be carried off
rapidly, but it also exists in the level plain, where
it has the tendency to elevate the general ground-
water level and thereby make a reserve available
during times of drouth.
In close connection with these effects of forest
cover upon the flow of water stands its influence
on the stability of the soil. The tendency of the
rain waters falling on hills and mountains is to carry
in their descent to the valley loose particles of soil
76 ECONOMICS OF FORESTRY.
with them, and as the little rivulets run together
and acquire force, gravel, stones, and even large
rocks and boulders are broken loose and moved to
lower levels by the torrent. This action, known
as erosion, takes place everywhere more or less
rapidly, according to the presence or absence and
character of the soil cover, and no better and more
efficient protection against it is to be found than a
dense forest cover.
A grass cover may also protect the soil under-
neath against the erosive action of the waters,
whenever the declivity is not too steep, but since
the rains do not penetrate through the dense
greensward of the mountain meadows, and hence
are carried off superficially, they acquire a mo-
mentum which finally leads to the same gullying
and erosive action which a naked soil experiences.
The forest alone is capable of obstructing the
mechanical effect of the rainfall upon the soil, and
retarding the rapid surface drainage which be-
comes the carrier of the debris. Here, again, the
condition of the forest floor, rather than the tree
growth, is the effective element.
If it is considered that, in the United States, the
amount of erosion at present may be estimated at
200 square miles per year, rendering thereby large
areas of fertile soil unfertile and at least tempo-
rarily useless for human occupancy, the economic
importance of a conservative policy for the moun-
tain forests may be readily apparent.
THE FOREST AS A CONDITION. 77
The experiences of France in this particular
are incontrovertible arguments, and furnish, in
later years, experimental evidence of the effec-
tiveness of a forest cover in arresting the progress
of erosion. France, too, furnishes perhaps the
most striking and most extensive example of how
the loose, shifting sands, the dunes and sand hills
in the plain, may be changed by a forest cover
from a useless, nay dangerous, condition into one
of profitable occupation.
Regarding the sanitary influence of forests, there
have also been many claims made which cannot be
substantiated. The original principal claim was
that the physiological action of the foliage, in ab-
sorbing carbonic acid from the air and exhaling
oxygen, made forest air healthier, but it has been
calculated that the amount of oxygen so exhaled is
insignificant in proportion to the needs of human
respiration, and is probably offset by the increase
of carbonic acid resulting from the decomposition
of organic matter in the forest.
Then it was claimed that by the transpiration of
the foliage wet ground may be drained, and thus
made healthier, and in this connection the Eucalyp-
tus plantations at the monastery of Tre Fontane in
the Campagna Romana are frequently cited as hav-
ing removed the malarial conditions of that region.
As a matter of fact, the fevers still occur, even
under the Eucalyptus plantation, although more
rarely. This comparative improvement seems
78 ECONOMICS OF FORESTRY.
attributable mainly to the rebuilding of the old
Roman drainage canals, which had been allowed
to collapse, and the malaria-breeding mosquitoes
have been reduced thereby. In any case, where
drainage is to be secured, artificial canalization
could probably be made more effective than forest
planting. Nevertheless, a sanitary influence exists,
as every one can experience, but it is mainly of a
negative character : absence of smoke, dust, obnox-
ious gases, and of strong winds which characterize
the air of cities, and which to some extent (at least
dust and winds) occur in the open, renders a forest
region more healthful.
Furthermore, it has been found that forest air is
more free from pathogenic microbes. Especially
those bacilli which develop in the soil, like the
cholera, typhus, and yellow fever bacilli, find in
the forest soil less favorable conditions for develop-
ment, and, owing to the absence of strong winds,
are less apt to be carried into the air, where they
would be breathed by man. In fact, in the dense
forest, where the variation of soil moisture is small
and decomposing humus keeps the soil acid, no
pathogenic microbes have as yet been found.
Here r too, to be sure, the degree of effectiveness
must depend on the condition of the forest and
especially of the forest floor.
It is also not impossible that the opening of
large swampy forest districts may improve health
conditions by changing moisture conditions; this
THE FOREST AS A CONDITION. 79
especially with regard to malarial diseases. These
are not produced by bacilli, but by parasitic pro-
tozoa {Plasmodium malaria}, which seem to thrive
in the swamp conditions. As long as the water
covers the soil, there is no danger, but as soon as
the water recedes, the plasmodia develop, and with
the assistance of mosquitoes or by other means are
communicated to man.
A further indirect sanitary influence must not be
overlooked in our modern economy of city life. The
recuperation of bodily energy and of spirit which
an occasional sojourn in the cool, bracing, and in-
spiriting forest air brings to the weary dweller in
the city must not be underestimated as an element
in the general health conditions of a people. In
addition, the question of a good water supply is
being recognized as more and more dependent
upon the condition of the sources of supply.
Knowing that a large number of diseases are
bred in soils, it becomes essential that the drinking
water carry as little soil particles' as possible, and
although, by artificial means of filtration and sedi-
mentation, the river water may be freed of sand
and bacilli, we would have more assurance of
freedom from disease, if the water came from a
well-forested region, where, as we have seen, no
pathogenic bacteria are produced, and if the wash-
ing of the soil into the river on the way to the
reservoirs were prevented by proper attention to
preventing the erosion along its banks.
80 ECONOMICS OF FORESTRY.
Summarizing the present knowledge of forest
influences and viewing it from the standpoint of
the practical economist, it will appear that there is
sufficient evidence of the value of properly located
forest areas, as affecting at least water and soil
conditions in a marked degree, and in a minor
degree health and climatic conditions, to make the
subject of forest conservancy one of great impor-
tance. Especially is this the case with the forest
cover on mountain sides and in the hill country,
where the destructive tendencies of the water are
apt to gather force, if not modified by the obstruc-
tion of the forest floor.
It is always to be kept in mind that not the
extent, so much as the location and condition of
the forest cover is of greatest importance, and that
the effect can be determined only with reference
to local conditions in every particular case.
The protection of the soil cover at the head
waters of streams thus becomes a concern of state
activity, and the* establishment of forest belts in
drouth-ridden countries, or the fixation of sand
dunes and drifting sands, becomes a public work of
internal improvement.
In the Appendix will be found further details
regarding the measured forest influences, in the
form of a resume^ taken from Bulletin VII,
Forestry Division, U. S. Dept. of Agriculture,
entitled " Forest Influences," 1893, in which this
question is exhaustively discussed.
CHAPTER IV
FOREST AND FORESTRY DEFINED
FROM age to age the relations of man to man,
and of man to nature, change according to the
development of science and art and the progress
of civilization in general. What was important
once has lost its significance to-day, and what
appears to us highly significant at the present
time had no existence in the minds of our ances-
tors. With these changes in our conditions and
conceptions the language used in expressing them
also changes ; not only does our vocabulary in-
crease, but words long used change their meaning,
sometimes so radically, that little is left of the
first meaning.
The conception and the word " forest " has in
this way through historical development experi-
enced a change to such an extent, that the original
conception and meaning are almost, if not entirely,
obliterated. In this change, both of conception
and meaning, Teutonic development has made its
impress. The word of Old High German origin,
" voorst," used to designate the segregated prop-
erty of the king, or leader of the tribe. Toward
G 81
82 ECONOMICS OF FORESTRY.
the end of the eighth century, latinized into
"foresta," or " forestis," it assumed a more re-
stricted meaning, namely, as referring to all the
royal woods, in which the right to hunt was re-
served by the king, either for himself or for those
of his vassals to whom he ceded the right to the
chase. (See Appendix.) Gradually, however, the
kings employed their royal prerogative of forbid-
ding any kind of action, under threat of the "ban,"
in extending their exclusive right to the chase, not
only to neighboring woods, but to fields as well.
By and by the temporal and spiritual princes
and feudal lords succeeded in having their own
holdings protected in the same manner, and de-
clared as "ban forests," as far as the hunting was
concerned, and by the thirteenth century this pre-
rogative was freely exercised by noble landholders.
Under the plea of protecting the chase, the rights
to cut wood (which had been free to all), to clear
for agricultural use, and to pasture, were gradually
restricted, and these restrictions, which had referred
at first only to the property of the lords, were soon
extended to apply also to the property of others
which lay within the " ban," so that at the end of
the ninth century a "forest" meant a large tract
of land, including woods as well as pastures, fields,
and whole villages, on which not only the rights to
the chase were reserved to the king or his vassals,
but the persons living on it in all their relations
fell under the special jurisdiction of the "forest
FOREST AND FORESTRY DEFINED. 83
laws." It was then a legal term, and had no refer-
ence to natural but only to legal conditions, with
the royal prerogative, the right to hunt, as a basis.
Afforesting and disafforesting were correspondingly
the legal terms which denoted the placing of dis-
tricts under the forest ban and forest laws, or their
release from these restrictions.
The forests of Dean, of Windsor, of Epping, of
Sherwood, and the New Forest, in England, made
famous by legend and history, were such districts,
set aside by the Norman kings for their pastime. 1
The care which, under the forest laws, was
bestowed upon the woodlands by special officers
called foresters, first for the sake of preserving the
game, then for the sake of continuity of wood sup-
plies, and the later release of the fields from the
application of these laws, no doubt had a tendency
to restrict the term forest again to the woodlands
alone, until finally, with the decadence of the regal
prerogative, the old meaning wore away entirely,
and it referred no longer to a legal but to a
natural condition, land covered with wood growth
1 It is interesting to note that this mediaeval conception and use
of the terms lingered until nearly the present day, as evidenced by
a suit at court, decided in 1862, instituted by one of the dukes of
Athole in Scotland, who hold extensive mountain districts either in
their own right or as " foresters " for the crosvn, in virtue of which
one of them claimed the power of preventing his neighbor, the
Laird of Lude, from killing deer on his own lands, and the right to
enter the Laird's lands himself for the purpose. The courts decided
adversely.
84 ECONOMICS OF FORESTRY.
in contradistinction to prairies and plains, meadow
and field.
In the German language, with the more intensive
development in the rational treatment of the wood-
lands, the limitation is carried farther, the word
Forst being specific, and meaning the woods which
are placed under management, the woods as an
object of man's cultivatory activity, while the term
Wald is generic, and refers to the natural condition
of the soil cover. In the English language this
distinction has not yet become settled ; especially
in the United States the lexicographers seem to
consider large extent and virgin or natural growth,
an absence of cultivation, as distinctive attributes
to the word forest, while the word woodlands is
vaguely and inconsistently defined as the generic
term for land covered or interspersed with trees
and of less extent than forest, or else land on which
" trees are suffered to grow either for fuel or tim-
ber " (Webster), accentuating thereby relation to
the uses of man. (See Appendix.)
Etymology, linguistic sense, and as we believe
actual usage, especially in the literature of later
times, since the subject of forests and forestry has
become prominent, would warrant us to define, more
precisely, woodland as the general or generic
term for land naturally covered with woody growth
in contradistinction to land not so covered ; forest
as the restricted or specific term, namely, woodland
whether of natural growth or planted by man, con-
FOREST AND FORESTRY DEFINED. 85
sidered in relation to the economic interests of man
and from the standpoint of national economy, as
an object of man's care, a woodland placed under
management for "forest purposes" and, we may
also add, exhibiting "forest conditions" These
last limitations are important ones and lead to the
necessity of further definition.
By the first restriction we exclude at once those
lands covered with trees or woody growth, which
serve other than forest purposes, such as coffee
plantations, orchards, which are grown for fruit,
roadside plantings and parks, which are planted or
kept for shade and ornament, wind-breaks con-
sisting of single rows of trees, which, although like
the other conditions of tree growth mentioned may
answer some functions of a forest growth, are not
primarily intended to fulfil forest purposes and
lack what we have called "forest conditions."
The first and foremost purpose of a forest growth
is to supply us with wood material ; it is the sub-
stance of the trees itself, not their fruit, their beauty,
their shade, their shelter, that constitute the pri-
mary object of this class of woodland.
With the settlement of the country and the grow-
ing needs of civilization this use must and will
attach as an essential predicate, a fundamental
requisite, to any woodland left as such, whatever
other purposes it may or may not be designed to
subserve, temporarily or continuously.
Thus if the state of New York withdraws from
86 ECONOMICS OF FORESTRY.
such use a large woodland area in the Adirondacks
to subserve solely other purposes, this can be only
a temporary withdrawal from its main purpose
which time and intelligent conception of rational
economy will reverse.
Just so, if a private individual sets apart for the
purpose of a game preserve a piece of woodland,
and keeps out the axe which would utilize in part
the useful timber, he frustrates the primary object
of the forest growth temporarily and commits an
economic mistake.
Occasionally it is not the wood but some other
part of the tree itself that is the main object of the
harvest, as for instance the bark for tanning pur-
poses or the resinous contents which are transformed
into naval stores. Yet, as a rule, the wood too is
utilized and at least forest conditions are main-
tained in the production of the crop. But when
it comes to a maple sugar orchard, expressly grown
.for the purpose, or the cork oak plantation, man-
aged for the cork, the primary object not only
begins to vanish, but also the second criterion of
a forest, namely, forest conditions, is absent, and
this kind of woodland ceases to fall properly under
the term "forest," the designation of orchard or
plantation being more appropriate.
Besides the great primary object of forest growth,
that of furnishing useful materials either of wood
or parts of the wood substance, there has been rec-
ognized indistinctly through all ages, more clearly
FOREST AND FORESTRY DEFINED. 87
during the last century and with greater precision
during the last thirty to forty years, that forest
growth serves an object in the economy of nature
and of man which under certain conditions may
become equally if not more important than this
direct primary one.
We have learned that in general all conditions
in nature are interrelated, and in particular that
the condition of the surface cover of the ground not
only influences more or less potently the condition
of the soil and meteorological factors under the
cover, but that this influence reaches even beyond
the limits of the cover to its neighborhood ; and, with
the recognition of this influence upon soil, temper-
ature, and water conditions a new important forest
use, namely, as a protective cover and climatic
factor, has become established, so that we may dis-
tinguish, according to whether the one or the other
purpose becomes more prominent, supply forests
and protection forests, although the latter invariably
also furnish supplies, and finally, when pleasure
and game cover are the main objects, we may speak
of luxury forests.
To fulfil either or both of the first two, more
important functions satisfactorily or continuously,
to furnish most useful material and to act as a
protective cover, it is needful that the woodland
designated as forest exhibit what we have called
"forest conditions."
A forest in the sense in which we use the term,
88 ECONOMICS OF FORESTRY.
as an economic factor, is by no means a mere col-
lection of trees, but an organic whole in which all
parts, although apparently heterogeneous, jumbled
together by accident as it were and apparently
unrelated, bear a close relation to each other and
are as interdependent as any other beings and con-
ditions in nature.
Not only is there interrelation between plant
and climate and between plant and soil conditions,
but also an interrelation between the individuals
composing the forest growth based on definable
laws, and finally an interrelation between the
arborescent growth and the lower vegetation ; the
whole being a result of reactions of plant life to
all surrounding influences and reciprocally of
influences on all elements of its environment.
Even the seemingly lawless mixture of species
which we find in the virgin forest is not altogether
fortuitous, but a result of such reactions.
Out of these reactions and interrelations result
conditions which we call forest conditions, and
which not only distinguish the forest from other
collections of trees or woodlands, but also impart
a particular individuality and character to the
forest growth of each locality. Even the virgin
woodlands may lack what we conceive as ideal
forest conditions, when in the struggle for ex-
istence other forms of vegetation have still the
advantage over the arborescent growth and hence
forest purposes are imperfectly performed, or when
FOREST AND FORESTRY DEFINED. 89
the latter has not yet been able to fully establish
itself under unfavorable soil and climatic condi-
tions. In such cases, which are frequent in the
arid and sub-arid and the arctic regions, the single
stragglers of trees, the park-like open stand, their
stunted and scrubby appearance may leave it doubt-
ful whether the term " forest," with its economic
significance, is applicable to these woodlands, or
may exempt them from consideration under the
term.
Forest conditions, then, imply a more or less
exclusive occupancy of the soil by arborescent
growth, a close stand of trees, as a consequence
of which a form of individual tree development
results unlike that produced in the open stand,
and a more or less dense shading of the ground
which excludes largely the lower vegetation.
By so much as these conditions are deficient, by
so much does the forest fail to fulfil its economic
functions, as a source of useful material and as
a factor in influencing climatic and soil conditions.
With regard to the first function, it must be
understood that it is not wood simply that is
required for the industries of man, but wood of
certain qualities and sizes, such as are fit to be cut
into lumber, as boards, planks, joists, scantlings,
or into timber as beams, sills, and posts, into bolts
free from blemish, which can be advantageously
manufactured into the thousands of articles that
are indispensable to human civilization. Such
90 ECONOMICS OF FORESTRY.
sizes and qualities combined are not as a rule pro-
duced by trees in open stand. Their production
requires the close stand, by which the trees are
forced to reach up for light in order to escape the
shade of their neighbors and all growth energy is
utilized in the bole or trunk, the most useful part
to man, instead of being dissipated in the growth
of branches. The useful forest tree is the one
that has grown up with close neighbors, which
have deprived it of side light and thereby forced
it to form a long cylindrical shaft, to shed its side
branches early, which if persisting would have pro-
duced knotty lumber, to confine its branch growth
to the crown alone.
Such conditions are also the most favorable in
fulfilling the second function of the forest as regu-
lator of waterflow and climate, for it is the shaded
condition of the soil and the effective barrier to
sun and winds, results of a dense stand, by which
the forest exercises these regulatory functions.
The history of the woodlands has been the same
in all parts of the world, progressing according to
the cultural development of the people. First the
forest was valued as a harbor of game ; then it
appeared as an impediment to agricultural devel-
opment, and relentless war was waged against it,
while at the same time the value of its material
stores made it an object of greedy exploitation, and
only in a highly civilized nation and in a well-settled
country does the conception of the relation of for-
FOREST AND FORESTRY DEFINED. 91
ests to the future welfare of the community lead
to a rational treatment of forests as such for con-
tinuity and to the application of the principles
embodied in the science of forestry.
There existed some knowledge as to the nature of
forest growth and the advantages of its systematic
use among the Romans and Greeks. Ancus Mar-
cius, the fourth king of Rome (about 640 B.C.),
claimed the forests as a public domain and placed
them under special officers. Later, under the re-
public, they were in special charge of the consuls.
Subsequently the continuous wars seem to have
wiped out not only the administrative features but
the forests themselves, and the Italians of modern
times until lately had no more conception, of the
importance of the forest cover than the people of
the United States, so that Italy to-day furnishes
about as good an object lesson as any country of
the evil effects of forest devastation.
The real art of forestry is unquestionably of
Teutonic origin, or was at least conceived rather
early among the Germanic tribes ; the first attempts
at it seem to antedate even Charlemagne's time.
Long before the royal prerogative of the chase
lent an incentive to conservative treatment, there
existed among the communistic villagers, who were -\
aggregated in the so-called " Mark," owning all
their land in common, crude but systematic at-
tempts at rational utilization and even reproduction.
The amount of wood that might be harvested with-
92 ECONOMICS OF FORESTRY.
out detriment to future crops was determined,
the better kind of timber being more economically
cut, and the timber to be cut was designated by
officials, whose duty it was to superintend the fell-
ing, the removal, and even the use of the same.
By and by even the firewood was designated, the
dead and inferior material being assigned for it.
Charring and boxing for resin were carried on
under precautions. The number of swine to be
allowed in the oak and beech forests was deter-
mined according to the quantity of seed mast.
Grazing in the woods was allowed only under cer-
tain regulations as to districts and number of cattle
for every " Marker." The great damage by sheep
and goats was recognized and their pasturing in
the woods prohibited as early as 1 1 58. Even an
Arbor-day was anticipated in some parts, each
man having to plant, under the supervision of the
forester, a number of trees proportionate to his
consumption.
In 1 368, the city of Nuremberg began on a larger
scale systematic reforestation of waste lands with
pines, which was imitated by other communities,
and we have documentary evidence that in 1491 a
regular system of annual sowings of oak was in
existence in the communal forests of Seligenstadt.
By the end of the fifteenth century, indeed, fully
organized forest administrations existed, and various
" Forstordnungen " (forest ordinances) prescribed
in detail the manner of exploiting and reestablish-
FOREST AND FORESTRY DEFINED. 93
ing of wood crops, and trespasses of all kinds were
punished with heavy penalties.
The first beginnings, then, of a rational forest
management were of democratic origin, a man-
agement by the people for the people, who held
the welfare of the community higher than the satis-
faction of the greed of the few. To be sure, this
state of things did not last. The Thirty-years
War, which extirpated many of the cities and vil-
lages, and brought other economic changes, reduced
their holdings of forest property, which fell into
the hands of princes and the nobility, and gradually
the communal forest was supplanted by the royal
or lordly forest, or through partition by the private
forest of the single farmer. Then came a period
of decline in forest management. Private greed
disregarded the many regulations arid ordinances
against devastation. Fires ruined large areas in
the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and in
addition excessive exploitation reduced the forest
area in extent and brought it into poor condition.
That era, reaching partly into the beginning of
the nineteenth century, presents conditions some-
what similar to those with which we are now con-
fronted in this country. The Revolution of 1792
opened wide the doors to the destructive element,
and the teachings of Adam Smith still further
reduced the wholesome restrictive functions of
governments, and induced a movement to sell all
government property. The damage which France
94 ECONOMICS OF FORESTRY.
up to that time living under a tolerably well
developed forest policy is now working to repair
resulted from these times of forest dismemberment
and forest destruction. Naturally voices against
this reckless procedure became louder and louder,
as the effects of continued forest devastation and
improper clearing became more and -more visible,
and, as the governments became stronger after the
Napoleonic wars, reconstruction and return to con-
servative policies were bound to follow. At the same
time the technical part of forestry, the methods of
forestry practice, had been gradually developed in an
empiric way, and with the development of natural
sciences were placed on a more stable basis and
taught in special forestry schools and at universi-
ties by the end of the eighteenth and beginning
of the nineteenth century. We can fairly well
compare our present movement in the United
States on behalf of rational forest management
with what was going on in Germany a hundred
years ago. A fuller study into the history of this
movement in the old countries, at which we have
here glanced only briefly, would aid better than
any academic discussions and arguments to a full
understanding of both the economic and technical
problems involved,
In the pioneer days of a newly settled country,
which is forest-covered like the eastern United
States, man by necessity must remove a part of the
forest growth for the purpose of gaining ground for
FOREST AND FORESTRY DEFINED. 95
food production. That part which is not cleared for
such purpose he exploits, usually regardless of the
conditions in which he leaves it, cutting out the best
trees of the most useful species or else cutting off
the entire growth and leaving nature to take care
of the future.
When this crude forest exploitation and destruc-
tive process has gone pn so long that virgin sup-
plies are nearly exhausted, that the effects of
inconsiderate clearing or forest devastation be-
comes visible in soil washes, in high and low
water stages of rivers, more frequent and more
destructive floods, etc., then he begins to consider
more carefully the relation which the forest and
its continuance bears toward the further develop-
ment of society, toward the conditions of his sur-
roundings ; he realizes that he may not continue
to disturb the balance of nature unpunished, nay,
that he must be active in improving the methods
of nature, and weight that side of the balance
which is favorable to him and his pursuits ; he
begins to bring more rational method into his use
of the forest, he attempts to apply knowledge and
care in its treatment, he makes it an object of eco-
nomic thought, in other words he arrives at a first
conception of and applies forestry, which may be
most comprehensively defined as the rational treat-
ment of forests for forest purposes. First he deter-
mines upon a rational policy for his further conduct
toward the forest, and then, having studied the
96 ECONOMICS OF FORESTRY.
manner in which forests grow, having become
familiar with the science of forestry, he develops
superior positive methods in treatment and per-
petuation of the forest and applies the art of for-
estry ; and, adding the financial aspect in the
application of the art, he practises the business
of forestry.
In its broadest sense thus. the term "forestry," ac-
cording to the point of view, represents a policy, a
science, an art, a business. A policy is a general
plan of behavior, a general line of conduct with
reference to our affairs, embodying the philosophy,
the motives and object of our programme. By de-
termining upon a policy with reference to a resource
like the forest, we assign it a place in our political
or domestic economy, we make up our mind as to
what to do with it. It is from this point of view
that this volume proposes to discuss the subject.
Such a policy we naturally base on knowledge
or science which furnishes us the reason for our
policy, the why to do. This science of forestry
comprises all the knowledge regarding forest
growth, its component parts, the life history of
the species, and their behavior under varying condi-
tions, its development and dependence upon natu-
ral conditions, its retroactive influence upon those
natural conditions, in short its place in the economy
of nature and of man.
When we come to formulate our knowledge into
rules of procedure and apply the same to the
FOREST AND FORESTRY DEFINED. 97
treatment of forest areas specifically, we begin to
practise the art of forestry we learn hoiv to do ;
and finally, applying this art systematically for the
purpose for which all technical arts are carried on,
namely, for money results, we come to practise the
business of forestry.
Like agriculture, forestry is concerned in the
use of the soil for crop production ; as the agri-
culturist is engaged in the production of food-crops,
so the forester is engaged in the production of
wood-crops, and finally both are carrying on their
art for the practical purpose of a revenue.
Forest crop production is the business of the pro-
fessional forester.
A forester then is not, as the American public
has been prone to apply the word, one who knows
the names of trees and flowers, a botanist ; nor
even one who knows their life history, a dendrolo-
gist ; nor one who, for the love of trees, proclaims
the need of preserving them, a propagandist ; nor
one who makes a business of planting parks or
orchards, an arboriculturist, fruit grower, land-
scape gardener, or nurseryman ; nor one who cuts
down trees and converts them into lumber, a wood-
chopper or a lumberman ; nor one set to prevent
forest fires or depredations in woodlands, a forest
guard ; nor even one who knows how to produce
and reproduce wood-crops, a silviculturist ; but /
in the fullest sense of the term, a forester is a ^
technically educated man who, with the knowledge
98 ECONOMICS OF FORESTRY.
of the forest trees and their life history and of all
that pertains to their growth and production, com-
bines further knowledge which enables him to
manage a forest property so as to produce certain
conditions resulting in the highest attainable rev-
enue from the soil by wood-crops.
The virgin forest grows where it pleases, and as
it pleases, without reference to the needs of man.
It covers the rich agricultural soils as well as the
dry and thin soils of the mountain slope and top ; it
may encumber the ground which can more profit-
ably be employed in the production of food-mate-
rials, and it may be absent where its protection
is needed for human comfort or for successful
agriculture.
Nature produces weeds tree weeds and use-
ful species side by side ; she does not care for the
composition of the crop ; tree growth, whatever the
kind, satisfies her laws of development; nor has
she concern with the form of the component trees,
they may be branched and crooked, short and
tapering. In time, in a long time, she too may
produce long clear shafts, but by her methods
such results will only be accomplished in cen-
turies ; nature takes no account of time or space,
both of which are lavishly at her command. The
area of virgin forest which we harvest to-day has
produced a tithe of the useful material which it is
capable of producing, and has taken two to three-
fold the time which it would take under skilful
FOREST AND FORESTRY DEFINED. 99
direction to secure better results, quantitatively
and qualitatively.
It is in the application of the economic point
of view, in relegating forest growth to non-agri-
cultural soils, in influencing its composition and
its development toward usefulness, in securing its
reproduction in a manner more satisfactory to
human wants and human calculations, than na-
ture's fitful performances promise, that the for-
ester's forest differs.
Forestry in more or less developed form is
begun when this economic point of view is ap-
plied, when care, however slight, is bestowed
upon the virgin wood to secure its improvement
and continuance.
Before the finer methods of forest management
become practicable under such economic condi-
tions as surround us, a common-sense manage-
ment may be possible, which consists in more
careful utilization of the natural forest, protecting
it against fire, fostering young volunteer growth
of the better kinds, by keeping out cattle, and in
general avoiding whatever prevents a satisfactory
reproduction of the natural woods. For large
sections of this country, this will for some time
to come be the only forestry that is practicable,
namely, wherever distance from market for infe-
rior material makes finer methods unprofitable or
impracticable.
Finally, however, the art in its fullest and finest
100 ECONOMICS OF FORESTRY.
development will become applicable through the
length and breadth of our country, just as in the
old countries.
As in every productive industry, so in the fores-
try industry we can distinguish two separate yet
necessarily always closely interdependent branches,
namely, the technical art which concerns itself
with the production of the material, and the busi-
ness art which concerns itself with the orderly,
organized conduct of the industry of production.
Since the materials and forces of nature are the
source of the mighty processes of organic life
which find expression in forest growth, the art of
forest crop production naturally relies mainly upon
a knowledge of natural sciences, by which the
forester may be enabled to direct and influence
nature's forces into more useful production, than
its unguided activity would secure.
The nature of the plant material, its biology, its
relation to climate and soil, must be known to
secure the largest, most useful, and most valuable
crop ; that portion of botany which may be segre-
gated as dendrology the botany of trees in all
its ramifications must form the main basis of the
forester's art. To study such a segregated portion of
the large field of botanical science presupposes, to be
sure, a sufficient amount of general botanical knowl-
edge. In order to know, recognize, and classify his
materials the methods of classification, the general
anatomy and histology, must be familiar to him,
FOREST AND FORESTRY DEFINED. IOI
as well as general physiology and biology ; finally,
he must specialize and become an expert on bio-
logical dendrology, i.e. a knowledge of the life
history, the development, and dependence upon
surroundings, the ecology, of trees, in individuals
as well as in communities, a very special study,
to which few botanists have as yet given much
attention. Forest crop production, or silviculture,
in its widest sense, may be called applied dendrol-
ogy. And the forester is not satisfied only to know
the general features of the biology of the species,
their development from seed to maturity, their
requirements regarding soil and light conditions,
but as he is a producer of material for revenue, he
is most emphatically interested in the amount of
production and the rate at which this production
takes place. Far different from the agriculturist's
crop, his is not an annual one, but requires many
years of accumulations, and as each year's waiting
increases the cost of production by tying up the
capital invested, it is of importance not only to
know the likely progress of the crop, the mathe-
matics of accretion, but also how its progress may
be influenced.
In this connection the study of geology and
meteorology, of soil and climate, the factors of site,
is required, as far as necessary to understand the
relationship of plant life to surroundings, and
teach the chemico-physical basis for wood produc-
tion. The protection of his crop not only against
102 ECONOMICS OF FORESTRY.
climatic ills, but against enemies of the animal and
plant world, requires studies in that direction, and
finally to harvest his crop and bring it to market and
dispose of it to best advantage calls for engineering
knowledge and acquaintance with wood technology.
The business side of the forestry industry, which
we call forest economy, relies mainly upon mathe-
matical calculations and the application of princi-
ples of political economy. The fact that the time
from the start of the crop to the harvest may be
fifty, one hundred, or more years the time it
takes to grow a useful size of timber necessitates
a more thoroughly premeditated and organized
conduct, more complicated profit calculations, more
careful plans, than in any other business which
deals with shorter time periods.
In this connection one of the first and most im-
portant mathematical problems for the forester to
settle, is when his crop is ripe. This is not as
with agricultural crops and fruits determined by
a natural period, but by the judgment of the har-
vester, based upon mathematical and financial
calculations.
There are various principles which may be fol-
lowed in determining the maturity of a stand, or
what is technically called the rotation, i.e. the time
within which a forest, managed as a unit, shall be
cut over and reproduced ; but all rely finally upon
measurements of the quantity of production as
basis of the business calculation, and hence forest
FOREST AND FORESTRY DEFINED.
103
mensuration has been developed into a special
branch of mathematics and many methods have
been developed, by which not only the volume
and rate of growth of single trees, but of whole
stands, can be more or less accurately determined.
Similarly, finance calculations have been more
fully developed in the forestry business than are
usually practised in any other business excepting
perhaps Life Insurance.
Without going into further details of the con-
tents of the science of forestry, reserving for two
chapters a fuller discussion of the two main
branches, a comprehensive view may be gained
by the following systematic statement of the vari-
ous branches into which forestry may be divided.
SYSTEM OF FORESTRY KNOWLEDGE.
1. Forestry Statistics.
Areas : forest conditions distribution
composition.
Products : trade supply and demand
prices substitutes.
2. Forestry Economics.
Study of relation of forests to climate,
soil, water, health, ethics, etc.
Study of commercial peculiarities, and
position of forests and forestry in po-
litical economy.
3. History of Forestry.
4. Forestry Policy.
Formulating rights and duties of the
state, forestry legislation, state forest
administration, education.
J Q,
C en
W ~
I
tJ-l CJ
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104
ECONOMICS OF FORESTRY.
PQ
5. Forest Botany.
Dendrology, systematic and biologic
forest geography forest weeds.
6. Factors of Site.
Soil physics, soil chemistry, meteorology
and climatology with reference to forest
growth.
7. Timber Physics.
Structure, physical and chemical proper-
ties of wood, influences determining
same, diseases and faults.
8. Wood Technology.
Application of wood in the arts require-
ments working properties use of
minor and by-products.
9. Silviculture.
Methods of producing the crop and influ-
encing it, progress.
to. Forest Protection.
Forest entomology climatic injuries
fire, etc.
11. Forest Utilization.
Methods of harvesting, transporting, pre-
paring for market.
12. Forest Engineering.
Road building water regulation treat-
ment of special cases, sand dunes, bar-
ren swamps, moors, denuded slopes.
FOREST AND FORESTRY DEFINED. 105
i3- Forest Survey.
Area and boundary topography as-
certaining forest condition establish-
ing units of management and adminis-
tration.
14. Forest Mensuration.
Methods of ascertaining volumes and
rates of growth of trees and stands,
and determining yields.
15. Forest Valuation, Statics, and Finance.
Ascertaining money value of forest prop-
erties and financial results of different
methods of management, and compar-
ing same.
1 6. Forest Regulation.
Preparing working plans, determining
felling budgets, and organizing for con-
tinuo^s wood and revenue production.
a ") 17. Forest Administration.
Organization of a forestry service : busi-
ness practice and routine, including for-
est law and business law applicable to
forestry practice.
Besides these essential and directly applicable branches of
knowledge, it is desirable that the manager of a large forest
property have also some knowledge of fish and game preser-
vation, and of agriculture, if game, fish, meadows, agricultural
lands, form integral parts of the property.
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CHAPTER V.
FACTORS OF FOREST PRODUCTION AND BUSINESS
ASPECTS.
FORESTRY, as we have seen, is, like agriculture,
concerned in producing continuously crops or
equivalent money values from the use of the soil ;
yet forestry differs from agriculture, not only in
the kind of crop, but it differs totally in the man-
ner of producing the crop and in the use and com-
bination of all the factors of production.
This difference is mainly brought about by that
element in production by which forest production
differs from all other productive industries, namely,
the time element.
Agricultural crops are usually ready for harvest
the same year they are planted, or at least in a
year or two ; orchard-crops require a few years to
establish the basis for an annual or biennial return
of crops ; but a wood-crop does not become useful
until many years' growth has been accumulated.
Every year a new layer of wood is laid on,
over the layers that have been formed before,
cornucopia-like, increasing the wood plant in
height and circumference and consequently in
1 06
FACTORS OF FOREST PRODUCTION. 107
volume. The crop is ready for harvest when a
sufficient number of annual growths is accumu-
lated to make wood of useful size. This differs
according to the use to which the material is to be
put.
A five to ten years' growth of some kinds might
suffice for hop and bean poles, for barrel hoops,
canes, and the like ; at fifteen to twenty years the
crop might furnish in addition some fence posts and
poles as well as firewood, especially if grown from
coppice. At fifty years some of the trees may
have in part accumulated sufficient size to furnish
bolts for the manufacture of carriage stock, hubs,
and spokes, or small cooperage and other articles
of small dimension, or even railroad ties and tele-
graph poles. But with most species which are
used to supply the large demands of the lumber
market, sizes fit for the sawmill are in the temper-
ate zones attained hardly in less than 75 to 100
years ; while most of the trees that are now cut
for that purpose nature has taken 150 to 200 years
and up to 500 years or more to produce.
In addition to size, quality, too, is a function of
age, improving as a rule with increase in size. To
produce a sawlog which will furnish a sufficiently
large amount of clear boards free from knots, many
years must have elapsed to cover with annual
layers the stumps of branchlets of the younger
tree, which by the shading of neighbors were
killed and broken off by winds or otherwise.
108 ECONOMICS OF FORESTRY.
Moreover, the wood of many species undergoes
a chemical change as yet unexplained, but supposed
to improve its quality, or, as in the black walnut,
its usefulness, the change into heart-wood, which
begins earlier or later with different species and
progresses more or less slowly, so that, while the
useful size and form may have been attained, the
useful quality may still have to be waited for.
As the tree develops, it exhibits in all its parts
the various sizes and qualities of all its stages of
development, but in varying relative proportion,
and as the log timber of the bole begins to pre-
ponderate over the branch and brushwood of the
crown, naturally the value production increases, and
influences the financial result of the production.
Now, the accumulation of annual layers of wood
does not proceed by any means in a regular, even
rate of equal proportions for each year. Not only
is this rate of accretion varying with every species,
and with every difference in soil and climate and
other surrounding conditions, and with the seasons,
but it differs in the different life periods of the
tree.
The soft, light-wooded trees, like the cottonwood,
aspen, silver maple, willow, and others, start out with
a rapid growth, making good-sized trees in thirty
to forty years, then rapidly decline in the rate of
growth, and soon cease almost entirely, being com-
paratively short-lived. Others, like many of our
important hardwoods and useful conifers, grow
FACTORS OF FOREST PRODUCTION. 109
slowly in their youth, then increase in their rate,
continuing for a long time in an even, rapid devel-
opment, then persisting at a slower but uniform
rate to an old age.
If we were to utilize these latter as soon as they
reach useful size and then renew the crop, we would
again and again repeat the period of slow growth,
and hence lose in relative quantity of production.
If, on the other hand, we allowed the soft woods
mentioned to grow beyond the stage of rapid
growth, we would lose equally at the other end.
The study of rates of growth of species and of
quantitative production of stands of different
species, the mathematics of forest growth, the
results of forest mensuration, is so important a
matter that we devote to it a special chapter.
Here we only wish to point out that, among the
factors of production, time plays a much greater
r61e than in any other business, and in fact influ-
ences the use of all other factors of production and
methods of procedure to such an extent, that, if
forestry be carried on as a business by itself, its
conduct becomes in many respects sui generis,
The time when the crop is ready for the harvest,
it will be apparent from the above considerations,
is not a matter of natural period as in the ripening
of fruits, but depends not only upon many com-
plex considerations, varying with species and soil
and climate, but upon market conditions, econom-
ical considerations, and industrial requirements, and
1 10 ECONOMICS OF FORESTRY.
is determined by the judgment of the harvester;
it is a matter of choice influenced by technical,
financial, and national economic points of view.
The time which elapses between the first estab-
lishment of the crop and the harvest is technically
called rotation or revolution or turnus, involving
the idea of return to the same area for harvest,
again and again; its determination is one of the
most important problems for the business man-
ager, and will find consideration in a later chapter.
Besides the time element, there are, as in every
producing business, three factors of production to
be considered, which in varying combinations pro-
duce the result, the creation of values namely,
nature, labor, and capital.
The relative significance of each of these pro-
ductive forces, as is well known, varies in every
industry, and also to a degree with the intensity of
their management. Forestry being the twin sister
of agriculture, both attempting to produce values
from the soil, it is natural to compare these two
industries with reference to the part which each of
the factors of production takes in it. It is difficult,
if not impossible, to compare these industries with-
out assuming as a basis a more or less equal
development and degree of intensity. In our
country, forestry as a business does not exist as
yet, except in small beginnings here and there and
without intensity, while agriculture, also, is as yet
relatively poorly developed as an industry upon a
FACTORS OF FOREST PRODUCTION. in
scientific basis. Forest exploitation, the mere rob-
bing of the natural forest resources, and extensive
farming, agricultural rapine, the robbing of soils
of their native fertility, are as yet mainly prac-
tised.
In trying to find economic differences in princi-
ple between the two industries, we must, therefore,
for illustrations, largely rely upon countries where
both the forestry and the farming industry are fully
developed side by side, and have reached a high de-
gree of intensity, as in Europe. In comparing the
two industries under such conditions, we will find
that they differ widely in the relative significance
and importance which the three factors of produc-
tion assume. For while in agriculture the factor
of labor is most important, nature second, and
capital last, in the forestry business, in general, the
reliance on nature is greatest, on capital next,
while labor plays a less important part.
The fact that nature unassisted has produced
the virgin woods, which furnish us satisfactory
materials, while agricultural production is almost
entirely dependent on human effort, will at once
settle the relative importance of these two factors.
Even when the mere exploitation of natural woods
is supplanted by the systematic application of
skill and labor in reproducing wood crops, the ele-
ment of labor remains less important, for during
the long period from seed to harvest time the for-
ester can do but little to influence the progress of his
112 ECONOMICS OF FORESTRY.
crop, and must allow nature and time to mature
it; while the farmer is constantly busy during
the progress of his annual crop, cultivating it to
secure best results ; annually, ploughing and sow-
ing recur ; or, if he apply himself to pasturing, his
attendance upon the cattle is incessant, his busi-
ness is "labor-intensive." The forester's crop
grows mostly unattended ; only when harvest time
comes is he busy ; and since, as we will see farther
on, he may reproduce his crop without direct labor
by the mere manner of harvesting the old crop,
even seeding time may not call for much effort;
his business is " labor-extensive." And since most
of his work comes during the late fall and winter,
and ceases during the growing season, he cannot
offer continuous employment for many workmen,
and must rely largely upon an unstable crew, as
does the lumberman. On the other hand, much
of his work, although dependent on the season,
is not limited so closely as regards the time of its
performance as is the farmer's, and it' is possible
to concentrate or lengthen out the work more or
less, as desirable. The fact that most of the forest
work falls into the winter time, when farm labor is
idle, is of the utmost economic value where a dense,
poor population must find continuous employment
through the year.
If we compare these conditions in a country
where both agriculture and forestry are most highly
developed, as in Germany, we will find that agricul-
FACTORS OF FOREST PRODUCTION. 113
ture occupies for the same acreage from 10 to 20
to even 30 times as much labor according to inten-
sity of management, as forestry, 1 namely, 1 5 to 50
laborers continuously employed on 250 acres of
farm as against I to 3, or in the average 2 laborers
on the same acreage of forest. The 35,000,000
acres of German forest afford only $i per acre in
labor earnings, while, to be sure, they also give rise
to a labor earning of over $3 per acre in wood-
working industries.
In other directions, too, does the labor question
differ in the forest. While in agriculture intensive
application of labor produces equivalent improve-
ment in results, such improvement can in forestry
rarely and only to a limited degree be secured by in-
creased labor. Not only is most labor in the forest
technically simple, very little skill being needed
and very little variety offered, but it permits piece-
work to a much larger extent than is practicable
on the farm, while opportunity for the use of ma-
chinery is very limited, or at least as yet little
developed. Nor does it permit much division,
organization, specialization, such as is practised in
manufacturing establishments.
The greater intensity with which agriculture can
1 The Prussian state forest administration of nearly 7,000,000
acres employs one official for every 1465 acres, namely, I guard
(Forster u. Waldwarter) for every 1800 acres, i manager (Oberfors-
ter) for every 9800, and I inspector (Oberforstmeister u. Forstrath)
for every 61000 acres; and the common labor represents the annual
employment of one man for every 1 75 acres.
I
114 ECONOMICS OF FORESTRY.
be profitably practised also makes a difference in
the amount of superintendence which it necessi-
tates. While an intensively managed farm of 250
acres would occupy a superintendent fully, a hun-
dred times such acreage in forest may be placed
under one manager to execute the working plans if,
according to location and conditions, he is assisted
by a number of guards.
The protection of the property, indeed, requires
under circumstances the comparatively largest at-
tention. In German forest administrations, one
guard is employed for every 500 to 2000 acres,
exercising mainly police functions, which the dense
indigent population, prone to stealing and trespass
of various kinds, necessitates.
In India, 1 with a forest area under more or less
intensive management of 75,ooo,CK)O acres, of which
about two-thirds are reserved, the rest only pro-
tected after various reorganizations since 1864
when the first administration was organized, the
controlling staff consists of I inspector general,
19 conservators, 117 deputy conservators, 63
assistant conservators, and 112 provincial con-
servators, or all together 312 officers, double the
number employed in 1885 ; the executive and pro-
tective service is satisfied with 1663 rangers and
foresters and 8533 guards; all together 10,508
1 These figures refer to conditions in the year 1900, and are taken
from the excellent book, " Forestry in India," by B. Ribbentrop,
Inspector General.
FACTORS OF FOREST PRODUCTION. 11$
permanent employees, or one to a little less than
7500 acres, are at present required.
The gross income of this largest forestry estab-
lishment in the world, constantly growing, was in
1892 to 1897 only about $8,000,000, while the ex-
penditures represented 55 per cent of the gross
revenue, of which over $2,000,000 was paid for
the permanent service.
With us, where for the present less intensive
management must form the rule, and where in
some respects properties are less endangered, the
size of a superintendent's and a guard's district
may be four times as large and more.
While the conduct of the business requires a
small amount of labor, it is a peculiarity of the
business that the formulation of working plans to
be followed by the manager requires not only much
more careful consideration, and also involves a con-
siderable amount of skilled labor in securing the
data, while their circumspect use requires a good
deal more judgment than would be needed in a
business which can change its modus operandi
readily every year.
It will have appeared from this discussion of the
relation of labor to the industry, that the size of
the area upon which forestry is to be practised not
only may, but must, be of considerable acreage if
it is to be carried on profitably as a business by
itself, if for no other reason than to occupy the
manager fully and to leave enough margin for the
Il6 ECONOMICS OF FORESTRY.
owner. While the small farm, owing to the possi-
bility of increasing returns to increased labor, and
hence a relatively large return per acre, can exist,
the small farm earning per acre as much as the
large one, or more, the small wood-lot cannot exist
as a separate business proposition ; only as attached
to a farm or other business can it have economic
justification, but, as we will see later, it is even then
at a disadvantage from mere silvicultural points of
view.
The indirect employment of labor to which for-
est products give rise in transportation and final
shaping and use of the wood material is probably
greater than with farm crops.
We referred just now to the amount of labor
earnings of $3 which each acre of forest pro-
duces in woodworking establishments in Prussia.
In our own country the forest products annually
consumed involve the moving over shorter or
longer distances of not less than 500,000,00x3 tons,
or, if we only refer to the lumber product, at least
100,000,000 tons must be handled to and from the
mill and yard, which, if the average haul were not
over 100 miles, may readily involve a cost of
$150,000,000 to $200,000,000, while $300,000,000
is about the amount of wages paid to the 500,000
employees occupied in transforming the raw forest
product into articles of trade, and $100,000,000
to the loggers and mill men. With these and
other figures (see Appendix) we come to an esti-
FACTORS OF FOREST PRODUCTION. 117
mate which brings the labor earnings for our 500,-
000,000 acres of forest, that are being exploited but
not managed, to not less than $600,000,000, or per-
haps one laborer for each 250 acres, as a lowest fig-
ure. The 360,000,000 acres of improved farm land
reported in the census of 1890 occupied only one
man for every 43 acres and the total crop translated
into weight remains considerably below 200,000,000
tons, including meat, milk, butter, cheese, etc. It
is well-nigh impossible to get even approxima-
tions to the number of laborers employed in con-
version of these foodstuffs, but the likelihood is
that all together not more labor earnings can be
credited to one acre of farm land than to the acre
of forest land. This disparity is probably explained
by the lack of intensity in farming, and the proba-
bility that much of the farm land does not really
participate in the crop, lying idle.
If there exists, then, great difference regarding
the amount and character of the labor element in
agricultural and forest production, the use of the
element of nature shows no less difference in the
two industries.
Not only is the element of nature relatively
much more prominent in forest production, but the
single factors, soil and climate, have different sig-
nificance. For a crop which must withstand the
rigors of winter and the variable conditions of all
seasons, not for one, but for many years, and which
by its character forbids the expedients of cultiva-
Il8 ECONOMICS OF FORESTRY.
tion on which the farmer relies, special considera-
tions regarding the relation of crop to climate occur.
While most of our farm crops come originally from
climates very different from those in which they
are now grown, the possibility of extending forest
crops beyond their native limits is very much more
circumscribed, and even with native species the
climatic influences of frost, drought, winds, require
the adaptation of the crop to the site, and after-
treatment different from farm crops. On the other
hand, where, as in the high altitudes and northern
latitudes, agriculture finds its climatic limits, forest
cropping is still possible ; again, good farm crops
may be raised in the semi-arid regions, where forest
crops, while possible to establish, must by necessity
be of only inferior value. Agriculture deals almost
entirely with vegetable products, which, to be sure,
originated with nature, but have been improved by
man for human use ; its products are, if we may be
permitted to exaggerate, unnatural, artificial ones,
and the possibility of varying their character and
adapting them to climatic conditions seems almost
unlimited.
Wood-crops, on the other hand, are still, even
under the forester's hand, as nature unaided can
and does produce them ; the possibility of influenc-
ing their character is exceedingly limited : under
the skilful guidance of the forester, to be sure, the
manner in which the wood is deposited on boles
and branches, the development of clear long shafts
FACTORS OF FOREST PRODUCTION. 119
in preference to low-crowned and branched trees,
and to a slight extent the structure of the annual
ring, can be directed; but so far the wood of nature's
production and that of man's are very nearly if not
quite the same, and forms which are better adapted
to climatic or soil conditions have not been bred by
man. The short cycle of development in agricultural
crops and the long cycle in forest crops explain this
difference. The forester can improve upon nature
mainly by making it produce a larger quantity of ma-
terial of useful form and of useful species per acre.
But the greatest and radical difference between
the two industries, one of the highest national
economic importance, is the difference in the use
of the soil.
Agriculture is engaged in producing starch and
sugar, proteids and albuminoids, in short, the com-
pounds which are directly food materials ; and this
production relies largely on the fertility, the min-
erals of the soil, especially the rarer phosphorus,
sulphur, potash, nitrogen. With the. harvest all
these are removed from the soil, and must be
replaced by manures or through rotation of crops,
or else the soil is sooner or later exhausted and
becomes infertile.
Forestry is engaged mainly in the production of
cellulose and its derivatives, carbohydrates, 1 which
contain a minimum of these rarer elements.
1 The composition of wood is approximately 50 per cent C, 6 per
cent H, 42 per cent O, I per cent N, I per cent mineral ash.
120 ECOiNOMICS OF FORESTRY.
The air furnishes one-half the constituents,
namely, the carbon, which the chlorophyll cells
of the leaves assimilate under the influence of
the sunlight, and almost the entire other half is
furnished by the water of the soil. Not that tree
life and wood production can entirely dispense
with the presence of these minerals, but it requires
them in smallest amounts, and the final product,
which the forester harvests, is practically devoid
of them. Moreover, those parts of the tree which
in its life processes accumulate the largest amounts
of these elements, namely, the foliage and small
branchlets, do not usually form part of this har-
vest, but are returned to the soil, so that, in fact,
not only does the soil not lose any of its fertility,
but, on the contrary, it is enriched at its surface
by the decay of the litter, not only through the
vegetable humus and the nitrogen-condensing bac-
teria formed in the same'(see Appendix), but through
mineral constituents in soluble form, which the tree
has brought up from greater depths. Hence the
well-known fertility of virgin woodland soil ; while
agriculture exhausts soils, forestry enriches them. 1
From the soil the forest crop derives mainly the
1 A field of potatoes, for instance, uses of phosphoric acid three
times as much as a beech forest, five times as much as a spruce
forest, and nine times as much as a pine forest, and of potash nine,
thirteen, and seventeen times as much as the three tree species
respectively, while of nitrogen wood requires 10 to 13 pounds per
acre as against 60 to 90 pounds in potatoes, the conifers generally
requiring less than the deciduous-leaved trees.
FACTORS OF FOREST PRODUCTION. 121
water which is required for the biological processes,
including the transpiration of the leaves, and for
the composition of the wood, adding the hygro-
scopic water which is finally lost when the wood
seasons. Chemically water forms 48 per cent of
the wood substance, while 40 to 60 per cent more
is hygroscopically bound to it in the living tree,
and 8 to 12 per cent remains so in the wood after
seasoning ; the whole forest area, therefore, pro-
duces only 40 per cent of dry substance to 60 per
cent of water, so that the 8000 pounds annual
product on a fully stocked acre divides itself up
into 3000 pounds dry substance, 1250 pounds
chemically bound, and 3750 hygroscopic, water.
These are small quantities of water, but the tran-
spiration current requires many times more. Fig-
ures on this point are difficult to establish, as the
variations, by species not only, but from day to day,
in different seasons, are extremely great. An acre
of beech may some days transpire not more than
5000 pounds, other days four times that amount,
while agricultural crops seem to need from 50 to
100 per cent more. The interesting and impor-
tant point is that coniferous trees, especially pines,
require from one-sixth to one-tenth of what decidu-
ous-leaved trees transpire, which makes them espe-
cially valuable for dry soils and climates. The
silviculturist draws from these facts, regarding the
frugality of forest crops, the conclusion that he
need not like the farmer manure nor change his
122 ECONOMICS OF FORESTRY.
crop, provided the litter is left, and, moreover, that
he can grow his crop on soils which are not fit
for agriculture.
This fact, which also refers to soils and situa-
tions that are topographically unfit for ploughing,
is one of greatest importance to the political econo-
mist. For with the increased need of food supplies,
the necessity of using the soils to their utmost
arises, and the possibility of relegating the non-
agricultural soils to forestry use is a welcome aid
in the solution of this problem. This relegation
of soils to their best use is now actively and con-
sciously going on in the densely populated Ger-
man states, the economic policy being to exchange
worn-out, poor agricultural soil for forest use, and
to turn agricultural soil under forest to farm use. 1
Hence, also, the mountain slopes, the very places
where, for the sake of favorable water conditions,
a forest cover is needed, are par excellence forest
lands; for a slope of 15 makes them unfit for
plough land, and one of 20 to 30 excludes them
from use as pastures, while forest growth will still
maintain itself satisfactorily on slopes of 40 or
more.
We come here to the recognition of a natural
subdivision of our soils into absolute forest soils,
those which are only fit for forest crops, and rela-
tive forest soils, which may come into competition
1 Prussia has for some years appropriated large sums ($250,000
annually) for the purchase and reforestation of poor, worn-out lands.
FACTORS OF FOREST PRODUCTION. 123
with pasture and farm use, and which require care-
ful consideration as to which use is financially, or
for other reasons, preferable, c/
If we compare the amount of production per
acre in the two industries, it must not be forgotten
that in such countries as Europe the forest occupies
already mostly these poorer sites and situations,
the absolute forest soils, and hence the comparison
must be unfavorable, apparently, as far as money
returns are concerned.
In amount of vegetable material produced, for-
est crops, to be sure, are in no way inferior ; nay,
if we do not confine ourselves to the wood, but
add the leaf litter produced per year, offsetting
the straw of agricultural crops, the forest pro-
duces larger quantities in weight than the farm.
Taking average crops of the common farm prod-
uce, there are produced dry weights of 3400 to
I 4600 pounds vegetable substance per acre, of
which, mostly, not more than one-third is repre-
sented in the grain ; while the forest acre produces
( 8000 to 10,000 pounds, of which one-half or more
is wood, namely, 4500 to '6500 pounds, with 450
pounds for roots, and 3000 pounds for leaves, the
dry substance of wood grown per acre per year
varying between 1500 and 3600 pounds, accord-
ing to the site. 1 The interesting fact is that all
species produce on the same site the same weights,
1 A one-hundred-year-old stand then contains at best 1 80 tons
of 'dry wood, equivalent to about 90 tons of carbon.
124 ECONOMICS OF FORESTRY.
but, to be sure, the cubic contents vary greatly on
account of the difference in specific weight, due
to the manner in which the wood is deposited.
This production in cubic feet is dependent on
the condition of the forest crop, varying from less
than 30 to 100 cubic feet, including the brush-
wood. Taking only the more useful wood down
to 3-inch diameter, which we call timber-wood, the
results of large forest administrations average
/between 35 and 75 cubic feet, or about 55 cubic
Meet in the average, deciduous-leaved forest pro-
(ducing the smaller, coniferous forest the higher,
figures. Differentiating qualities still further, we
may state that to these figures corresponds a lumber
product of 200 to 500 feet B.M.
In this connection it is significant to note that in
Switzerland the product in the government forests
was 71 cubic feet (maximum 96, minimum 29), in
the cantonal and communal forests 50, and in pri-
vate forests 47 cubic feet, i.e., 40 per cent, less
than in the government forests, an indication of
superior management in the latter. In France the
same difference appears, the government forests in
1876 producing at the rate of 49, the communal of
40, cubic feet. How the forest product responds
to superior management appears in all German
forest administrations. In Prussia, for instance,
the cut, supposedly gauged to the annual growth,
rose from 28 cubic feet in 1830 to 41 cubic feet in
1868, and to 51.5 cubic feet in 1900; in Saxony
FACTORS OF FOREST PRODUCTION. 125
the yield doubled in 50 years to 70 cubic feet for
the average acre.
The third factor of production, capital, must, as
usually, be divided into the current or working fund
which expresses the capital required to carry on the
current business, and the fixed investment, which ex-
presses the capital tied up permanently as a basis
for continuous production.
Since the labor expense is relatively small, since
none or only simple machinery is necessary, and
simple tools and no buildings are required to house
the crop, and even the procurement of seed and
plants may be often dispensed with, the current
working fund in the forestry business may be
rather small. While, according to statistics gathered
by the United States Department of Agriculture
in 1893, the current expenditure for wheat and
corn crops was $8.88 and $8.68 respectively,
not counting rent for land and superintendence;
in German forest administrations the cost of man-
agement to be paid from a working fund averages
about $2 per acre, being, for the single items, from
22 to 65 cents per acre for protection and adminis-
tration, 30 cents to $i for harvest, 15 to 22 cents
for planting and cultural measures generally, 6 to
33 cents for road building, most of which might
correctly be charged to investment.
In the logging business, which deals only or
mainly with exploitable timber, lacking or not tak-
ing into consideration the younger age classes, the
126 ECONOMICS OF FORESTRY.
case is entirely different, and the expenditures for
harvest alone may range from $25 to $75 per acre
and more.
But the difference, that renders the established
regulated forestry business unique, is the amount
and the character of the permanent or fixed capital.
Both the farming and the forestry industry have
in common, besides buildings and tools, the soil as
the basis of production. Since forestry is gradu-
ally relegated to the poor soils, this part of the in-
vestment is comparatively much smaller than in
agriculture, unless agricultural soils are used in for-
est growing. Thus in Prussia, where, as we have
seen, lately purchases of absolute forest soils have
been made by the government, the average price
paid in 3 years for about 7500 acres was less than
$22, including occasionally inferior timber and build-
ings, the range being from $3 to $33.30, while the
better agricultural soils bring in the province of
Brandenburg $100 to $160 per acre. In other
districts, where forest products are higher in price,
the value of forest soils ranges somewhat higher,
namely, from $15 to $60 and occasionally $80.
But in forestry the fixed capital is not confined to
the soil; the much larger value is represented in
the growing stock of wood, which must be allowed
to accumulate before it is ready for the axe. This
is the most characteristic feature in the wood-crop-
ping business carried on for continuity : that only
the accumulated accretions of many years can be
FACTORS OF FOREST PRODUCTION. 127
harvested, and that, until harvest time has arrived,
they are tied up and are in the nature of fixed capi-
tal, accumulating with compound interest charges.
To understand the nature of this capital and get
an idea of the amount involved, we will have to
look at it from various points of view.
If we were to start on a blank area and were to
plant our crop, we would have only the soil (S) as
fixed capital ; but since we could not harvest from
year to year, and thus withdraw the interest, the ex-
penditure for planting () would also have to be
considered fixed ; moreover, the interest on both soil
and other expenditures, being by necessity accumu-
lating, becomes fixed, until at harvest time both capi-
tal and accumulated interest, except the soil capital,
become liquidated and then again the process of
fixation is gone through.- The fixed capital would
then be (S + E} i.op r - (S + E\ or (S + E)
(i.op r i); r being the time during which the
capital is tied up, and p the interest-rate at which
the capital is supposed to produce.
If we started, as the forest exploiter does, with
a ready-made crop of virgin timber, we might take
the position which he usually does, namely, remove
at once the valuable part of the crop, and turn it
into cash, when as a rule both the current capi-
tal involved in harvesting and transporting the
crop, and the investment in land or stock, are liqui-
dated at once, or in short time, the stumpage value
paid under such crude conditions being usually kept
128 ECONOMICS OF FORESTRY.
disproportionate to its actual value ; and the basis
of future production may be said to be a zero cap-
ital, neither the soil nor the prospective under-
growth being considered of any value, and in fact
no conscious forest management for new crop
being intended, the reproduction being left to
accident and nature alone and allowing perhaps
a return for further harvest at some later time.
The aspect changes when real forest manage-
ment, not for intermittent returns, but for annual
business, is contemplated, when the forest is to be
so regulated that every year forever a harvest is
to be secured in proportion to the capacity of soil
and species of producing it continuously, i.e. when
the increment only is to be harvested, which every
year brings. We can readily conceive what the
ideal condition of such a forest must be. If we had
determined that our crop is best harvested when
one hundred years of age, then, in order to harvest
always one-hundred-year-old timber, we must have
a series of one hundred stands, each one differing
by one year in age down to yearling growth, so
that each year one stand becomes ripe. It appears
then clear that the contents of the ninety-nine
stands from one to ninety-nine years old, expressed
in volume or value, are the wood capital; and the
hundredth stand is the interest or harvest or fell-
ing budget (the last stand representing as well the
increments of one hundred years, as the one hun-
dred increments of one year on the whole area)
FACTORS OF FOREST PRODUCTION. 129
which may be cut ; and if reproduced as cut, the
continuity of similar harvests is assured.
If we call the annual increment of any one stand
/, and instead of the one hundred years substi-
tute the general term of years r (rotation), the
capital stock is the sum of the arithmetic series
/ + 2 i + 3 i ' - + ri which, according to well-
known mathematical laws, is - x (r i + /) ; or, since
2
i is relatively quite small, it may be neglected, and
if we substitute for r i = I, i.e. the annual increment
y
of all the stands, the form becomes -/, or in other
2
words the capital stock of wood which must be
maintained is the increment occurring on the whole
forest through half the rotation. It stands to rea-
son that, with every species and every soil, as well
as with every rotation and system of management,
the amount of / changes, and hence the capital
stock required.
It is evident that, for instance, in coppice forest,
sprout lands, which are usually managed in rota-
tions of not over twenty to forty years, the wood
capital is much smaller than in timber forest, which
requires from sixty to one hundred and twenty
years and more to become mature.
Merely to give an idea of the relative amounts
which different conditions may require, we will
assume that 70 cubic feet of wood per acre repre-
sents the annual increment, then a coppice of 100
130 ECONOMICS OF FORESTRY.
acres in twenty-year rotation would require as
wood capital 100 x 70 x 10 = 70,000 cubic feet;
while the same 100 acres managed as timber for-
est in one-hundred-and-twenty-year rotation would
require a wood capital of 100 x 70 x 60 = 420,000
cubic feet, or six times as much as the coppice in
volume, and, to be sure, many more times in value,
since in the timber forest higher-priced material is
involved.
In actual practice in a large average (Bavarian
and French forest departments), the disproportion
is much greater, namely, the wood capital in the
timber forest is eight to twenty-five times as large
as in the coppice.
To give a few absolute figures which we can
take from the elaborate yield tables of the Ger-
mans, a Scotch pine timber forest of 100 acres in
one-hundred-year rotation would require, accord-
ing to the character of the site, that 400,000 to
900,000 cubic feet of wood be maintained as wood
capital ; a spruce forest requires a wood capital of
560,000 to 1,540,000; and a beech forest under
similar conditions managed for continuity would
make it necessary to leave 500,000 to 700,000 cubic
feet in round numbers, the lower figures for the
poorer, the higher figures for the best soils.
Translated into money values, these quantities
would vary from $100 to $600 per acre, and in the
coppice, to be sure, not over $10 per acre.
We see, then, that in a properly regulated for-
FACTORS OF FOREST PRODUCTION. 131
est management for timber production, while the
soil represents the smallest portion of the fixed
capital, soil and wood capital combined exceeds
the fixed capital needed in an intensive farm man-
agement, and on the whole two to ten times the
capital required in agriculture is needed to carry
on forest management for timber production.
Two most important deductions from the stand-
point of political economy follow from this dis-
cussion.
First, that the time element, together with the
large capital required in timber-wood production,
renders the forestry business undesirable to private
enterprise of circumscribed means ; that long-lived
persons, like the state and corporations, and large
capitalists, can alone engage in it as a business by
itself with hope of financial satisfaction.
This does not exclude the farmer's wood-lot as
an adjunct to the farm, but he will finally find it
more advantageous, if he figures correctly, to man-
age it as coppice, not as a timber forest.
Secondly, the fact that capital and interest, wood
stock and harvest, are mixed together, the differ-
entiation being made, not by the character of the
material, but by voluntary economic considera-
tions and self-imposed saving, and that, while in
the lower age classes the capital is tied up without
any possibilities of realizing on it, it is possible to
liquidate portions of it in the older age classes at
any time, making it readily available, to be turned
132 ECONOMICS OF FORESTRY.
into other channels this ease of reducing the
fixed capital without appreciable loss is one of the
peculiarities of the forestry business, which some-
times may be of advantage, like a savings bank
account, but also brings with it the danger of un-
economic anticipation of the harvest, of disturbing
the systematic progress of a management for con-
tinuity, of returning to mere exploitation when there
is an urgent need of money.
Hence, not only capital, but economic capacity
and character and moral strength are required to
maintain a systematic forest management and with-
stand the temptation to realize. Again the state,
communities, and corporations, who have an interest
in continuity, are most safely intrusted with a busi-
ness that can be so easily unbalanced.
It is also evident that a profitable, well-regulated
forest management for annual returns as a business
by itself is only possible on a large acreage. This
will appear readily from the consideration that Ger-
man government forests net from $i to $4.50 per
acre per year (as against $24 for farm lands) ;
hence, to furnish $1000 margin not less than 250
to 1000 acres are required, and to pay a competent
manager's salary alone, without interest and profit
on the business, requires at least 2500 acres, while,
to be sure, he would not be fully occupied with less
than 10,000 to 20,000 acres. And we must not for-
get that the results in these German forests are
obtained now after a century of systematic manage-
FACTORS OF FOREST PRODUCTION. 133
ment, and then are only possible by having very
large areas under one management, when the good
acres offset the loss on the poor acres. Under
such conditions 35 to 60 per cent of the gross yield
goes for labor and administration, one-third to one-
quarter for the former, one-fifth to one-seventh for
the latter, leaving 40 to 65 per cent of the gross yield
as profit, equivalent to a rate of 3 to 5 per cent on the
wood capital from soil otherwise mostly valueless.
There are other consequences which follow
from the character of the wood capital : the diffi-
culty of determining what is capital, what interest
makes the renting of woods for systematic forest
management impracticable ; and such management
is also unsuitable for stock companies, which are
formed to make money fast and lack conservative
spirit, however favorable such companies may be
in conducting mere forest exploitation. On the
other hand, it is conceivable that trusts could
most advantageously carry on the forestry busi-
ness, owing to the fact that large fixed capital is
needed, and is most safely invested in forest
growth, promising secure and steadily growing
income, and that the more surely the larger the
property under one management.
There are, to be sure, dangers to the wood capi-
tal from insects, storms, and fires; 1 but they can
1 In Prussian forest districts in fifteen years 405 fires were reported,
but only 191 acres in 1,000,000 were damaged out of the 7,000,000
acres involved.
134 ECONOMICS OF FORESTRY.
be reduced to a minimum of permanent injury,
and the more easily the larger the property under
one management.
All things in the production of which nature
plays the important part have the tendency to rise
in price, while those relying principally on labor
and capital sink. That the price of wood is bound
to rise is not only a matter of simple philosophy as
long as forest area decreases and demand for wood
increases, but also of history wherever natural
resources have been reduced to the necessity of
management. (See further on regarding rise in
prices.) The financial results of German forest
administrations are certainly most assuring as to
the profitableness of a systematic forest manage-
ment pursued during the last one hundred years,
through all the changes of economic conditions
which have characterized that century.
Evidences of the increasing profitableness of
these administrations are given in the statistics
contained in the Appendix. The increased yields
and incomes there recorded do not, however, tell
the entire story, for they do not show the additional
improvement in the condition and earning power
of the properties.
Taking, for instance, the Saxon forest property
of only 430,000 acres, we find that, although the
cut of wood had increased from 23,500 cubic feet
in 1850 to 37,400 cubic feet in 1893, an increase
of 60 per cent, the timber wood per cent (wood of
s
FACTORS OF FOREST PRODUCTION. 135
superior size not cordwood) had increased from 14
cubic feet to 54 cubic feet per acre or nearly 300
per cent, and at the same time the wood capital had
increased nearly 25 per cent. While the net in-
come during the earlier period, when wood was
worth 5.6 cents per cubic foot, amounted to $1.12
per acre, in 1893 the price had risen to 9.9 cents,
or 76 per cent, but the net income had risen
nearly 300 per cent, namely, to $4.37 for every
acre of the property, while the expenditures had
been more than doubled.
When it is considered that Saxony has taken in
about $200,000,000 during the last fifty years from
a small area of rough mountain land, a tract half
the size of many a county in the United States,
and that without diminishing, but rather increasing,
its earning power, the advantage of a careful treat-
ment of forest areas, at least to the state, the com-
munity, must be apparent.
Considering the net income as the interest of
the value of the forest lands at a 3 per cent interest
rate, it appears that, meanwhile, the capital value
of these lands has increased from $100 to $150,
whereas their deforestation would quickly convert
them into poor alpine pastures, which would bank-
rupt their owners at $10 per acre.
To the uninitiated an interest rate of 5 per cent,
which the appreciation of the investment and the
continued revenue of 3 per cent represents, would
appear unattractive; but when the conditions under
136 ECONOMICS OF FORESTRY.
which this rate is secured are considered, it would
be difficult to find any other business that under
similar non-speculative conditions and management
could make such a showing.
It is the consensus of a large number of promi-
nent financiers in the United States, 1 that at the
present time an absolutely safe, satisfactory long
time investment in this country cannot net more
than 3 to 3^- per cent, with a tendency to decreasing
rates.
A number of reasons can be adduced for the
claim that the forestry business is one of those
which is entitled to a low interest rate. It is well
known that the form of the capital varies the inter-
est rate, besides those more general modifiers of
the value of capital, such as the general safety,
prosperity, and credit of a country, and the supply
and demand for money. Among the features which
render capital invested in forestry business of such
a character as to satisfy a low interest rate, are the
following :
Like all landed property, the safety of the invest-
ment is great ; moreover, since forest property un-
der forestry management does not, as we have seen,
lend itself to renting, but is usually managed on
own account, no allowance needs be made in the
interest-rate it must bring for the premium for
risk which loaned capital requires. As long as the
1 " Letters of Prominent Financiers on Interest Rates," Equi-
table Life Assurance Society, 1899.
FACTORS OF FOREST PRODUCTION. 137
fire danger is as great as in this country, the safety
of forest property under certain conditions (conifer-
ous forest, dry regions) is, to be sure, greatly im-
paired. . That this danger does not need to exist is
amply shown by European experiences, and as soon
as forest properties are really managed and not only
exploited, they will have the same safety.
In Prussia, with 7,000,000 acres, including large
pineries on sandy plains, in 25 years (1868-1895)
only 1400 acres, or 0.02 per cent, or i acre in 4500,
were burned over, and some years not more than
i in 8000, a small percentage for so large and
specially endangered properties. In the moun-
tainous forests of Bavaria in 5 years (1877-1881)
only i acre in 13,167 was lost by fire, less than
0.007 P er cent f the 2,000,000 acres, the loss rep-
resenting 2 per cent of the gross yield. This state
lost heavily by insects and storms, but such loss is
usually of little consequence on large areas, only
disturbing the regular management, and readily
compensated. In 1868 to 1878 windfalls and dam-
age by beetles made it necessary to anticipate the
cutting of 400,000,000 cubic feet, and although
thereby the regular cut was increased by 2.1 per
cent, this increase remained without any influence
on normal prices.
The permanency and continuity of the invest-
ment, the amenity and dignity of large landed
property, recommend it to large capitalists ; and
since the nature of the business necessitates the
138 ECONOMICS OF FORESTRY.
employment of large fixed capital, the usual low
rate prevails which accompanies large capital in-
vestments, safely placed and avoiding the losses
incident to re-investment.
The promptness and absolute assurance with
which the revenues may be expected, and also
the advantage of being able to anticipate revenue
when needed, have the same tendency. Finally,
the general tendency to lower interest rates, and
at the same time to higher prices for wood,
promise an advantage in the future (especially
in a country where, on account of extensive for-
est exploitation, prices are still comparatively
low) which will make investments in forest prop-
erty for continuous management show superior
advantage to most other forms of capital of large
size.
This rise of prices, of which we gave an example
for the densely populated, industrial little state of
Saxony, comes out still more strikingly in the
larger, and more extensively managed Prussian for-
ests. Here the average price per cubic foot nearly
doubled in 1 the 35 years from 1830 to 1865, and
from 1850 to 1895 it rose nearly 50 per cent, namely
from 3 cents to 4^ cents per cubic foot, all together
an increase of i| per cent annually for a period of
65 years.
In every case of the state forest administrations
of Germany, we observe steady increase in material
production, value production, expenditures, appre-
FACTORS OF FOREST PRODUCTION. 139
ciation of investment, and net yield, as the table in
the Appendix exhibits.
One important policy which has brought about
this result, and which defines in general the finan-
cial requirement of forestry, has been that these
state administrations were willing and able to forego
present revenue for the sake of continued future
revenues, to give up immediate momentary profits
for the sake of making larger profits distributed in
time.
Forest management means that some part of
the forest, the wood capital, must be left, although
it could be turned into cash, or that money be spent
in establishing such a wood capital where it is defi-
cient, waiting for the time of returns. No business
realizes more than the forestry business that time
is money, and time is what the small capitalist does
not have. It is, therefore, not a business for the
small capitalist, who must work for large margins.
CHAPTER VI.
NATURAL HISTORY OF THE FOREST.
To understand the operations of the forester, it
is necessary to have some knowledge regarding
the life history of the object of his endeavor.
We have seen that the forest is not a mere col-
lection of trees, but an organic whole, the result of
evolutionary development, of adaptations and reac-
tions to the environment, of interrelations between
the components of the forest and the soil, climate,
and lower vegetation, as well as between the com-
ponents themselves.
While the forester must necessarily be thor-
oughly conversant with the development of the
single tree and all the conditions influencing it, he
cannot stop there, but must also know its behavior
when placed in relation to associates in the com-
munity of companions, for it is his business to de-
velop this community in such a manner, and bring
all influences and elements of environment into
such a relation to it, that it will produce a certain
desired result. Acres of forest, not single trees,
concern him.
The virgin forest and the forester's forest will
140
NATURAL HISTORY OF THE FOREST. 141
necessarily differ, inasmuch as the former is
merely the result of a natural evolutionary strug-
gle among the different forms of vegetation, in
which the " most fit " survivors may not be the
economically desirable, while the forester substi-
tutes artificial selection for natural selection, and
makes sure of the protected survival of the most
useful. Within limits, at least, he has it in his
power to influence the seemingly lawless mixture
of species which the virgin forest offers into a
form more suitable for his purposes. The limits
are set by the adaptability of the species to climate
and soil, and by the skill of the forester in recog-
nizing and utilizing the laws under which the
natural forest develops.
Climatic factors, temperature and moisture con-
ditions, determine, in the first place, the field of
natural distribution of the various species. Differ-
ent species are adapted to live within different
ranges of temperature and of relative humidity,
or the combination of both ; hence, different types
of forest occupy the different regions through
which we pass from the tropics, with their palms
and broad-leaved evergreen trees, through the de-
ciduous-leaved forest of the middle latitudes, com-
posed of oaks, hickories, chestnut, and tulip tree,
to the northern latitudes, where birch, maple,
beech, with pine, and hemlock, and finally, only
aspen and spruCe, can brave the wintry blasts.
And beyond the last outposts of these, tousled and
142 ECONOMICS OF FORESTRY.
dwarfed, the esquimaux of tree growth, the treeless
tundra is reached, where ice and snow abound all
the year, the home of winter.
Similar changes in type may be traced by ascend-
ing some high mountain in tropic or subtropic
regions. We may begin our journey under the
palms. As we ascend 2000 or 3000 feet, we pass
through the varied evergreen, broad-leaved forest,
into the deciduous-leaved forest, not dissimilar to
that of our middle latitudes. At an altitude of
8000 feet we enter the dominion of spruces and
firs. At 10,000 to 15,000 feet the forest opens,
the trees stand in groups, are dwarfed and tousled
like their northern counterparts, hugging each
other and the ground for protection against the
winter storms ; finally, the timber line is reached,
where killing frosts occur every month in the
year, and no persistent life can exist.
Again, variation in the relative humidity, in con-
nection with temperature conditions, brings about
changes in forest types ; from the humid seashore
to the drouthy interior of continents, we find differ-
ent species adapted to the many possible combina-
tions of temperature, humidity, and winds, which
together influence that most important physiologi-
cal function needful in the life of the tree, tran-
spiration. Dry climates, like cold climates, tend
to diminish growth, and reduce the number of
species composing the forest.
Within the geographical range of the species
NATURAL HISTORY OF THE FOREST. 143
thus limited, soil conditions vary, and again dif-
ferentiate the distribution ; the frugal pines being
able to subsist on the deep, overdrained sands, the
shallow-rooted spruces on the thin soils of alpine
situations, the elms, swamp maples, tupelo, bald
cypress, being indifferent to excess of moisture at
their feet, the hickories, walnuts; and tulip trees
seeking the rich, loamy soils, and others again
being ubiquitous, adapted more or less readily to
any kind of soil.
While, then, certain territory is assigned to the
different tree species, which through eras of evolu-
tion have adapted themselves to the climatic and soil
conditions, and this is a very important eco-
nomic fact, since usefulness of species varies, yet
the absence of a species from a given locality does
not necessarily predicate its inability to exist and
thrive in such a locality, since there are also me-
chanical barriers, like wide oceans and high moun-
tain ranges, or there may be absence of suitable
means of transportation for the seed, prevent-
ing its spread, and these difficulties man can
overcome.
It is, therefore, not impossible to exchange and
distribute artificially the useful species, as has
been done in agriculture and horticulture. But
in the case of plant material for forest purposes
it is impracticable to give special protection to the
introduced species through the long term of its
growth to usefulness, as may be done in the case
144 ECONOMICS OF FORESTRY.
of animals or even of fruit-trees. Acclimatization,
so called, in forestry is, therefore, practically con-
fined to overcoming merely the mechanical barri-
ers of distribution, i.e. to transport the species,
where its means of transportation fail, and to
give it a chance of showing its adaptation or lack
of it.
As a rule, the forester relies on the species
which he finds in the locality in which he is to
operate, and introduces from outside only species
which he has strong reasons to believe are adapted
to his locality, and at the same time promise de-
cided advantage over the native ones either in
quality or quantity of product or in other silvi-
cultural qualities.
Nor has much attempt been made to improve
on the quality of the wood as nature produces it.
While in agricultural products nature has been
improved upon in nearly every case, in forest
products very little attention has been given to
this subject.
The forester, more than the agriculturist, follows
and imitates the processes of nature ; all that he
attempts is to direct them to produce, in a degree,
better form and larger quantity of the better kinds
which he finds on hand.
While the presence of a species in the composi-
tion of the natural forest is, in the first place, due
to climatic and soil conditions, its numerical dis-
tribution and the manner of its occurrence in the
NATURAL HISTORY OF THE FOREST. 145
mixed forest depend primarily on two qualities in
combination, namely, its relative rapidity and per-
sistence of height growth, and its relative require-
ments for light, while the manner of seed production,
seed transportation, and character of seed are addi-
tional factors.
In those natural forests which are composed
mainly or entirely of one species, a comparatively
rare occurrence, the presumption is that climatic
or soil conditions are such that other species do
not find them congenial, at least, not when they
must contend for root and air space.
One, by a prolific production of seed, has an
advantage over another which produces seed only
every three or four years. The heavy nut of the
walnut, or the acorn or beechnut, needs squir-
rels, mice, birds, and water to extend its territory,
while the light-winged seeds of birch and poplar,
carried by the winds, make these trees almost
ubiquitous. The seed of the willow loses its power
of germination within a few hours or days ; hence
it is confined mainly to the borders of streams,
where favorable opportunities for sprouting exist.
The acacia and others of the leguminous tribe,
like the black locust, preserve their seed alive
for many years ; nay, the seed of the former will
often lie buried in the ground for years, until a
fire that destroys all other vegetation breaks their
hard seed coat and calls to life the dormant germ :
the cones of some pines remain closed, and release
146 ECONOMICS OF FORESTRY.
the seed only when fire, which has probably de-
stroyed all competitors, opens them. The pecu-
liarities of the seed, then, account for much in the
distribution of plants.
Next comes the peculiarity of growth. The
long-leaf pine, which, for the first four years, does
not grow more than two or three inches above the
ground, is at a disadvantage in that first period,
during which it has occupied itself with forming
a stout root system; but thereafter, by virtue of
this root system, it may endure what a faster-
growing neighbor could not. The quickly growing
aspen covers large areas, but its reign is of short
duration, for, as with most of the rapid growers,
its life is short. The slower-growing spruce, which
could support itself under the light shade of the
aspen, remains on the field, the victor by sheer
persistency.
Capacity to resist unfavorable weather condi-
tions frost and drought will give the advan-
tage to one species over the other, while liability
to attacks by animals, especially insects, may also
prove disadvantageous in comparison with the
others. There is little doubt in the mind of the
writer that the big trees, the Sequoias, owe their
long life to their immunity from insects and fungi
and to their resistance to fire, to which their com-
petitors succumb. Finally, however, the two qual-
ities first mentioned, relative height growth and
relative light requirement, are determinative.
NATURAL HISTORY OF THE FOREST. 147
While light is usually accompanied by heat and
it is difficult to discern how much of the effect of
it on plant growth is to be ascribed to the heat
which causes transpiration, and how much to the
light as such, yet it is now well known that light
itself exercises various influences upon vegeta-
tion, some of which are still imperfectly or not at
all understood. It is light which is indispensable
in the formation of chlorophyll the material
which imparts the green color to plants ; it is
light, a certain degree of light, upon which the
assimilation of carbonic acid in the chlorophyll
and the formation of starch are dependent; it is
light, together with other factors, which influences
transpiration by the foliage, which determines the
development of the crown and of the whole tree
in direction and quantity of growth.
It has been observed that various plants show
need of a greater or smaller amount of light for
their development. Some plants always seek the
shady places in the woods ; others enjoy the full
sunshine of the .meadow. The dense spruce forest
permits only a moss-cover on the soil, while the
open-foliaged oak forest permits a host of shrubs
and herbs to subsist. Just so, some trees are found
thriving under the shade of others, while these are
intolerant of the shade of their neighbors, or can
endure it only a short time. So all important and
so well known is the influence of light on the de-
velopment of a forest crop that on the difference of
148 ECONOMICS OF FORESTRY.
light requirements of the various species are based
the most important forestal operations. According
to relative tolerance of shade, the species can be
graded from the most tolerant to the least tolerant,
into shade-enduring or light-needing. Those spe-
cies which, like the beech or sugar maple, the
hemlock or the fir or spruce, form dense crowns
evidently need less light than those with lighter
foliage, for the interior leaves of these crowns can
grow and function in the dense shade. On the
other hand, the light-foliaged, open-crowned larch
or pine, aspen or poplar, ash or birch, show their
extreme sensitiveness to the absence of light by
the very openness of their crowns, by losing early
the lower branches unless they are fully lighted,
and in the forest by the inability of their seedlings
and young progeny to endure the shade of neigh-
bors or even of their own parent trees.
To offset this drawback in their constitution, they
have usually some advantage in the character of
the seed, and are mostly endowed with a rapid
height growth in their youth, so that, at least when
the competition for light starts with even chances,
they may secure their share by growing away from
their would-be suppressors. They can keep them-
selves in a mixed forest only by keeping ahead and
occupying the upper crown level. The tolerant
species, on the other hand, able to thrive in the
shade of light-foliaged species, usually increase
more slowly in height ; but their capacity of
NATURAL HISTORY OF THE FOREST. 149
shade endurance assures to them a place in the
forest.
Many of them are characterized by a height
growth which, though slow, is persistent ; while the
light-needing species, by falling behind in their
rate of height growth, often lose in the end what
they attained in their youth. As a result the
shade endurers finally become dominant, and the
light needers occur in the mixed forest only
sporadically, the remnants or single survivors of
groups, all the outside members of which have
perished; and only when a wind-storm or insect
pest creates an opening of sufficient size is a chance
for their reproduction given.
Just as in the mixed forest the species are dis-
tributed according to their shade endurance, so in
the pure forest of one species, or of species of
equal tolerance, will the different-sized or different-
aged trees develop side by side according to avail-
able light, each crowding the other, the laggards
being finally killed by the withdrawal of light.
In a well-established young growth of white
pine, the seedlings, some 50,000 to 100,000 on an
acre, with their symmetrical crowns sooner or later
form a dense crown canopy, excluding all light from
the soil. After a few years the leaves of the lower
branches, no longer able to function under the shade
of the superior part of the crown and of their
neighbors, fail to develop and the branchlets die
and break off ; this natural cleaning, which secures
150 ECONOMICS OF FORESTRY.
the desirable clear boles, takes place during the
period of rapid height growth, which occurs from
the tenth to the thirtieth year. At the age of
thirty years the trees are slender poles having a
diameter of 3 to 5 inches, and a height of from 20
to 25 feet, with a few taller ones, the boles bearing
a dense conical crown and beset for the greater
part of their length with small limbs, the lower
ones dead or dying. Not a few trees are seen to
fall short of reaching the general upper crown
level ; the crowns of these laggards are shorter,
more open, with fewer leaves on each twig. Others
again will be found dead or scarcely vegetating,
with crowns very poorly developed. In other
words, we can recognize different vigor in devel-
opment according to constitution and accidental
opportunity, and can make a differentiation into
development classes : the predominant, with their
crowns 5 to 10 feet above the general level, which
must finally make up the mature stand ; the sub-
dominant, still alive and; should accident remove
some of the superior class, ready to occupy their
air space ; and the dominated or inferior ones, hope-
lessly out of the race.
Of the tens of thousands which started only
2000 or 3000 are surviving, and as each tree tries
to expand its crown, and secure for itself as much
air space as well as root space as it can, the result
is a continued diminution of the number of trees
occupying the acre.
NATURAL HISTORY OF THE FOREST. 151
This decimation is in exact mathematical rela-
tion, except for accidents, with the development of
the dominant, especially in height growth. At the
age of eighty, of the several thousand trees which
started in the race, only a portion not more than
400 to 500 are left. Then the diminution pro-
ceeds at a slower rate, until finally only 200 to 300
occupy the ground, or as many as can conveniently
fill the air space in the upper story, the number
varying according to soil and climatic conditions
and species.
The time has arrived when the height growth is
practically finished. The branches cannot lengthen
any more to occupy the air space. After this a nu-
merical change can take place only as a result of
casualties, caused by fungi, insects, fires, or wind-
storms ; these of course may also from the start in-
terfere in the regular progress of adjustment which
takes place under the effect of physiological laws.
In reality the conditions of soil, climate, and
species in combination are so various that this pro-
cess of evolution does not appear so simple, yet the
seemingly lawless, yet actually law-directed, appear-
ance of a forest growth explains itself by these
few observations of the results of action and reac-
tion of its surroundings and of the single compo-
nents.
The factor of light is not only the most impor-
tant one in bringing about the evolution of the
natural forest, but practically almost the only one
152 ECONOMICS OF FORESTRY.
under control of man. With the knowledge of the
light requirements and with the judicious use of
the axe, the forester is enabled to stimulate or
suppress one species or another, and to direct in
quantitative and qualitative development the prog-
ress of his crop, and finally to secure the regen-
eration of entire forest growths with species that
to him are most useful.
Not only is the composition largely a result of
changes in light conditions, but the amount of pro-
duction ceteris paribus is a function of the light, for
the amount of foliage which the single tree can
exhibit to the influence of light predicates the
amount of wood it produces during the season,
provided that food supplies are accessible.
The whole art of forestry, in its technical as
well as in its financial results, is based upon the
knowledge and application of the laws of accre-
tion. Just as the manner in which composition
and numbers arrange themselves is a result of
recognizable laws of development, so the growth
of the individual tree as well as the growth of the
whole stand of trees in quantity and form is sub-
ject to laws which can be formulated. The math-
ematics of forest growth, developed by forest men-
suration, 1 reveal not only how, but how much, trees
1 The measurements to establish the progress of development
are based upon the fact that trees grow annually in length at their
tips by addition of shoots, and in circumference by the superposi-
tion of a layer of wood over those of former years, which in a
NATURAL HISTORY OF THE FOREST. 153
and stands of trees grow, how much useful mate-
rial they are capable of producing, and under what
conditions the largest amount of the most useful
material may be produced most quickly upon a
given area, which is the principal aim of the
forester.
As we recognize in the animal or in man cer-
tain periods of development which are each char-
acterized by progress in certain directions, so we
can in the tree individual recognize an infantile
stage, the seedling first unfolding the characteris-
tics of the plant, and occupied in forming organs
of nutrition. This process continues more vigor-
ously during the juvenile period or brush-wood
stage, when the difference in inherited capacity is
most pronounced, some species shooting rapidly
upward mostly light-needing species while
others first consume considerable time in develop-
ing a root system, a basis upon which the future
persistent growth can establish itself. During this
stage the difference in the rate of height growth
of different species is greatest and we can speak
of rapid and slow growers. After the juvenile
period all species grow more or less alike during
the brief adolescent or pole-wood period, the maxi-
mum rate of height growth occurring in the tenth
to fifteenth year with the light-needing and in the
twentieth to fortieth year with the shade-enduring
cross-section appear as the well-known annual rings, permitting a
statement of relation of performance to time.
154 ECONOMICS OF FORESTRY.
species ; then follows the even rate of the adult virile,
or young-timber period, during which maturity and
frequent seed production absorb part of the energy
until the maximum height is reached, and in the
senile or old-timber stage height growth stops alto-
gether. The virile stage is of most uneven length,
and here the " law of the lever " asserts itself often :
those which grow most rapidly in their youth,
as a rule, cease soonest to exert themselves, while
the slow growers are persistent and finally over-
tower the rapid ones.
The diameter growth proceeds slowly until a fully
formed crown and root system can elaborate the
material to be deposited along the bole in annual
layers. As these conditions improve during the
adolescent period, so does the rate of diameter
growth increase and the maximum rate does not
occur until the fortieth to eightieth year, then very
evenly declining into late life ; but the area of a
cross-section taken in any part of the bole, usually
breast high, increases a considerable time after the
diameter rate has begun to sink, as mathematical
reasoning requires, the* deposit each year being
made on a larger periphery.
Of greatest economic interest is the form devel-
opment of the bole, which depends upon the man-
ner in which the wood is deposited over the
previous year's deposits. In well-fed trees, with
fully developed crowns, standing in the open, so
much food is elaborated that the lower portions
NATURAL HISTORY OF THE FOREST. 155
receive an excess, hence we find such trees with
broad base tapering rapidly toward the crown;
while trees of the forest, grown in denser stand,
and having smaller confined crowns, elaborate less
material, hence the lower portions do not receive
so much, the result being a more nearly cylindrical
form, or even taper.
In the volume development matters become more
complicated, and we must differentiate it into parts,
namely, the volume of the bole, and that of the
branches, and brush wood, not to speak of the root
growth, or, as is customary with foresters, we may
consider the volume of the useful timber wood,
namely, material over three inches in diameter, as
differentiated from the brush wood, of smaller
dimension.
In a tree grown in the open, the crown is apt, for
a time at least, to develop at the expense of the
bole, and the deposition of new material takes
place more largely in the branches. At the same
time, since under this condition the largest amount
of foliage is at work, the largest amount of total
wood is also produced by such single trees. In the
forest the branch development is impeded by the
neighbors, hence each single component of the for-
est not only produces less wood, but the distri-
bution of the product is different, the valuable bole
receiving more than the less valuable branches.
Since open position secures quantity, dense position
quality, we can conceive of such a position or density
156 ECONOMICS OF FORESTRY.
of stand that will secure the largest amount of
deposit, compatible with the most useful form.
In general, the volume accretion of trees in full
enjoyment of light experiences a constant increase
in rate after the adolescent stage, and continues at
such rate for a long time, often into old age.
Of course different soil and climatic conditions,
as well as light conditions, influence the rate of
growth, and the growth of different species also
varies in amount. Here again the interesting law
of the lever may be noted, namely, that on good
sites the development is, to be sure, more rapid, but
the culmination in the rate is also reached more
rapidly, and the decline is more rapid. Similarly
as regards species : those that start with a rapid
growth usually reach their culmination sooner than
the slower ones, and are apt to decline more rap-
idly in their rate, so that in the end the slow but
persistent growers may outgrow the rapid ones in
height, diameter, and volume.
In the forest, as we have seen, the individual
trees experience an influence in their development
from the shade of their neighbors, and as a result,
a differentiation of trees into size classes, dominant
and inferior growth takes place, and finally as a
consequenceVthe dying off of the latter, the dimi-
nution in numbers, which we have already discussed.
Both height and diameter, as well as volume growth,
of these various tree classes, together with the dim-
inution in numbers, must be studied to determine
NATURAL HISTORY OF THE FOREST. 157
the important question of volume development of
stands. Hopeless as this would seem at first, it
has been accomplished with tolerable success by
German foresters, and a good beginning has been
made for the species of the United States.
The general laws which have been deduced
from the thousands of measurements made by the
Germans are, within limits, applicable to our native
species ; they exhibit at least what the possibilities
are under good management.
In the first place, these measurements show that,
so far as weight of production is concerned, the
same acre produces annually the same weight of dry
material, with practically whatever species it may
be grown, namely from 4000 to 8000 pounds per
acre, according to the quality of the acre (see p. 123).
In volume there is, to be sure, a considerable dif-
ference, due to the difference in specific weight of
the wood of different species, and of the water con-
tents ; in other words, the trees with heavy wood
would, ceteris paribus, produce less volume per year
than the light woods. That the weight of vegetable
product should be the same was logically to be
expected, since on the same acre the active factors
which produce assimilation and the potential energy
of the soil remain the same, and the result in prod-
uct must be the same. Nearly one-half of this
product is represented by foliage and roots, and one-
fourth by brush wood and bark, leaving only about
three-eighths available as useful wood material.
158 ECONOMICS OF FORESTRY.
According to climatic and soil conditions, which,
in combination, are technically called "site," the
annual production of available dry wood substance
above ground, when the site is fully utilized, varies
from at least 3500 pounds on the best sites to 1200
pounds on the poorest. This production remains
the same, regardless of the number of trees partici-
pating in it, provided that the entire available light
space be filled with active foliage, or, that, techni-
cally speaking, there is a full crown cover.
From this observation it appears that not the
number of trees, but the density of crown cover,
i.e. the intensity of utilization of the light, is the
important factor in weight production, and, ceteris
fiaribus, in volume production. In other words,
there may be two and three times as many trees
on the same area, and yet no difference in total
volume. The difference due to numbers will ap-
pear in difference of the distribution of volume in
more or less useful form ; hence the proper gauging
of numbers is one of the most important operations
of the forester.
As we have seen before, in a dense young growth
of nature's sowing, there may be 50,000 or more
trees per acre, which, by natural thinning after the
twentieth year, are reduced to 2000 or 2500, and then
diminishing steadily in number at a slower rate ; at
the end of the hundredth year only 200 to 250 occupy
the upper crown level, or only 10 per cent are left,
90 per cent having succumbed to the shading, or
NATURAL HISTORY OF THE FOREST. 159
having become mere undergrowth. Hence, while
on the whole the volume accretion has been in-
creasing, there has been also a constant loss by
the death of the inferior trees, a loss in volume
which is equal to at least 30 to 40 per cent of
the final harvest, and which, in part at least, can
be saved by timely interference and utilization.
It is evident that, with the great variety of con-
ditions possible, the rate of production of useful
wood, i.e. wood of log and bolt size fit for the arts,
varies greatly. Yet through painstaking analysis
and classification of the collected measurements, it
has been possible to construct for each species and
site so-called yield tables, which under the premise
of a fully stocked stand, i.e. full crown cover, and
of proper practice in thinning out the dying trees,
record the progress of volume accretion. These
tables, then, are standards of measurement, with
which the forester can compare his actual forest, to
see how far he is away from the possible or normal
conditions, and what he may expect to produce
in the future. These state, for a given species and
given site, usually in periods of ten years, the total
amount of wood per acre which will have been
produced every ten years, and possibly the differ-
ent classes or sizes of wood, stated at least percent-
ically, the number of trees to be present, their
average height and diameter, and other similar in-
formation. For illustration such a table will be
found in the Appendix.
160 ECONOMICS OF FORESTRY.
While in our natural unmanaged woods the final
useful crop, which usually has accumulated over 200
years before it is considered fit for harvest, rarely
exceeds 8000 cubic feet, in the managed German
spruce forest, fully covering the ground, from which
all useless species are eradicated, we may find at
30 years over 3000 cubic feet of wood, more than
three times that amount at 60 years, and at TOO
years 14,000 cubic feet of timber wood, having pro-
duced at the rate of 70 cubic feet during the first
two decades, at the rate of 240 cubic feet in the
third decade, reaching its maximum with 267 cubic
feet in the fourth decade, declining after this dec-
ade so that in the ninth decade the rate may be
only loo cubic feet per year, and at 100 years the
average rate for the whole period has become only
140 cubic feet. On poorer soils much less, down
to one-half, of this production may be expected, and
with other species, of course, the general progress
of accretion and final result must differ ; yet there
is a remarkable regularity, a law of accretion ob-
servable in all conditions, upon which an analysis of
the assiduously gathered data lets in a flood of light.
While the natural forest, if not interfered with
by man or by accident such as fire, would follow,
of course, the same laws, yet practically the result
is a different one, because the economic point of
view is left out, and tree weeds are mixed with
the valuable species, thus naturally reducing the
amount of useful production.
NATURAL HISTORY OF THE FOREST. 161
But if we take the small stands here and there
which occur in nature's forest, grown under similar
premises as those of the tables, we will find, as
would be expected, the same results ; the stand
has developed in the manner indicated by the
tables.
These tables of normal forest yield can serve
us as a goal which may be gained by a proper
forest management, when the useful product of
nature's forest can be trebled and quadrupled.
To illustrate the economic and practical value of
the laws deduced from these tables we may state
only a few of them. The so-called rapid growers,
i.e. those trees which have a rapid height growth
in their youth, are, in the end, not the largest pro-
ducers, if stout sizes are desired ; the persistent
growers, i.e. mostly the shade-enduring trees, pro-
duce relatively more in the long run. Hence, the
rapid-growing aspen, which is near the end of its
life at 80 years, may have then produced at best
7600 cubic feet to the acre, while the shady, slower,
but persistent spruce has, by that time, accumu-
lated over 12,000 cubic feet, and is still growing
at the rate of over 80 cubic feet per year.
On good sites and with rapid-growing species,
the culmination of the rate of volume growth
occurs earlier than under opposite conditions, and
then declines more rapidly, influencing, therefore,
the most opportune time for harvest. For the
Scotch pine the highest rate of production may be
162 ECONOMICS OF FORESTRY.
found on good sites between the twentieth and for-
tieth year, with over 160 cubic feet per acre, and
on poorer sites a decade later; while the slow-
growing beech shows its culmination between the
fiftieth and seventieth year, with 190 cubic feet
per acre.
In general, the volume of a stand progresses
much more slowly than that of a single tree, and
much more regularly, since it expresses all the
variable conditions. It is a matter of simple
mathematical demonstration that the maximum
average accretion occurs when it is equal to the
current accretion, i.e. equal to the accretion of the
particular year. In other words, when the accre-
tion which has occurred through a series of years,
divided by the number of years, happens to be as
large as the accretion of the current year, the high-
est average production per acre and year has been
attained. This occurs mostly before the fiftieth
year with light-needing species and on good sites,
later on poor sites and with shade-enduring species,
but, to be sure, the value accretion, which depends
upon the amount of large-sized material, culminates
very much later.
If a group of some hundred trees have grown
together in dense stand, they develop so regularly
and interdependently that the following relations
will prevail : the contents of the average tree will
be found to equal very nearly one-tenth of the vol-
ume of the three stoutest and the seven slimmest
NATURAL HISTORY OF THE FOREST. 163
trees which participate in the upper crown level,
and the volume of the whole stand may then be
closely approximated by multiplying this amount
by the number of trees involved :
/ , . , 3 max. -f 7
vol. of stand = n X
\ 10
If the trees are arranged in size-classes from the
stoutest down, the average tree will be found to
be at about 40 per cent from the stoutest. For
instance, in 500 trees, the 2OOth tree, counting from
the stoutest, will be the average tree. Moreover, if
these trees arranged in size-classes are divided into
five groups, the first fifth will contain 40 per cent
of the total volume, the second fifth 24 per cent,
the third 17 per cent, the fourth 12 per cent, and
the last, the slimmest, will represent only 7 per
cent of the total volume of all the trees.
These interesting deductions from the yield
tables, which could be multiplied, are cited merely
to impress upon the reader the fact that the forest
grows under the influence of recognizable laws,
just as the single tree does. If we differentiate
the volume into the different sizes of material,
logs of given diameter, cords of certain character,
etc., expressed in quantities or relative proportions,
and apply market prices, we can come to a concep-
tion of the value accretion of a stand at any par-
ticular time, and then can discuss upon a tangible
basis the results of a forest management which
may change at will the growth conditions and de-
1 64
ECONOMICS OF FORESTRY.
velopment of a forest stand to secure certain
results in a given time.
Instead of computing total quantities, we can
express the relationships in percentic proportions,
conceiving the stand of trees as a capital, and the
accretion as the interest on such capital, and speak
of the accretion per cent as basis for the more com-
plicated finance calculations.
CHAPTER VII.
METHODS OF FOREST CROP PRODUCTION:
SILVICULTURE.
THERE is nothing that needs to be more strongly
emphasized and impressed upon the American
public, and even upon the young professional for-
ester, than that the main business of the forester
is expressed in the one word " reproduction " ; his
main obligation is the replacement of the crop
he has harvested, whether produced by unaided
nature or otherwise, by as good, if not a better
crop of timber than he found.
Silviculture, the technique of the growing of
wood-crops, a branch of the broader subject of
arboriculture, is the pivot upon which the whole
forestry business turns.
As the farmer sows and reaps, so the forester
harvests and replaces, although the methods of the
two have little in common. Nor are the methods
employed in other arboricultural pursuits applica-
ble, such as the orchardist uses where the fruit is
the object, or the landscape gardener, who looks
for aesthetic effect, or the roadside planter, who
desires the shade.
165
166 ECONOMICS OF FORESTRY.
The tree which satisfies these arboriculturists
does not at all satisfy the requirements of the
forester, for his point of view, his aim, is a different
one and hence his methods are his own. In fact,
single trees are not his object any more than the
single grass blade is the object of the farmer ; the
largest amount of wood in the most salable or
profitable form is his aim, logs rather than trees,
and the financial results from their harvest. The
final aim of the silviculturist is, therefore, attained
only when he has removed the old trees and re-
placed them by a young crop. He grows trees in
masses and for their substance. Not only does he
deal with trees in masses, but with trees in natural
conditions, being by financial considerations often
limited in the use of artificial aids and methods,
such as the other arboriculturists and the farmer
in his crop production may employ.
Restricted as he is, or finally will be, to the poorer
soils and conditions, those least favorable to agri-
cultural production, he is forced to the most con-
servative management of the natural conditions
in order to secure a desirable result without too
much expenditure, which his long-maturing crop
cannot repay.
The simplest method of harvesting the crop of
nature and replacing it is to cut clean or clear the
ground and plant or sow the new crop, the farmer's
method. This is called " artificial reproduction " or
" reforestation," and is largely practised in Europe.
SILVICULTURE. 167
It is, of course, the only method applicable where
the forest crop is to be started anew on abandoned
fields, on the forestless prairies and plains, on the
burnt areas which have grown up to useless
brush, in short, where no old crop of desirable
species is on the ground. Where an old crop of
desirable kinds is already on the ground, the same
method of clearing followed by artificial reforesta-
tion may be employed, but there is also a choice
of producing the new crop by seeds falling from
the trees of the old crop, by "natural regen-
eration."
This method is the one by which nature main-
tains the forest. As trees grow old, decay, and
fall, an opening is made into which the neighbor-
ing trees throw their seeds and fill up the gap with
a new seedling growth. The forester profits from
this observation, and with the recognition of the
laws under which forest growth develops, as
detailed in the preceding chapter, he gives merely
direction to this development in such a manner as
to reduce the unfavorable and increase the favor-
able conditions of development for whatever kinds
he may desire to propagate, avoiding the use of
the planting tool, and managing to secure the
reproduction and development of the young crop
by the mere use of the axe in the old crop. But
he uses the axe differently from the lumberman.
The lumberman, the first exploiter of the mixed
virgin forest, treats it like a mine from which he
1 68 ECONOMICS OF FORESTRY.
takes the pay ore, culling the best kinds and cuts,
and abandoning the rest to its fate, which is
usually made hazardous by fires running through
the forest, fed by the debris he has left.
If these fires have not killed the remaining
growth, he may come back after a few years, and
may find some of the smaller trees of the useful
kinds, which he had left standing, grown to such a
size as will pay to cut and transport to market ; these
he calls "second growth." Possibly he may re-
peat this culling process several times; but finally
the desirable kinds are cut out, and there is left a
growth of undesirable kinds, of weeds which he
has helped in their struggle with their rivals of
useful kinds, by the removal of the latter.
Meanwhile, wherever an opening is made by the
cutting of trees, seeds from the neighboring growth
fall to the ground and sprout, giving rise to some
aftergrowth, but this is apt to be preponderantly
of the undesirable kinds which were left ; more-
over, this young growth under the shade of the
old trees, being deprived of the desirable amount
of light, develops slowly and poorly. As a result
of these operations, then, not only the present com-
position of the growth is deteriorated, but also its
future. Thus, in Kentucky, where the valuable
white oak used to form 40 per cent of the forest, the
aftergrowth contains hardly 5 per cent; and in
Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota, where the
white pine has been culled out severely, its absence
SILVICULTURE. 169
i
in the young growth has led to the curious belief
among lumbermen that it does not propagate itself
by seed.
The forester, on the other hand, treats the forest
as a permanent investment and as a crop. All his
operations keep in mind continuity and permanency
for the future. Reproduction not only, but repro-
duction of the most useful kinds 1 and superior
quality is his aim.
The forester, instead of culling out the best kinds
first, as the lumberman does, would take out the
undesirable ones first, and thus improve the com-
position of his crop. The material which results
from these so-called " improvement cuttings " may
sometimes not directly pay for the labor spent on
them, but they are cultural operations, designed
to put the property in more useful condition for
the future, and hence they are at least indirectly
profitable.
When in this way the desirable kinds have been
given the advantage (or sometimes simultaneously
with the improvement cuttings), a gradual removal
of these takes place, either of single individuals here
and there, or of groups of them, making larger or
smaller openings ; or else more or less broad strips
are cleared, on which the seed falling from the
remaining neighboring growth can find lodgement,
1 Of the nearly 500 species native to our country, only about 70
furnish wood of sufficient size and quality to deserve the attention
of the forester.
I/O ECONOMICS OF FORESTRY.
jk
and sprout ; and, as the young seedlings require
more light for their development, gradually more
of the older timber is removed, or the openings are
enlarged for new crops of young growth, and thus
the reproduction is secured gradually, while har-
vesting the old crop.
Finally, when the last stick of old timber has
been removed and in a well-developed forestry
system every stick is expected to be utilized
a young growth composed as far as possible only
of the more useful kinds has taken the place of
the virgin forest, to grow until it becomes profit-
able to harvest again, when the same methods will
secure another reproduction, and so on.
To be sure, these operations are not quite so
simple as they appear from this statement, for
considerable knowledge of the requirements of
each species and judgment of the needs of the
young crop for its best development are needed to
secure a successful regeneration, two requisites
secured by study and experience, which, for Amer-
ican species and conditions, are still lacking to a
large extent.
The progress and manner in which the natural re-
generation by seed is secured give rise to variously
named methods and to various results in the ap-
pearance and development of the young crop ; but
in all of these so-called natural regeneration meth-
ods the young crop is secured by seed falling from
the mother trees on or near the ground to be re-
SILVICULTURE. 171
cuperated, and the old crop is removed more or
less gradually, to make room for the young crop,
the main difference being in the rapidity with
which the old crop is removed.
The choice of method depends upon financial
as well as silvicultural considerations.
In protection forests and luxury forests, in which
the financial questions become secondary and the
requirement of a continuous soil cover may be
paramount, the choice of method is circumscribed
by this consideration. Here, methods in which the
old crop is very slowly removed and replaced by
the new crop are indicated, even if financial and
silvicultural results would make other methods
desirable.
In supply forests, the cheapest method which
secures desirable proportionate results in the crop
is to be chosen. This must vary according to
local conditions. Climate, soil, and species to be
dealt with call for silvicultural considerations ; the
relative cost of planting and of logging or harvest-
ing under different methods influence the financial
results.
The clearing process followed by artificial re-
placement entails a money outlay for the latter
from year to year ; the gradual removal methods
with natural seeding avoid, to be sure, this outlay,
but, since to secure the.same amount of harvest, a
larger territory must be cut over, they entail large
initial investment for means of transportation, which
172 ECONOMICS OF FORESTRY.
must be maintained for all the years of removal,
and they occasion also otherwise greater expenses
in the harvest than the concentrated logging in the
clearing system, which may be done over tempo-
rary roads. Where, as in Germany, most forest
districts are provided with well-built permanent
road systems, gradual removal methods are often
probably the least expensive ; but in the United
States, in most places, unless water transportation
can be relied upon, a gradual removal system
means heavy initial outlays for roads, which may
make the clearing followed by planting the cheaper
method. It is in most conditions also the surer;
for a complete success of the young crop can, in
most cases, be forced. In the natural regeneration
methods there are elements of uncertainty, the seed
years may not come when expected ; in a mixed
forest, which, for many reasons, is the most desira-
ble form, the species seed irregularly, have different
requirements of light, so that the composition can-
not be very well controlled ; the damage and loss
occasioned in the young crop by the removal of
the old crop must be discounted in the final result ;
and besides, where the removal is very slow, the
young crop is impeded in its development by the
shade of the old crop. These systems, therefore,
are better adapted to shade-enduring species than
to light-needing. The main argument and the
most important in favor of these methods is that
they furnish protection to the soil, preventing its
SILVICULTURE. 173
deterioration under the influence of sun and wind,
to which the soil is liable in a clearing system, and
giving also protection to the tender seedlings of
such species as are subject to frost or drought.
Under such conditions, therefore, i.e. where pro-
tection of soil and young crop are necessary, the
gradual removal methods will be chosen.
Over 80 per cent of the forests of Germany are
managed under a clearing system and rapid
removal systems, and only 20 per cent under slow
removal and other systems.
Where, as in our culled forests, the valuable
species have been removed and the weed trees
have been left in possession, it stands to reason
that no natural regeneration method will reestab-
lish the better species; they must be restored by
artificial means. Finally, where conditions per-
mit, a combination of natural and artificial methods
may be resorted to in order to secure the best
result.
The crudest, least intensive method is an im-
provement on the method of the lumberman,
who culls the best trees here and there, the
so-called method of selection. The improvement
over the lumberman's practice, who is concerned
only in the removal of the useful timber, consists
in looking somewhat after the fate of the young
growth, protecting it against competing species,
giving it light as soon as practicable by further
culling, and improving the composition by reduc-
1/4 ECONOMICS OF FORESTRY.
ing the weed trees and also leaving more seed
trees.
The result is a forest in which all ages and
sizes are scattered over the entire area, coming
nearest to the conditions of nature.
This system, in which the young crop has a
poor chance to develop, and which is applicable
to shade-enduring species only, is recommended
for protective forest areas. In Germany it is
applied only on small areas and on the steepest
slopes, less than 10 per cent of the German forest
area being managed under it, and in the Prussian
state forests, less than |- per cent.
The continuous soil cover, to be sure, is a
feature which is its greatest recommendation,
but this is secured at great expense and loss in
accretion.
To permit a better chance for the young growth,
the so-called " group method " has been lately de-
vised, in which not single trees, but groups of
trees, are removed and the opening is expected
to be seeded by the neighboring trees. From
time to time, as soon as the young growth is well
established, the opening is enlarged and additions
of young growth secured in the form of an irregular
ring or band around that of preceding years.
An older method, similar to the last, consists in
making the opening in the form of a narrow strip
at right angles to the prevailing winds, and as the
ground is seeded to clear a new strip toward the
SILVICULTURE. 175
windward side. This "strip method," just as any
method which relies upon the seed furnished by a
neighboring growth, is more successful with those
kinds which have light-winged seeds, easily carried
by the winds over the area to be seeded, and which
do not require any protection in their infantile
stage. It is a method which, on account of the
greater concentration in harvest, is probably advis-
able in many cases in the United States.
For heavy-seeded kinds like oaks, beech, hick-
ories, and other nut trees, the more complicated
method of " regeneration under shelter wood or
nurse trees " becomes necessary ; this consists in a
series of severe preparatory thinnings of the old
crop which is to be reproduced, beginning a year or
more before the time when a full seed crop is to be
expected, seed years recurring more or less period-
ically. These preparatory thinnings are made for
the purpose of exposing the soil to atmospheric
influences, which hasten the decomposition of the
litter, thereby securing a serviceable seed bed.
Enough trees of the kind to be reproduced are
left on the ground to secure full seeding and
shelter and protection of the young crop. When
the latter has come up, the nurse trees are gradually
removed to give the young seedlings the required
light. The whole operation, until the last nurse
trees are removed and the young crop is established,
may take from three to ten and more years, accord-
ing to kinds, soil conditions, climate, and success
176 ECONOMICS OF FORESTRY.
in securing the seeding. The greatest nicety of
judgment is required to direct these operations,
taking into account the requirements of the species
and the conditions and progress of development of
the young crop.
To secure a full crop by this natural method
often requires, not only careful manipulation, but
patient waiting for years, since trees do not bear
seed every year and the young crop may from this
or other causes fail to establish itself wholly or in
part, when another seed year must be awaited, or
the " fail " places filled out artificially by planting.
The artificial reforestation may be made either
by sowing the seed or by transplanting seedlings
secured from nurseries or from the woods. This
planting or sowing is done after more or less care-
ful preparation of the soil, the preparation and
manner of planting depending on soil conditions,
species, and financial considerations.
Simple and effective as these artificial methods
are, there are certain dangers connected with them,
which follow their injudicious application. The
exposure of the soil may lead to its deterioration,
the sun-warmed areas are apt to breed insects, the
standing timber, exposed to sweeping winds, may
be thrown when the opening is large.
Where in a natural seeding a hundred thousand
seedlings would cover the soil and quickly replace
the shelter removed in the old growth, economy
will permit the planting of only a few thousand
SILVICULTURE. 177
(usually 2500-5000 per acre), and it requires years
before the crowns of the young growth close up to
shade the ground thoroughly, meanwhile weeds and
grass sapping its strength and retarding the devel-
opment of the crop. Nevertheless, by a judicious
application, making the openings small, utilizing the
shelter of some left-.over trees for partial protection,
increasing the number of plants, or sowing a cheap
nurse crop, these dangers may be avoided.
Theoretically, however, the regeneration under
shelter wood with a short period of removal is con-
sidered the most efficient.
While all these methods rely upon a reproduc-
tion of the new crop by seed, directly or indirectly,
there is another mode of reproduction possible,
owing to the capacity of some trees to reproduce
new parts from buds, forming shoots from the
stumps after the old tree is. cut. These stool
shoots, or sprouts, grow into trees, and by the
mere harvest of the old crop, the new crop is se-
cured. This, in turn, may be cut, and the stump
will produce again and again new sprouts. This
simplest and crudest system of reproduction, called
" coppice," which results involuntarily when the
old hardwoods are cut, is applicable only to the
I broad-leaved trees which are capable of producing
valuable shoots in this manner ; the coniferous
trees, like pines, spruces, etc., are practically ex-
cluded, although some possess the capacity of
sprouting in inferior degree.
*
178 ECONOMICS OF FORESTRY.
Even in broad-leaved trees the capacity for
sprouting is possessed in different degree by the
different species, and is more or less lost by all in
old age ; and especially after repeated harvests the
stumps become exhausted and die, so that the
forest is apt gradually to deteriorate in compo-
sition as well as in density, unless fresh blood is
added by reproduction from seed.
Thus in Pennsylvania, where the system has
been in vogue for a century and more to furnish
charcoal for the iron furnaces, the valuable white
oaks and hickories have been crowded out by the
chestnut, which is a superior sprouter ; similarly,
in Massachusetts the inferior white birch replaces
the more valuable kinds in the coppice, as their
stocks weaken and fall a prey to rot.
Another disadvantage of this coppice system
under which the woodlands of deciduous trees in
almost all New England and the Atlantic States
are reproduced is that, although the sprouts de-
velop much faster than the seedlings from the
start, they soon fall off in their growth, and are
capable merely of furnishing small dimensions
and fire wood. The coppice, therefore, is useful
only for certain purposes, but cannot be relied
upon to furnish material for the great lumber
market.
The deterioration consequent to the continued
application of the coppice is best studied in Italy
and in certain parts of France, where serviceable
SILVICULTURE. 179
timber is almost unknown, and fagots of small
fire wood are precious articles.
To avoid this objection a mixed system has been
practised, by which part of the crop (the so-called
standards) is allowed to grow up and be reproduced
by seed, while the other part is treated as coppice ;
but in this so-called standard-coppice (Ger. Mittel-
wald, Fr. taillis compost} the standards, unimpeded
in their branch development, do not form service-
able trunks, and in addition, by their shade injure
the coppice growth.
While, then, these methods are of limited use,
the only method of reproducing the forest which
is to serve as a basis for the supply of the enormous
quantities of saw timber required in the markets
is the so-called timber forest, the high forest, Hoch-
wald of the Germans, or futaie of the French,
which is reproduced by seed, and grows to full
size and maturity, to be again so reproduced.
As in the natural methods the axe is the only
tool which is used to secure the regeneration, so is
the axe the only tool which cultivates the young
crop, such, cultivation consisting in the judicious
removal of surplus trees by the so-called thinnings,
by which the quantity and quality of the crop is
increased. To understand this, it is necessary to
know that trees form wood by the function of the
foliage under the influence of light.
Hence a tree with much foliage and unimpeded
access of light is bound to make much wood.
ISO ECONOMICS OF FORESTRY.
These conditions are fulfilled when the tree is
allowed to grow in open stand, as on a lawn,
without close neighbors, who would cut off some
of the light supply.
But trees under such conditions grow mostly
into branches, the crown being developed at the
expense of the bole, which remains short and
more or less conical in shape, of little commercial
or technical use, except for firewood; when the
trunk is sawn into boards every branch appears
as a defect, known as a knot, which makes it unfit
for use in the better class of work, and thus, while
the total quantity of wood in the tree is increased
by the open stand, it is done at the expense of
quality.
The object of the forester, however, is not sim-
ply to grow wood, but to produce wood of such
form and quality as is useful in the arts. The
ideal tree for him is one with a long, cylindrical,
branchless trunk, bearing its crown high up, which
when cut into lumber produces the largest amount
of material clear of knots, of straight fibre, and
giving the least amount of waste or fire wood.
His aim, therefore, must be to so place his trees
that, while the largest possible amount of wood
shall be produced, it shall be deposited in the most
useful form also.
By a close position, when each tree cuts off the
side light from the neighbor, the formation of
branches is prevented, or the branches which were
SILVICULTURE. l8l
formed, being overshadowed, soon lose their vital-
ity, die, and finally break off, leaving the shaft
smooth, and, if this clearing was effected before
the branches had reached considerable size, the
amount of clear lumber is increased.
But again, if the trees are kept too close, if too
many trees are allowed to grow on the acre, each
one having the smallest amount of foliage and
light at its disposal, the amount of wood produced
by the acre may be fully as large as it is capable
of producing, but it is distributed over so many
individuals that each develops at the very slowest
rate, and hence does not grow to useful size in the
shortest time.
To secure his object, producing the largest
amount per acre of the most useful wood in the
shortest time, the forester must know what number
of trees to permit to grow, so as to balance the
advantages and disadvantages of close and open
position.
This number differs not only according to the
species composing his crop, but also according
to soil and climatic conditions and to the age of
the crop, as we have seen in the preceding
chapter.
Some trees, having considerable capacity of
enduring shade, like the beech, sugar maple, or
spruce, may require many more individuals to the
acre than the more light-needing oaks or pines ;
on richer soils fewer individuals will produce
1 82 ECONOMICS OF FORESTRY.
satisfactory results, when on poorer soils more
individuals must be kept on the acre. The ques-
tion of the proper number of trees to be allowed
to grow per acre at different ages is one of the
most difficult, on which practitioners differ widely.
In general, however, the practitioner has recog-
nized the necessity of preserving a dense position
for the first twenty to thirty years of the young
crop, sacrificing quantitative development to quality
and form. The close stand secures the long,
branchless, cylindrical trunk, which furnishes the
clear saw-logs of greatest value. Then, when the
maximum rate of height growth has been attained,
a more or less severe thinning is indicated, in
order to secure quantitative development, and
these thinnings are repeated periodically, to give
more light as the crowns close up, and also to
utilize such of the trees as are falling behind in
this wood production.
As a result of judicious thinnings, the rate at
which the remaining crop develops may be doubled
and quadrupled, the heavy, more valuable sizes are
made in shorter time, and, where the inferior mate-
rial removed in the thinnings is salable, a much
larger total product is in the end secured from the
acre, for many of the trees which were removed
and utilized would have died, fallen, and decayed
in the natural struggle for existence.
In German forest management the amount util-
ized in thinnings amounts to 25 per cent and more
of the final harvest yield.
SILVICULTURE. 183
Other considerations also influence these opera-
tions, such as the preservation of soil moisture,
which is the most essential contribution of the soil
to tree growth, and which requires the soil to be
kept shaded.
In fact, there is nothing that a forester guards so
jealously, next to the light conditions at the crown,
as the soil conditions : a soil cover free of weeds
and grass, and covered as amply as possible with a
heavy mulch of decaying leaves and twigs, and if
this best protection of the soil moisture be defi-
cient, a cover of shrubby undergrowth which re-
quires less water than weeds and grass this is
the character of a desirable forest floor.
Altogether it will have appeared that the entire
silvicultural requirements of the crop resolve them-
selves into one, namely, proper management of
light conditions, which is secured by the judicious
use of the axe.
While in field crops it is customary to grow only
single species, in pure stands, the forester has dis-
covered that, as a rule, not only better results, both
in quantity and quality, but better protection of
soil conditions and especially safety against many
dangers from insects, frosts, and storms, etc., can
be secured by mixed plantations, and hence he
gives preference to mixed crops, although such
crops, composed of several species, require more
skill in their management.
While the crop is developing, it is, of course,
1 84 ECONOMICS OF FORESTRY.
necessary to protect it against damage of various
kinds. The young seedlings of some species are
apt to suffer from frost or drouth, which is avoided
by growing them under shelter of older trees,
by draining wet places, securing opportunity for
cold air to draw off, etc., mostly preventive
measures. In prairie and plain it may 'be possible
to assist their resistance to such damage by culti-
vating the ground as the farmer does, but in the
real forest country such means are excluded by the
character of the ground, and the expense. Alto-
gether the only practical remedies lie in the di-
rection of foreseeing the damage and guarding
against it.
Animals, and especially insects, are frequently in-
jurious to the young crop, and insects also to old
trees, by their defoliation. This damage, too, can be
largely obviated by preventive measures.
Since many, if not most, injurious insects are
monophagous, i.e. feed on one species, or at least
one genus, mixed forests resist their damage better,
since the number of host plants is reduced and the
intermixed trees impede progress and development
of the pest. Fewer insects develop in the dense
shade and on vigorous, healthy plants, hence they
can be kept in check to some extent by keeping
the crop dense and in vigorous development, when
it can resist the attacks ; and also by keeping the
woods clean of debris, dead and dying trees, in
which insects develop ; finally, as ultima ratio,
SILVICULTURE. 185
positive measures must be resorted to for collecting
and destroying the broods of insects before they
have time to do damage. Considerable amounts
of money are spent in this direction in European
forest management, amounting in ordinary times
to from one-half to one cent per acre, but, from
time to time, the pests break out in such numbers
that no remedies will avail. 1 Some loss must
be sustained, which is, however, of less moment
if the crop had already developed to suitable size
and can be harvested when the trees have been
killed.
Wind-storms are a danger to older timber, es-
pecially of shallow-rooted species, like the spruce,
and on soft soils and exposed slopes or mountain
tops. Here care must be taken in keeping the
stand well thinned, so that the trees may get accus-
tomed to the swaying of the winds in more open
stand. In this way they are induced individually
to form a better root system and become wind-firm,
while in the dense stand their strength was only in
the union with neighbors.
Under conditions where damage from windfall
is to be expected, it becomes necessary to arrange
the felling areas so that no stand of old timber be
suddenly exposed to the prevailing winds by the
1 In Bavaria, in one year (1891), $500,000, or 20 cents per
acre of property and $1.80 per acre infested, were spent in combat-
ing one insect, the nun, without much effect. The premature har-
vesting of 60,000,000 cubic feet was the result of the damage.
1 86 ECONOMICS OF FORESTRY.
removal or harvest of a neighboring stand. Since
the prevailing winds in the northern zone come
mostly from the western direction, it is sought to
secure an arrangement of the stands of different
age in series (a "felling series"), so that the old
and tall timber is found at the eastern end, the age
classes grading off to the west, the youngest at the
western end, and the tops of the series of stands
ideally appearing like a roof slanting down from
east to west. It is apparent that, under such an
arrangement, the old timber can be harvested and
reproduced without exposing any stands to the
force of the wind, and the young timber is growing
up under the influence of winds and becomes wind-
firm.
The greatest danger to forest properties, how-
ever, is fire, and the protection against this most
unnecessary evil, resulting mainly from man's care-
lessness, absorbs a large part of the energy of the
forester. Proper police, but also silvicultural meas-
ures, reduce the amount of danger and damage.
The damage which fire occasions is very vari-
able, according to a variety of conditions. Most
forest fires are confined to the forest floor, running
in the litter and young wood, scorching the older
trees merely ; yet, under favorable conditions, the
fire may run up the trees, becoming a crown fire
and propagating itself from top to top and throw-
ing firebrands and sparks to the ground, often for
long distances.
SILVICULTURE. 1 87
Young crops, during the seedling and brush-
wood stage, are readily killed, while older timber
may stand scorching without much or any damage.
Different species behave differently in this re-
spect. The giant trees, or Sequoias, covered with
a dense bark more than a foot thick, and their
wood hardly inflammable, the Douglas fir, with a
similar protection, are less liable to be damaged
than the thin-skinned firs or spruces, beech or
white birch and aspen. The green, succulent
foliage and wood of broad-leaved trees is more
resistant than the dry resinous foliage and wood
of conifers. Drouthy conditions and dry soils are
more likely to induce danger from fire damage
than the opposite conditions. Finally, the presence
or absence of an undergrowth, or debris, of dead
and dry branches of trees, and the character of
the forest floor, must make a difference in the ease
with which a fire may start and run, the amount
of heat it develops, and the consequent damage.
The damage may consist in the total loss of the
crop, which is usual until the pole-wood stage is
reached. In pole wood and young or old timber the
trunks may be only blackened, but more often the
cambium layer below the bark is partially or en-
tirely killed, causing either the death of the tree,
especially when recurring fires accumulate the
damage, or secondary damage results through rot
or insects which develop, especially in the weakest
trees.
1 88 ECONOMICS OF FORESTRY.
A damage even greater than the loss of the crop
is experienced in the loss of the soil cover, the
litter and duff, which is the forester's manure.
This loss may become irreparable in localities
where only a thin layer of mineral soil overlies the
rock, and the opportunity for starting a new crop
may be entirely destroyed. The fire danger in
the United States is so great that in many local-
ities it almost prohibits the practice of forestry;
for who would want to invest money and energy
in a property which is exposed to extra risks from
fire by the absence of proper legislation, or by the
lack of police and moral support on the part of the
community in enforcing it, by the unpunished
negligence or malice of incendiaries, and by the
populational conditions of the country, which pre-
vent the economical disposal of the debris from
logging operations.
The last-mentioned difficulty is perhaps the
most important, because practically almost impos-
sible to avoid. There must, especially in our vir-
gin woods, always result from the harvest of the
useful material a large amount of debris, tops,
branches, brush, and other waste, which cannot
be marketed ; and this not only impedes the devel-
opment of a young crop, but adds to the danger
from fire until decay has reduced the debris, which
often requires many years, even decades.
The proposition has been made to burn the
debris after the logger. This is not as simple and
SILVICULTURE. 189
inexpensive as it appears, when care is to be taken
not to damage the remaining growth and especially
when natural regeneration is to be practised, or a
young crop, already in part provided by nature, is
to be saved.
Where the culling is made light, only here and
there a tree being taken, especially in the mixed
forest, the amount of debris also is small and it
may be left to natural decay, with the only pre-
caution that the branches of the top are lopped
so as to have the whole mass come into as close
contact with the ground as possible, when the
decay proceeds more rapidly.
But where the culling is severe, as is often
called for in pure woods and also in mixed stands,
and a large amount of debris results, even this
lopping of tops is of no avail; the fire risk con-
tinues for many years. Incessant watching dur-
ing the dangerous season is necessary, and even
this proves futile, for a fire, easily started by the
slightest carelessness or by lightning, 1 will run in
the debris so fast that no human power can stop it.
1 Although undoubtedly most fires are the result either of malice,
foolishness, or carelessness, namely, by smokers, campers, farmers
in clearing brushlands, and others using fires, locomotives throwing
sparks from smoke-stacks and ash-pits, the writer can attest that light-
ning is occasionally the cause of fires. The old " snags," dead
trees, the result of previous fires, are especially liable to be struck by
lightning, and being dry, they burn, and propagate the fire either by
the flames burning down to the ground, or else by sparks and burn-
ing limbs falling to the ground ; but the writer has also seen live
190 ECONOMICS OF FORESTRY.
Partial burning and piling of the brush reduce
the danger somewhat, but hardly in proportion to
the expense. The readiest remedy, where forestry
is to be practised under such conditions, is to make
a clean sweep, that is, clearing, burning up the
debris, and replanting, or else, if natural regenera-
tion is to be relied upon, adopting the strip system,
when the opportunity of burning the debris totally
is still possible.
The danger from the debris continues longer in
coniferous woods than in the deciduous-leaved, the
wood of which decays more readily in contact with
the ground, although usually, in these latter, larger
amounts of d6bris result. For instance, in the hard-
wood forests of the Adirondacks, the merchantable
log material presents only one-third of the total
amount of wood, two-thirds being cordwood and d6-
bris. The only hope here, in the absence of a paying
home market for fuel from this inferior material,
is to establish chemical works for its conversion on
a large scale into charcoal, acetic acid, wood alco-
hol, and other useful manufactures.
trees, even of hardwoods, blaze when struck by lightning, and prop-
agate the fire in spite of a pelting rain. Of 509 fires occurring in
the Bavarian state forests during 6 years, 4 were demonstrably ac-
credited to lightning and 7 to locomotives. Of 156 conflagrations
in the Prussian state forests during 10 years, 3 were the result of
lightning and only 4 from locomotives, 7 years out of the 10 being
without any record of fire from this last cause, and that on a
property of 7,000,000 acres, over half of which was stocked with
pine on dry sandy soil
SILVICULTURE. 191
In fact, the application of silviculture, i.e. the
systematic production of wood-crops as a business
proposition, in our culled, mismanaged woodlands
throughout the United States is, in most cases,
possible only where the means exist of utilizing
this inferior material; for the risks from fire are
too great, or else the cash which would otherwise
have to be spent in making room for the young
crop will surely exceed reasonable proportions.
Only the state or other long-lived corporations can
afford to spend money now in the hope of ade-
quate returns in a distant future.
That it is finally possible to reduce the fire dan-
ger to a minimum by proper police regulations and
by silvicultural measures, and by proper manage-
ment and organization, is attested by the forest
fire statistics of the German forest administrations,
to which we have already referred on pp. 137 and
190.
To these we may add that in any given longer
period within the last 25 years the acreage de-
stroyed in Prussia or Bavaria (about 10,000,000
acres) rarely exceeds .005 per cent of the total forest
area under state control. In a recent report (1896)
we read of "very considerable damage by fire"
occurring in the Prussian state forests, referring
to the burning over, not total loss, of 2500 acres.
One fire is reported as destroying 1000 acres of a
"hopeful" pine and spruce plantation 20 to 25
years old. In the next year (1897) the entire loss
IQ2 ECONOMICS OF FORESTRY.
was not over 100 acres. This comparative im-
munity is due to both administrative and police
regulations.
The Indian forest administration, under circum-
stances not much less difficult, nay, perhaps more
difficult, than those prevailing in the United States,
refutes the assertion that forest fires may not be
suppressed.
Not only have the .people of all timbered parts
of India practised the firing of woods for many
centuries, for purposes both of agriculture and
pasture, but the natural conditions in many of the
Indian forests are such as to discourage the most
sanguine.
The forest in most parts is a mixed growth, o
which a considerable portion is valueless and is
left to die and litter the ground with dry and
decaying timber, furnishing ready fuel. A dense
undergrowth, largely composed of giant grasses
and bamboo, covers the ground, green or dry,
to which is added a mass of creeping and climbing
vegetation. It is a dangerous forest, with hot, dry
winds to fan the flames ; and yet the forest de-
partment fights and prevents fires, and succeeds in
a measure. The efficiency of protection has con-
stantly increased with perfection of methods, and
the expenses have never exceeded $10 per square
mile in any year on an area of over 30,000 square
miles, of which, in 1895, not more than 8 per cent
experienced damage. The police regulations
SILVICULTURE. 193
which lead to such results will be discussed in a
succeeding chapter.
Here the preventive silvicultural measures and
arrangements in the forest, which are designed to
reduce the fire danger, are to be only briefly
enumerated.
The experience that deciduous-leaved woods are
less liable to danger suggests the maintenance of
mixed forest ; the fact that old timber is compara-
tively safer, and that on large wind-swept areas the
heat and the rapidity of progress of a fire is in-
creased, leads to distributing the felling areas, and
that means the areas of young crop, isolating them,
making them smaller, and having them surrounded
by older timber. Removal of the dead and dying
trees by systematic thinnings wherever possible,
and the disposal of the slash from logging opera-
tions, are obvious means of reducing the danger.
In German forest districts, more especially those
unduly exposed to fire danger, a subdivision of the
forest into blocks surrounded by avenues, or so-
called rides, of 8 to 40 rods width, is made.
These rides, kept free from inflammable material
by annual burning, or perhaps by sowing to grass,
serve the purpose of confining the fire within the
block, and furnishing a base from which to fight
a fire, for which the frequent roads may also be
utilized.
But these openings are worse than useless unless
kept in proper condition, and unless the forces to
194 ECONOMICS OF FORESTRY.
fight the fire are on hand, for if debris is allowed
to accumulate on them, this dries out more read-
ily, and, in addition, the draft of air along the rides
only increases the fury of the fire. In older de-
ciduous-leaved woods the shade keeps the ground
moist, the fire runs more slowly, and a wider open-
ing would in most cases prove undesirable.
The same may be said regarding rights of way
for railroads. The wide swath usually made, and
usually not kept clear, but rather accumulating in-
flammable debris, exposes the soil to the drying
effects of sun and wind, and besides, creates drafts
of air, fanning the sparks into flame. There would
be more safety in a narrower opening, which the
shade of a dense stand of timber, especially if of
deciduous-leaved trees, would keep moist, with a
tendency to extinguishing the sparks. The objec-
tion that the falling of trees would impede and en-
danger the traffic might be overcome by gradually
removing those liable to fall.
Through specially endangered districts, i.e. in
coniferous forest, safety strips running along the
right of way may be maintained. On these, on
both sides of the track, a strip of ground 25 feet
wide is entirely cleared of all inflammable material,
which may, if practicable, be used for farm pur-
poses ; this is skirted by a strip of woods 50 to 60
feet wide, which remains wooded, acting as a screen
for the sparks from locomotives, but is also kept
clear from inflammable materials by annual raking
SILVICULTURE. 195
and burning. Where this is not sufficient, a ditch
5 to 6 feet wide and a foot or so deep is opened
on the outside of this strip toward the endangered
woods, the soil being thrown toward the track side
and possibly planted with a light-foliaged, decidu-
ous-leaved species ; cross ditches through the
safety strip every 300 feet add further to the safety
by confining any fire within reasonable limits. The
whole arrangement requires not over 200 feet,
and that mostly usefully occupied, while furnishing
almost absolute security.
Such a system would be applicable in many
cases in our own country. It would, with some
slight changes, be perfectly feasible, and in the
end profitable, for railroad companies to grow their
tie timber in this way, using such light-foliaged
rapid growers as black locust, catalpa, etc.
Forest crop production as a business, silviculture,
will become practicable and profitable in this coun-
try only when reasonable forest protection is as-
sured by proper exercise of state functions.
Until this is secured, lumbermen will continue
to exploit the natural forest without much regard
to its fate after they have secured its present val-
uable stores, for they cannot afford to assume the
hazard of the fire danger.
Before positive silvicultural methods are applied
by them, they may find it advantageous to cut the
virgin forest more conservatively, they may find
that it pays in the long run better not to cull too
196 ECONOMICS OF FORESTRY.
closely, that it is advantageous to leave more of
smaller sizes, i.e. to limit the diameter to which
they remove trees, so that they may return sooner
for a second cut, and also to avoid unnecessary
damage to the young volunteer crop. At present
the limitation of size to be cut or to be left uncut
is based upon calculations of immediate profits to
be derived, and does not take into account any
future considerations, since the lumberman does
not cut with a regard to the future, but attempts
to secure the largest present gain. He views the
forest as a mere speculation. To curtail his pres-
ent revenue for the sake of a future revenue by
abstaining from cutting all that is marketable is
the first step toward changing this point of view,
introducing the idea of continuity, and treating the
forest as permanent investment.
It must be understood, however, that the limita-
tion of the size of trees to be cut or to be left uncut
has not necessarily any bearing on the replace-
ment of the crop ; it is not silviculture. It is in
the main a financial measure, it being demonstrable
that it pays better to leave small-sized trees to
accumulate more wood before utilizing them, or
else a device to prevent overcutting of a valuable
species, so that it may not be eradicated too soon,
a wise measure wherever systematic attention to
positive silviculture cannot be given.
CHAPTER VIII.
METHODS OF BUSINESS CONDUCT:
FOREST ECONOMY.
As in every technical industry concerned in pro-
duction, so in forestry the methods of the tech-
nique the technical art are distinct from the
methods of the business conduct. Silviculture rep-
resents the technical art of forestry ; while under
the comprehensive term forest economy we may
group all that knowledge and practice which is
necessary for the proper conduct of the business
of forestry.
Besides the purely technical care in managing
the productive forces of nature to secure the best
attainable quantitative and qualitative production of
material, the highest gross yield, there must
be exercised a managerial care to secure the most
favorable relations of expenditure and income,
the highest net yield, a surplus of cash results
without which the industry would be purposeless
from the standpoint of private enterprise and
investment. Moreover, an orderly conduct and
systematic procedure to secure this revenue is
necessary.
197
198 ECONOMICS OF FORESTRY.
Carried on by government activity for reasons
of general cultural advantages, the net yield or
money profits may be considered secondary, or
perhaps may be dispensed with. It may even ap-
pear rational to carry on forest management at a
loss, for a time at least, just as is done in many
other forms of public works, because of the indirect
benefits derived from it, and for internal improve-
ment. Nevertheless, even in that case it would be
desirable to organize and to carry on the business
of forest cropping systematically, with a view of
bringing into relation results and efforts, i.e., of
counting the cost.
It is possible, also, to practise the art of silvicul-
ture incidentally, as the farmer does, or can do, on
his wood lot, without special business organization
and elaborate planning, the owner harvesting and
reproducing and tending his crop whenever need-
ful ; but the case is different if forest growing is to
be carried on as a business by itself with a view
to continued and regular procedure, to continued
and regular revenue ; in that case more elaborate
planning becomes necessary.
The one peculiarity which distinguishes the for-
estry business from every other business is the
time element. The forester cannot harvest annu-
ally what has actually grown (the current incre-
ment); the forest crop, as we have seen, must
accumulate the accretions of many years before it
becomes mature, i.e. of sufficient size to be useful;
FOREST ECONOMY. 199
hence, unless special provisions are made in the
management of a forest property, the crop and the
revenue would mature and be harvested periodically
only, and that in long periods ; from twenty to a
hundred years and more would elapse from the
sowing to the reaping.
The farmer may be satisfied to practise on his
wood lot attached to his farming business what is
technically called an "intermittent" management,
harvesting and reproducing from time to time
without attempting to secure regular annual re-
turns. But when forestry is to be practised as an
independent industry, it becomes desirable, as in
any large mercantile establishment, to plan, organ-
ize, and manage the business so as to secure,
continuously and systematically, a regular annual
income nearly equal or increasing year by year.
The lumberman or forest exploiter also plans
and organizes his business for annual returns, not,
however, to be derived continuously from the same
ground ; he seeks a new field, he changes his
location as soon as he has exhausted the accumu-
lated stores of his forest property, which he then
abandons or devotes to other purposes than wood-
cropping.
The forester's business is based upon the con-
ception . of what is technically called the " sus-
tained yield " (Ger. NachJialtigkeitsbetrieb, Fr.
Possibility, a continued systematic use of the
same property for wood -crops, the best and
200 ECONOMICS OF FORESTRY.
largest possible ; this is secured by proper atten-
tion to silviculture, reproducing systematically the
harvested crop. Finally, when the industry is
fully established, he is annually to derive this
" sustained yield " as far as practicable in equal or
nearly equal amounts forever, under an " annual
sustained yield management." This is secured by
means of forest regulation, the principal branch of
forest economy, 1 which comprises the methods
of regulating the conduct of the business so as to
secure finally the ideal of the forester, a forest so
arranged that annually, forever, the same amount
of wood product, namely, that which grows annu-
ally on all his acres, may be harvested in the most
profitable form.
, As in every business there is an ideal, a standard
in conduct and condition, which the manager more
or less consciously recognizes and follows, or seeks
to establish, yet, on account of uncontrollable cir-
cumstances can never quite attain, so is the ideal
of the forester never quite attainable, although it
is his obligation to attempt and approach it as far
as practicable.
The ideal conduct of the management " for annual
sustained yield " is possible only under the ideal
1 For this branch of forest economy a number of terms have been
used, such as " forest organization," " forest valuation," " working
plan," " yield regulation," " forest management," which either
linguistically are not commendable, or else single out a part of the
work of the " forest regulator " to designate the whole.
FOREST ECONOMY. 2OI
condition, which the forester recognizes in the
"normal forest," the standard by which he meas-
ures his actual forest and to which he desires, as
nearly and as quickly as circumstances permit, to
bring his actual forest. The latter will usually be
found abnormal in some one direction, or in several
directions, and hence make the ideal conduct im-
possible. The object of forest regulation, then, is
to prepare for the change of an abnormal forest
into a normal forest.
In simplest terms, the normal forest is a forest in
such condition that it is possible to harvest annually
forever the best attainable product, or to secure con-
tinuously the largest possible revenue. The concep-
tion and schematic description of the normal forest
we have already elucidated on p. 1 28 ff . It was there
shown that such a forest must contain as many
stands, varying in age by years or periods, as there
are years in the rotation (r= normal felling age)
i.e. normal age classes must be present, so that an
annually equal normal felling budget (ri= /) might
be harvested, the reproduction being looked after,
and the best possible, i.e. normal accretion (/'), being
secured by silviculture. As a result of these two
conditions the normal stock (%$") would be present,
which would permit the desired annual sustained
yield management. We found that the normal
stock, varying in actual amount, of course, accord-
ing to species, site, silvicultural system, and espe-
cially length of rotation, is found by summing up
202 ECONOMICS OF FORESTRY.
the arithmetical progression represented by the
accumulated increments of the age classes, and that it
rl
assumes the general expression S n = ; that is to
2
say, half the accretion which takes place through-
out the rotation forms the normal stock, which
must be maintained for a sustained yield manage-
ment, the other half furnishes the harvest or
yield during the rotation. On p. 130 examples of
the actual volume and value of normal stock under
different conditions were given.
While we have assumed, for the sake of simplic-
ity of conception, that the stands of different age,
the age classes, are separate in area one from the
other, it is readily conceivable that all, or some
of them, may be mixed together, on the same
area as in the selection forest, where all age
classes, from the seedling to the mature timber,
are mingled ; and if there are enough trees in
gradation from the older to the younger, allow-
ing for losses, so that the younger age class can
replace in amount the older as it is removed or is
growing out of its class, we would have arrived at
normal condition for the selection forest.
In the actual forest some one condition or all
conditions will usually be found abnormal. The
normal accretion may be deficient, because the area
is not fully stocked or the timber is past its prime,
old timber growing at an inferior rate, or rot off-
setting increment. The age classes are usually not
FOREST ECONOMY. 203
present in proper gradation and amount ; some of
them are probably entirely lacking, others are in
excess, either too many stands of older or of
younger timber, so that even if the normal stock
of wood in amount be on hand, it may be in abnor-
mal distribution.
The normal accretion can, of course, be estab-
lished only by silvicultural methods. The other
two conditions are attained or approached by reg-
ulating the felling budget in area and amount, so
that gradually the age classes and the normal stock
are established. Various methods are employed
to determine the actual felling budget, which will
gradually lead to the final possibility of the nor-
mal felling budget.
The simplest method would be to divide the
forest into as many areas as there are years or pe-
riods in the rotation, and cut one, or the equivalent
in volume, every year or during every period, when
after one rotation the age classes are established.
If proper attention has been given to the re-
production and to keeping the reproduced areas
fully stocked, the normal conditions are attained
after the forest has been once cut over, i.e. during
the first rotation. But this would burden the pres-
ent generation with the entire cost of securing the
normality ; at the same time necessitating not only
unequal felling budgets, as better or poorer stands
are cut, but also requiring that the harvest of
timber past its prime be deferred, if the forest
204 ECONOMICS OF FORESTRY
is largely composed of old age classes, or that
immature timber be cut prematurely, if young
age classes predominate, in either case a finan-
cial loss. Indeed, the greatest practical difficulty
which confronts the forest regulator is found in
gauging the sacrifices which the present must
make for the sake of the future.
To overcome the difficulty of unequal felling
budgets in part, the so-called " allotment methods "
were invented, which try to distribute the felling
areas so as to equalize the budget, the area allot-
ment providing for equality of felling areas, the
volume allotment for equality of volume, and the
combined allotment securing both, the main stress
of these methods being laid on the establishment
of normal age classes, from which finally the nor-
mal stock results. The simplest form of these
methods, which is now in practice in Saxony and
elsewhere, determines the felling budget only for
the next decade in such a manner that the future
will find a sufficient amount of stock on hand to
secure an approximately sustained felling budget,
determined from decade to decade.
The most logical, although practically not always
readily applicable, methods of budget regulation,
which lay main stress on the existence of normal
stock in proper amount, are the so-called normal
stock or formula methods. These compare the
actual stock (5 a ) with the normal stock (S n } which
should be on hand, and determine the period (<?)
FOREST ECONOMY. 205
during which the difference in stock is to be
equalized and the normal stock is to be secured
either by saving of increment, if there be a de-
ficiency, or by removing any surplus during the
period of equalization ; the establishment of the
proper series of age classes being left to the future.
The felling budget (b) which will secure this
equalization may be expressed by formula :
b=I Sa ~ Sn
e
The choice of the period of equalization (e) is to
be made with due consideration of the financial
aspects of the property and the owner's financial
capacity.
Altogether, the principle of the " owner's inter-
est" must be the guiding one in the management
of any property ; and it would first have to be dem-
onstrated that a sustained yield management, either
annual or intermittent, and sacrifices of revenue in
the present for the sake of a future improved
revenue are in his interest. For it must always be
remembered that financially forestry means forego-
ing present revenue or incurring present expenditure
for the sake of future revenue ; it involves gauging'
present and future advantages, and the time ele-
ment, as we have seen, is the prominent element
in its finance calculations.
Before an annual sustained yield management
will appear profitable in the United States, many
206 ECONOMICS OF FORESTRY.
changes in economic conditions will have to take
place, among which we may single out reduction
of danger from fire ; opportunity for utilizing infe-
rior material ; increase in wood prices by reduction
of the natural supplies on which no cost of produc-
tion need be charged ; the development of desire
for permanent investments instead of speculative
ones ; an extension of government functions in the
direction indicated in the first chapter, leading to
the practice of forestry by state governments on a
large scale.
Meanwhile all that can be expected from private
forest owners is that they may practise more con-
servative and careful logging of the natural woods,
avoiding unnecessary waste, and as far as possible
paying attention to silviculture, the reproduction
of the crop, leaving to the future the attempt to
organize a sustained yield management. Only
governments and perpetual corporations or large
capitalists can afford to make the sacrifices which
are necessary to prepare now for such a manage-
ment.
In order to secure the data upon which the fell-
ing budget may be regulated, a forest survey is
necessary, which will embrace not only an area
and topographic (geometric) survey, serving for
purposes of subdivision, description, and orderly
management, but also a quantitative survey, an
ascertainment of the stock on hand in the various
parts of the property, and of the rate of accretion
FOREST ECONOMY. 207
at which the different stands are growing. Besides
this stock taking l and measurement of accretion,
accompanied by a description of the forest condi-
tions of the different parcels or stands, all of which
exhibit the present status of the forest, the con-
struction of so-called " normal yield tables " is
needed. These are the result of measurements
on the most perfect, normally stocked stands of
various species, stating what the contents of such
stands should be at different periods of life, gener-
ally from ten to ten years, giving, therefore, by
decades the progress of accretion under normal
conditions for the area unit. With the aid of
these tables (see Appendix to Chap. VI) the sum-
mation of which permits a statement of the normal
stock required for different rotations, the sustained
yield can be ascertained by comparing with the
actual conditions, and gauging the felling budget
as intimated in the formula given above.
In order to translate the statements of volumes
recorded in the yield tables into values, which is
needed to permit finance calculations, the progress
of accretion, or of accumulation of stock in size or
assortments of different value, must be ascertained.
This leads to the construction of financial yield
tables, which give the value from period to period
either of the unit measure of wood (cubic feet, feet
B.M.) or of the unit measure of area (acre) nor-
1 For this quantitative survey, the term " valuation survey " has
been adopted by English writers with doubtful etymologic propriety.
208 ECONOMICS OF FORESTRY.
mally stocked, or else the statement is made in
percentic relation.
When all these data have been laboriously gath-
ered, with an attempt at a degree of accuracy
greater or less according to the intensity of the
proposed management, the formulation of a work-
ing plan and the ascertainment of a proper felling
budget can be begun.
After having determined upon the general policy
of management, with due consideration of the
owner's interests and of market conditions, general
and local ; and after having decided upon the silvi-
cultural policy, including choice of leading species
in the crop for which the forest is to be main-
tained, and silvicultural method of treatment, as
coppice or timber forest, under clearing system
or gradual removal or selection system, the
most important and difficult question to be solved
is that of the rotation, the time which is to elapse
between reproduction and harvest, or the normal
felling age, that is the age, or so far as age is in
relation to size, the diameter, to which it is desirable
to let the trees grow before harvesting them.
In the United States, among the enthusiastic
propagandists of the necessity of forest preserva-
tion, there exist the crudest notions on this sub-
ject, which it may be well here to set right. There
is no maturity of a forest crop as we know it in
agricultural crops ; wood does not ripen naturally,
and trees do not even usually die a natural death
FOREST ECONOMY. 209
at a given period, but death is with them a gradual
process of decay, the result of exterior damage, of
insect and fungus attacks ; trees actually die by
inches in most cases, and it may take hundreds of
years before the trunk is so weakened that its own
weight or a wind-storm may lay it low. It is,
therefore, not practicable, as has been proposed, to
harvest when death is approaching. Besides, the
poetry and the picturesqueness of the forest might
perhaps be subserved by leaving trees to grow
until they die, allowing mighty giants to mingle
with the younger generations, as in the virgin
woods of nature, until they are past usefulness ;
but it would be abhorrent to economic thought
thus to waste the energy of nature. The question
of ripeness, of the proper felling age, wherever
forest growth is an object not of mere pleasure,
as in a luxury forest, must be determined by eco-
nomic considerations.
There is more sense in the proposition that the
felling age be determined by a diameter limit below
which timber is to be considered immature ; in fact,
the forester bases his calculations of the rotation
in part, at least, upon size of crop. But the propo-
sition, frequently advocated, to restrict a forest
owner to an arbitrary diameter limit, below which he
is not to cut his crops, anywhere and everywhere,
is not only unsound as an exercise of state policy,
but also mistakes the economic questions involved
in the determination of that limit, and entirely
210 ECONOMICS OF FORESTRY.
misjudges the value of the limitation as far as
silvicultural results, the perpetuation of a valuable
forest, are concerned. In fact, from this last and
most important point of view it might be wiser,
under certain conditions, to impose upon the owner
the cutting out of everything below a given diam-
eter. For, as we have seen in nature's mixed
forest, valuable timber and weed trees are growing
side by side ; the diameter restriction indiscrimi-
nately applied might prevent the removal of the
objectionable portion, the weed growth, putting a
premium upon the decimation of the more valuable
portion. Without silviculture, i.e. attention to sys-
tematic reproduction, a diameter restriction is of
little value. With silviculture it is not necessary, for
even the entire removal of the whole crop denu-
dation and its replacement by planting or sowing
would accomplish the object sought, namely, the
continuity of the forest, and in many cases might
be preferable to other methods. Arbitrary diameter
restriction is merely a device to prevent a too
rapid reduction of a valuable species before the
time when its reestablish ment by silvicultural
methods becomes practicable. Otherwise a diam-
eter limitation has justification only when it can
be shown that it is more profitable and in the
owner's interest to leave trees below the diameter
limit uncut for a longer time.
In other words, the determination of the rotation
or felling age, or of the felling size, is largely a
FOREST ECONOMY. 211
matter of financial calculation. This calculation is,
however, influenced by silvicultural and technical,
as well as purely financial, considerations. The
fact that the stocks in a coppice lose their vigor if
sprouts are left too long uncut, or that frequent and
full seed years do not occur until a certain period
in the life of the crop, sets limitations to the length
of rotation ; the technical value of the product, sal-
ability, and market requirements for special materi-
als (firewood, poles, mining timber, railroad ties, saw
timbers) may influence the choice, but finally quan-
tity of product and money yield are determinative.
From the standpoint of political economy it was
supposed that the largest volume of product per
acre per annum, the rotation of maximum volume,
should be the aim of forest management, and the
rotations chosen for state forests in Germany,
which lie mostly between 90 and 140 years, were
supposed to be based upon this principle. Lately,
however, it has been shown that the largest aver-
age product of wood per acre and year occurs much
earlier, and usually before much of the crop has
attained to desirable size.
Since the accretion of a stand varies from period
to period, gradually increasing in rate from its early
stages to a given age and then again sinking, there
must be a time when the average of all the differ-
ent rates, the average accretion, attains its maxi-
mum. If, for instance, a fully stocked acre of
spruce contained at 120 years 10,200 cubic feet of
212 ECONOMICS OF FORESTRY.
wood, it would have produced an average per year
IO2OO
of = 85 cubic feet; if a stand at 80 years
120
contained 6880 cubic feet, it would have produced
an average per year of - = 86 cubic feet ;
oO
hence from the standpoint of volume production a
rotation of 80 years would be preferable.
It will be readily admitted that value production
rather than volume production should be the aim,
and since with age the size and with it the value
increases, the year of maximum volume production
will be of interest only as denoting the lowest limit
of a rotation based on value accretion. If the
price of 8o-year-old wood averaged for all sizes
3 cents per cubic foot, and of i2O-year-old wood
4 cents, then in the above example the average value
., , 10200x4
accretion in the one case would be =
120
$3.40 per year, while in the second case it would
6880 x 3
have been 5 - = $2.58 per year, hence the
oO
longer rotation would appear more favorable.
But even the rotation of maximum value produc-
tion will not satisfy any private investor, since it
leaves out of consideration the expenditures nec-
essary to secure the result. The annual expendi-
tures for planting, taxes, administration, which are
necessary to secure the annual harvest, should at
least be deducted, and since these vary with the
FOREST ECONOMY 213
length of rotation, that rotation should be found
at which the surplus of the annual values derived
from the harvest over the annual expenditures is
greatest, the so-called rotation of the highest forest
rent. Finally, even this method of calculation can-
not satisfy a strict financier, for it neglects to take
account of the capital invested and the relation of
the revenue to this capital, it neglects the interest
account. /--'
The true financial rotation is that which brings
the highest rate of interest on all the capital in-
vested in soil and stock of wood, or, as it is techni-
cally known, the rotation of the highest soil rent or
" soil expectancy value " (Ger. Bodenerwartungs-
wertli).
As we have seen (p. 129), the amount of stock
of wood which must be maintained as capital for
a sustained yield management increases with the
length of rotation. In our example, in order to
bring the stock corresponding to an 8o-year rota-
tion to the amount needed for a loo-year rotation
would require that the owner should abstain from
harvesting for about 20 years. The question then
arises whether this saving will prove profitable,
whether the accumulation of values to the icoth
year, which can only then be harvested, will ex-
ceed the results which could be had by harvesting
in the 8oth year and investing the proceeds. Here
appears for the first time the need of that branch
of forest economy which may be truly called for-
214 ECONOMICS OF FORESTRY.
est valuation, or better, forest finance and forestry
statics. This branch concerns itself, not only
with the ascertainment of the present value of a
single stand, and with the future value to which it
is growing, but also with its value as a part of a
regulated forest management, in which for all time
to come it is an inherent necessary member as a
producer of values. It also occupies itself with
comparisons of the financial results of different
kinds of management.
It is here that the foremost peculiarity of forest
economy, namely, the time element, comes most
prominently to expression. The inability of with-
drawing annually the interest on the invested capi-
tal makes compound interest calculations necessary,
and since the investment in the young plantation,
for instance, will have to be left untouched, accu-
mulating upon itself the interest for fifty, one hun-
dred, or more years, the question as to what interest
rate it is fair to assume for compounding on such
a long time investment, becomes important. It is
well known that every business, every employment
of capital, according to its character, works with a
different interest rate. There are many reasons
why the forestry business should work with a low
rate of interest. Compounding for such a long
time, the general tendency of sinking interest
rates must be taken into account, while, on the
other hand, history has shown and philosophy
sustains the expectation that prices for wood are
FOREST ECONOMY. 215
likely to rise, as natural supplies are exhausted, and
the demand for the better soils for agricultural use
limits forest growing to the poorer, absolute forest
soil. Forest properties, with the exception of the
danger from fire, which will be greatly reduced
when systematic management is begun, are in
general safe properties and easily managed, requir-
ing little labor. Hence, if safe long time invest-
ments in the United States, such as savings and
trust'companies favor, are bringing now only 3 and
3 \ per cent, it is justifiable to use no higher, pos-
sibly a lower, interest rate in forestry calculations.
If now we inquire what the " soil expectancy
value," i.e. the value of the soil expressed by its
expected yields, is, and how it is calculated, we
must first conceive that every stand in a regulated
forest management is expected to be harvested
every r years (years of rotation) forever ; the
income is therefore in the nature of a periodic
or intermittent interminable rent or revenue (R\
the capital value of which at present (C ) being
found by well-known mathematical methods in the
r>
expression C n = z The rent or revenue
i o/ r i
is composed of the final harvest yield ( F r ), and of
intermediate incomes by thinning (7"), occurring in
the years a, b, etc., the values of which have to be ex-
tended for purposes of comparison to the same time in
which the harvest yield occurs, namely to the year r.
The expenditures which have to be offset are the out-
2l6 ECONOMICS OF FORESTRY.
lay for planting (c\ if any, occurring at the begin-
ning of the rotation, and hence to be extended to
the end of the rotation, in order to bring it into
relation with the yield, and the annual expenditures
for administration, which can be expressed as a capital
(A), furnishing yearly forever the needed amount.
With these items we can then express the soil rent
value
F r +7 1 g i.o/ r - tt +7 1 5i-o/'- ; '.-.+ Tg i. o pr-i-c. i- of m
o- A
I -Op r l
By entering values which correspond to different
rotations, that one may be found in which the soil
rent value appears as a maximum, the true financial
rotation.
It will readily appear that, while theoretically this
is the only correct financial method of calculating,
practically it is difficult, almost impossible, to deter-
mine values for the various items,. on account of
varying prices and uncertainty of interest rate
for the future. Although all calculations in for-
estry must necessarily be approximations, such
calculations may serve as a guide for a time, to be
recalculated with change of conditions.
Where, as in well-established state forest ad-
ministrations, the question is not one of strict
financial business, and where absolute forest soils,
which could not be used for other purposes, are
involved, the simpler forest rent calculation is
probably more satisfactory. It is of historical
FOREST ECONOMY. 217
interest to state that for nearly forty years a fierce
literary battle as to the propriety of applying either
one or the other method has been waged in the
German forestry literature between the adherents
of the forest rent and the soil rent theory of finance
calculation.
Where, as in the selection forest, the harvest is
made by selecting trees here and there, as they
grow to suitable size, instead of determining a rota-
tion which covers the whole time from the seedling
to the harvest stage, a calculation may be made
which determines only the last part of the rotation,
namely, the time which is required by trees near
cutting size to grow from one diameter class into
the next higher, and then choose that diameter
limit for cutting which appears most profitable
the exploitable size. Since this method of
ascertaining a conservative felling budget is ad-
vocated and used in the so-called working plans
prepared by the United States Bureau of Forestry,
it may be well to elucidate it more fully. It was
first taught in 1746 by the German forester Oettelt,
and adopted with various modifications by the French
Code forestier, and later by the Indian Forest De-
partment, as paving the way for better methods.
By a forest survey, the number and contents of
trees of different diameters near felling size found
on the average acre is ascertained ; by a series of
measurements (stem analyses) the rate at which
one diameter class grows into the next higher is
2l8 ECONOMICS OF FORESTRY.
determined, and upon this basis a yield table is
constructed which shows the amount of material
obtainable from decade to decade according to the
difference of felling size. That diameter limit
then is chosen which in the long run appears most
profitable.
If, for instance, the actual survey showed of the
exploitable species an average per acre of
28 trees above 10 inches diameter,
23 trees above 12 inches diameter,
1 8 trees above 14 inches diameter,
and it is ascertained that it requires 12 years for
an 8-inch tree to grow into the lo-inch diameter class,
1 6 years for a lO-inch tree to grow to 1 2-inch, and
14 years for a 1 2-inch tree to grow to 14-inch di-
ameter, then if a lo-inch standard were adopted
the present cut would remove the 28 trees above
lO-inch diameter, and no exploitable size will again
be found before 12 years; while if the 1 2-inch
standard were adopted, the return for another har-
vest based on the same standard could not be
made before 16 years, and the 1 4-inch standard
would permit a return in 14 years. These data
would then permit a tolerably accurate finance
calculation, to determine which the profitable size
in the long run would be. This calculation the
Bureau of Forestry does not make, but instead
ascertains and compares merely volume produc-
tion by constructing a yield table.
In a given case the yield table approximately
FOREST ECONOMY.
219
corresponding to the above enumeration shows as
follows (rounded off) :
Diameter limit to
Actual stock
Amount of cut obtainable after '
which cut is made.
on hand,
10
20
3
4
50 years.
Inches.
M ft. B.M.
M ft. B.M.
10
4.6
.40
1.04
2
3.22
4.85
12
4-
44
1.24
2.48
4.14
H
3-
.76
1.84
3-32
This table shows that, while the cut to lo-inch
yields of course a larger harvest, the same harvest
in amount can then only be again had in about 50
years; while the harvest is replaced in less than
30 years if the cut is made to 1 4-inch, and the
average annual production is then largest, namely,
3.32
- = no feet B.M. per year.
J
The report of the bureau nevertheless chooses
the 12-inch limit because "the present yield to a
14-inch limit is not large enough to justify the
construction of logging roads, the building of camps,
and other expenses necessary for lumbering."
In other words, these calculations serve only as
a general guide to direct the judgment. And es-
pecially with this method caution is necessary, as
it is based upon the assumption, probably not often
correct, that reproduction will take place, and that
younger age classes in sufficient number and amount
are in existence to take the place of the older ;
22O
ECONOMICS OF FORESTRY.
when, as is often the case in the virgin uncut woods,
most of the trees are of exploitable size, this as-
sumption and with it the method of regulating the
budget fails entirely.
An improvement of the method and a closer
approach to true finance calculation could be made
by basing the exploitable size on the highest net
value per unit of volume in connection with the
time it takes to replace it. In this connection it
must be understood that, although one and the
same stumpage price 1 per thousand feet board
measure is paid for all sizes, the price per unit of
volume as it grows in the tree is by no means the
same, for the board foot measure as applied to
round logs is not a unit of volume in the same
sense as the cubic foot, a deduction variable ac-
cording to log size being made from the true vol-
ume to allow for loss in sawing.
The following table based on one of the accepted
rules of measurement(Doyle's) will elucidate this :
Diam. of log
(length 10 feet).
Real Contents.
X 10
Contents in
lumber at mill.
Stumpage value of
forest grown material
per cubic foot if price
per M ft. =$5.00.
Inch.
Cubic feet.
Feet B.M.
Cents.
10
65
23
1.8
14
127
62
2.4
18
211
122
2.9
24
376
250
3-3
3
588
422
3-6
1 Stumpage is the amount of exploitable material ; stumpage price is
the price paid for the wood leave, or the wood as it stands in the forest.
FOREST ECONOMY. 221
The value of the unit volume increases, there-
fore, with the size of a log, yet in a decreasing
ratio ; if, now, the time required to produce the
cubic foot is put in relation, a nearer approach to
the profitable exploitable size may be made.
A further improvement, designed to secure more
surely a sustained yield, requires that the number
of trees (at least the dominant) of different diam-
eter classes which are present be ascertained, and
the number which should normally exist be deter-
mined, when, if necessary, enough trees of the
higher or lower diameter class can be left, or else
the excess be removed, to bring the number to
standard.
Whatever method of budget regulation is adopted,
it must never be forgotten that the approach to
normality can only be gradual, and can be secured
in shorter or longer time, depending on the owner's
interests ; in other words, while the regulation of a
budget is primarily based on mathematical measure-
ments of accretion, yield, and values, in practical
application it must be modified by judgment, which
makes allowance for changing conditions; for forest
regulation only points the way, sets up an ideal
which in practice we may never approach closely ;
it gives us merely a standard, a measure, a check
upon our business. It may even be to the best
interest of the owner to defer entirely the attempt
at a sustained yield management, leaving it to a
more favorable future to regulate the budget accord-
222 ECONOMICS OF FORESTRY.
ing to its requirement. Finally, silviculture, re-
placement of the crop, is the much more impor-
tant obligation, assuring continuity of crops, and
this can in many cases be practised without the
elaborate organization of the ideal business con-
duct.
Of as much and even more moment than the
budget regulation for the orderly conduct of the
business is the organization of the property into
units of management, forest districting. This will
be more or less elaborate according to the intensity
of the management.
In Germany, a manager's district, which may
comprise from 5000 to 25,000 acres, is divided into
compartments of 50 to 100 acres, and sometimes
more in each, which form the units of management,
being numbered consecutively, and sometimes
named. In the level country it is usual to locate
these compartments, not only on the map, but in
the field, by dividing the property into rectangular
blocks separated from each other" by openings
(rides) running north and south, east and west, so
that on the map the subdivision looks like an
American city street system. 1 In the mountainous
country the subdivision is an irregular one, the
division lines following the contours of the slopes,
valleys, and roads, and usually the division lines
are not opened.
1 The rides are used for roads and serve in the pineries also as
fire guards.
FOREST ECONOMY. 223
This merely geometric subdivision serves the pur-
pose of easy orientation ; it enables the forest reg-
ulator in his working plan to properly ascertain and
describe the stock, and to plan the treatment of each
compartment, and it enables the manager readily to
locate and apply the prescriptions of the working
plan. A number of these units may then again
be combined into subdistricts or ranges for pur-
poses of administration, fire patrol, etc., while all
those which are to be managed under one silvi-
cultural system are, at least in the working plan,
segregated as working blocks or working sections,
from those to be managed under another silvi-
cultural system (coppice or timber forest, etc.), or
under another rotation.
These various subdivisions are all noted on maps,
as is also, by colors, shadings, and signs, such de-
scriptive matter as is desirable to present a clear,
comprehensive picture of the actual forest condi-
tions, and to indicate the changes which are to be
attempted.
One of the important prescriptions in the work-
ing plan, especially wherever clear cutting systems
are to be applied, or where species liable to wind-
fall are involved, is the establishment of a proper
sequence or collocation of felling areas felling
series (Hiebsfolge}. (See p. 186.)
Since danger from fire threatens the young crop
more than old timber, especially in pineries, it is
desirable to decrease the risk by making the fell-
224 ECONOMICS OF FORESTRY.
ing areas small and so distributing them that they
are interrupted by old timber ; the same risk exists
with regard to insect damage, and the same plan
disruption of the age classes reduces that danger.
Again, older timber grown up in the close company
of a dense stand is wind-firm, and resists both wind-
falls (uprooting) and wind breakages (breaking of
stems), but when, by felling operations, portions
of the interior are opened up and exposed to the
force of winds, the trees are liable to be thrown,
especially if of shallow-rooted species, or on shal-
low soils. To avoid this damage it is desirable,
not only to make the felling areas narrow, so
that the wind has less force, but to locate the fell-
ings with regard to the prevailing winds (mostly
westerly), so that the older age classes lie in
the lee, the younger to the windward, the roof
of the forest or the felling series ideally rising
from west to east, the fellings progressing from
east to west.
Where it becomes necessary to cut on the wind-
ward side, opening up timber unaccustomed to
wind exposure, a wind mantle is left on the wind-
ward side, which is also a commendable prescription
for small wood lots of farmers, to keep the drying
winds out. Or else, in due time, ten to twenty
years before the necessity for harvesting timber
so located, a severance felling is made, a small
opening which will induce the formation of a
wind-firm mantle.
FOREST ECONOMY. 225
While these considerations of future danger
make a distribution of felling areas desirable,
present considerations of logging expenses dictate
consolidation of felling areas, for the concentrated
logging can be done more cheaply than the dis-
tributed logging, since temporary means of trans-
portation may answer the first plan, while per-
manent roadways become necessary in the latter
plan.
Here, again, we see that the forest regulator is
constantly called upon to compromise between the
exigencies of the present and the benefits for the
future ; he must weigh the desirability and the finan-
cial ability of present investment or present loss
for the sake of future gain. The general working
plan, then, the result of the investigations of the
forest regulator, is more than a mere budget
regulation ; it furnishes the broad basis, the prin-
ciples and policies, for the entire management in
all directions for a long time to come, taking into
consideration present as well as future contin-
gencies, and serving as a guide to the manager.
Since, during the long time which such a plan
contemplates, all sorts of changes, unforeseen and
uncontrollable, take place, changes in economic
conditions and changes in forest conditions as well
as growth in experience, it is useless to make detail
prescriptions beyond a short period, leaving to the
future a readjustment and revision of the working
plan and the formulation of new policies.
Q
226 ECONOMICS OF FORESTRY.
The detail prescriptions for the first decade or so
are laid down in a periodic working plan, based upon
the general working plan, in which the areas to be
cut, and to be replanted, and the improvements to be
made, are specifically designated. For the felling
plan the areas that must first be cut are designated,
namely the old and decrepit stands which are
deteriorating, a dead capital not growing in
value, and all the open stands which do not
utilize the soil to full satisfaction ; next are chosen
such parcels as need to be cut to secure a desir-
able felling series in the future ; and if more is
needed to fill the required felling budget, areas
near the desired normal felling age are added.
Where practicable, the areas are prescribed in
which thinnings are to be made for the improve-
ment of the crop, and an estimate made of the
probable amount secured by such thinnings, which
is added to the main felling budget. Whatever
planting operations may become desirable are
detailed in a special planting plan.
For the administration of a large and complex
forest management, a thorough organization and
bookkeeping are of course essential. These offer
no especial peculiarities that need here be dis-
cussed, except to state that besides the financial
bookkeeping and the cost-keeping accounts, it is
necessary to keep account of the results of the
operations upon the forest conditions. For this
purpose a ledger account is opened for each com-
FOREST ECONOMY. 227
partment, in which the changes are noted to fur-
nish a basis for the revision of plans for the
future.
It will have become clear that the business
conduct of a forest management is, as every other
business, influenced by the economic conditions,
general and local, surrounding it. Much that is
possible under the settled conditions of such coun-
tries as Germany and France will not be practicable
under our conditions, until they have become more
fixed and stable.
But the technical art silviculture which is
the more important since it furnishes the basis
for any kind of forest management, being based
mainly on natural laws, is applicable everywhere,
just as in Germany or France, where its methods
have been developed and practised for centuries.
CHAPTER IX.
PRINCIPLES AND METHODS OF FOREST POLICY.
THE expositions of the preceding chapters will
have made it clear that the forest cover is of more
importance to the household of a nation than many
other of its resources, that it bears a peculiar
relation to national prosperity, and also that its
management for continuity offers various unique
and peculiar aspects, which call for special active
interest by the community at large and by its rep-
resentative, the state.
Briefly summarizing the arguments for such
special interest and exercise of governmental
activity, we recall that the forest is a natural re-
source which answers simultaneously three pur-
poses of civilized society : it furnishes directly
materials used in very large quantities and almost
as needful as food; it forms a soil cover which
influences, directly and indirectly, under its own
cover and at a distance, conditions of waterflow,
of soil, and of local climate ; it has, in addition, an
aesthetic value, furnishing pleasure and recreation
and benefiting health.
The exploitation of this resource for private
228
METHODS OF FOREST POLICY. 229
gain is apt to lead to its deterioration or eventual
destruction, especially in a country where popu-
lation is relatively small and unevenly distributed,
when only the best kinds and the best cuts can be
profitably marketed. Hence, since profit is the
object of private enterprise, exploitation must under
such conditions be by necessity wasteful. By the
removal of the useful kinds and of the desirable
individuals, leaving the ground to be occupied by
tree weeds and runts, the reproduction of the
desirable and useful is prevented, and since the
forest by changing its composition and quality is
deteriorated in value, the future is injured as far
as material interests are concerned.
Since, with the removal of the marketable
timber, the interest of the individual in the forest is
gone, it is naturally neglected, and conflagrations
which follow the wasteful exploitation, with the
accumulated debris left in the woods, kill or
damage, not only the remaining old timber, but
more especially all the young growth. Even the
soil itself, often formed only by the mould from
the decay of leaves and.litter accumulated through
centuries, is destroyed, and thus, not only the prac-
ticability, but the possibility, of restoration is frus-
trated. In many localities the consequences of
such destruction are felt in deterioration of climatic
conditions, and in uneven waterflow, floods and
droughts being exaggerated ; in this way damage
is inflicted on portions of the community far
230 ECONOMICS OF FORESTRY.
removed from its cause and unable to protect
themselves. The private individual can hardly be
expected to appreciate these distant interests of
his own motion in the management of his forest
property, hence the state must guard them.
To insure a conservative treatment and conti-
nuity of the resource, a sustained yield manage-
ment, it is necessary to curtail present revenue
or to make present expenditures for the sake of a
distant future, since the crop takes many decades
to mature. This time element is the peculiar
feature in forest management which renders the
use of the soil for such production undesirable for
private enterprise concerned in immediate results.
The fact that the capital invested in the soil and in
the gradually accumulating wood growth must be
tied up for many decades, and exposed to many
dangers, before the harvest returns interest, and
that hence finance calculations and financial trans-
actions with such kind of property become com-
plicated, renders the safety of this resource in
private hands doubtful, and points to the desira-
bility of permanent, stable, long-lived ownership.
The desire to get the largest present profit from
his labor, which is the only incentive of private
enterprise, will be also a constant incentive to cur-
tail the wood capital necessary for a sustained
yield management, and to let the future take care
of itself.
The interest in the future lies with the state ; the
METHODS OF FOREST POLICY. 231
state must interfere, therefore, wherever the inter-
ests of the future clearly demand it.
What form shall this interference take ? What
shall be the policy of the state in regard to the
forest resources ?
The answer will vary according to our concep-
tions of government functions, according to prac-
tical considerations of expediency, and according
to the character and location of the forest areas.
In the first chapter we have endeavored to
develop a conception of governmental functions
based upon the logical proposition that the state is
to protect the broad interests of the many, the
community, against the inconsiderate use of prop-
erty by the few ; and we laid special stress upon the
necessity of including the interests of the future
community in this consideration, calling for the
exercise of providential functions on the part of
the state.
While in principle this position may be regarded
as a self-evident logical sequence of the state idea
everywhere in application under differently devel-
oped conditions of government, the manner and
extent of exercising its functions will, of course,
vary. In the densely populated monarchical coun-
tries of Europe, with relatively scanty resources, a
much more direct and strict interference is called
for than in a country which has still plenty of
elbow room, with plenty of resources ; here it may
be expedient to leave adjustment to future con-
232 ECONOMICS OF FORESTRY.
sideration and action, there expediency calls for
prompt and vigorous assertion of state rights and
obligations.
How inconsistently in actual practice the princi-
ples of state function may be applied can nowhere
be studied better than in the United States. While,
as a principle, we are inclined to demand restric-
tion of state interference and insisting upon per-
sonal liberty to circumscribe and minimize in many
directions the sphere of governmental action and
authority, we actually find paternalism rampant,
almost to the verge of despotism, in other direc-
tions, as in the liquor laws and oleomargarine
laws, offering restrictions which no European would
tolerate. Surely expediency has here dictated
almost the annihilation of principle. We can,
therefore, not expect to have the policies which
satisfy one country, although based on sound prin-
ciples, transferred and applied in the same way in
another country.
It may be conceded that the truly socialistic con-
ceptions (much ventilated in forestry literature),
which consider it a duty of the state to take care
that the materials necessary or desirable for the
comfortable existence of its society be produced in
sufficient quantity and economically, are either anti-
quated and buried with the rest of physiocratic
teachings, or are not yet accepted as true democratic
doctrine. In mercantile pursuits, generally speak-
ing, individual effort and responsibility are certainly
METHODS OF FOREST POLICY. 233
preferable to government action and authority,
which must often be arbitrary, indirect, uneconom-
ical, and ineffective. Hence, as far as forest areas
serve only the one object of furnishing supplies,
and form the basis of industrial activity, we may,
for a time at least, allow our general modern in-
dustrial policy of non-interference to prevail, which
is based upon the theory, only partially true, that
self-interest will secure the best use of the means
of production.
There is, however, one great generic difference
between the forestry business and all other produc-
tive industries, which places it after all on a dif-
erent footing as far as state interest is concerned ;
it is the time element, which we have again and
again accentuated, and which brings with it conse-
quences not experienced in any other business.
The result of private activity which is supposed
to come from self-interest is closely connected with
the working of the well-known economic law of
supply and demand which regulates the effort of the
producer. This law and the self-interest can be
trusted to bring about in most cases a proper balance
rapidly, but in the forestry business this balance
works sluggishly; before a shortage in supplies
is discovered and appreciated, stimulating to pro-
ductive effort, years will have elapsed, years which
are needed to prepare for a supply to become avail-
able in a distant future. How difficult it is to get
conditions of forest supplies recognized and appre-
234 ECONOMICS OF FORESTRY
ciated, we have experienced in regard to our white
pine supply. It has taken twenty years to force
this realization upon the producers, in spite of the
fact that the federal government made a creditable
effort to ascertain and publish the facts. And even
now, when there is no more doubt of the fact that
these most important supplies are bound to be
practically exhausted in a short time, there is no
very extensive self-interest aroused to adjust the
balance of supply and demand, and to anticipate
the shortage, simply because self-interest works
only for the present and does not concern itself
with a distant future.
We must, then, admit that, even with regard to
supply forests, the position of the state may be
properly a different one from that which it would
be proper and expedient to take toward other
industrial activities.
When, in addition to the mere material function,
the immaterial benefits of a forest cover enter into
the question or become paramount, there can be
no doubt that both principle and expediency call
for timely exercise of state activity. The so-called
protection forests, therefore, which by virtue of
their location on steep mountain slopes or on
sand dunes, or wherever their influence on soil
conditions, waterflow, and climatic factors can
be shown to be superior to their material value,
must claim a more intimate and direct atten-
tion by the state ; for here protection of present
METHODS OF FOREST POLICY. 235
interests, as well as of future well-being, demand
the application of the old Roman law: Utere tuo
ne alterum noceas ; here the police power of the
state is invoked, extended according to our wider
horizon and fuller conception of the need and
direction to which the protective function of the
state is required, as developed in the first chapter.
In the exercise of this protective function, the state
performs merely the primary logical duty .of its
existence, namely, securing for each of its members
the maximum opportunity to do for himself, pre-
venting interference, direct or indirect, by others ;
it is not doing for the individual what he could
have done for himself, and it is not liable to the
charge of paternalism.
In practical application of this principle, the
question must, to be sure, be settled either in
general or in each case, as to whether injury is
being done or is to be anticipated by the unre-
stricted use of the property, and what form the
interference by the state is to take.
There are three generically different ways in
which the state can assert its authority and carry
out its obligations in protecting the interests of
the community at large and of the future against
the ill-advised use of property by private owners :
namely by persuasive, ameliorative, or promotive
measures, exercising mainly its educational func-
tions ; by restrictive measures or indirect control,
exercising police functions ; and by direct con-
236 ECONOMICS OF FORESTRY.
trol, i.e. ownership and management by its own
agents.
Basing our conception of state function on the
fundamental postulates, that the state has pri-
marily the object to increase the freedom of the
individual in personal and economic relations, and
to promote the possibilities of individual effort;
that the sphere of governmental action and author-
ity in jcircumscribing individual action and respon-
sibility should be minimized to absolute necessity ;
and that the state should undertake to do only
whatever by its character it is better fitted to do
for the community than the individual members
can do for it, our choice of method will be in the
order named.
As a general principle, only when persuasive and
promotive measures fail or are insufficient, recourse
is to be had to restrictive measures ; only when
even these are inefficient or inexpedient is the
state to own and manage properties.
In the first category we have to discuss educa-
tional measures, taxation and tariff duties, bounties,
and other aids in promotion of private industry.
The educational function of the state is now
recognized as one of the most prominent and bene-
ficial in all civilized nations, although the degree
and generality of its application still vary. In the
United States we rely, as regards the higher and
professional education, still largely on private
charity and effort, with results comparatively satis-
METHODS OF FOREST POLICY. 237
factory, yet by no means as efficient, as state in-
stitutions could make them. If, as is the case
with some of our western state universities, the
state provides the means of supporting the insti-
tution by a certain proportion of the tax rate in-
dependent of political changes, the institution is
relieved of the necessity of keeping up the compe-
tition for favor, which disadvantageously besets
most of our private institutions of learning, and is
destructive to the competition for scholarship and
true scientific efficiency.
A state institution, thus well endowed and inde-
pendent of numbers and of undesirable rivalry,
can at least promote efficiency with a freer hand.
Charity is generally conceded to be undesirable
where it can be avoided, and in educational matters
the interest of the community ought to be sufficiently
well recognized to repudiate support by charity.
In the old countries the educational function of
the state is so well established as to have almost
eradicated private schools, except in certain special-
ties and primary institutions.
The forestry schools of Germany, all of which are
now state institutions, originated, however, in private
undertakings, the so-called " master schools," when
a practitioner assembled around him young men
and taught them all he knew. Such schools arose
in large numbers during the last half of the eigh-
teenth century, the first in 1763 in the Harz
Mountains, but were usually of short duration,
238 ECONOMICS OF FORESTRY.
the change to well-organized state institutions
taking place in the first decades of the nineteenth
century. In the United States the state of New
York was the first to recognize its obligation in
this direction by instituting a College of Forestry
in 1898, administered by Cornell University, a
private institution. Almost simultaneously a
" master school " was instituted on the Vander-
bilt estate at Biltmore, N. C., and by private en-
dowment a third school arose in connection with
Yale University, while a number of other institu-
tions attempt, at least, to keep abreast with the
times by representing the subject in some fashion
in their curricula.
We believe that finally, in each of the forested
states, it will be considered a part of proper forest
policy for some public institution of learning to
furnish instruction in forestry. This does not nec-
essarily mean university or higher professional
education ; there is as much need for the lower
grade education, of underforesters, logging bosses,
etc., such as Berea College, Kentucky, has so
auspiciously inaugurated.
The only danger is, that multiplication in num-
ber rather than increase in efficiency of a few such
institutions will be the rule of the day, when the
fever sets in.
In the European forestry literature a lively dis-
cussion has continued for years as to whether the
higher education in forestry should be given at
METHODS OF FOREST POLICY. 239
separate special academies or forestry schools, or
whether these should be connected with universi-
ties. There are advantages and disadvantages in
either arrangement ; but the better facilities which
can be had at a university, with its concentrated
intellectual and laboratory apparatus, give the
preference to the latter.
In the United States propagandists have been
loud in advocating the introduction of the subject
into the primary public schools. While it is de-
sirable that our young citizens should become
acquainted in a general way with all the varied in-
terests of the world, and should have some general
intelligence regarding them, such as well-educated
teachers can impart incidentally in reading lessons
and otherwise, it would, indeed, be mistaking the
object of primary education to introduce any
special systematic teaching of professions or prac-
tical arts. Expediency, if not principle, forbids it,
for with equal rights every other branch of eco-
nomics and every professional art might claim
recognition.
Besides the establishment of schools, there are
other means open for the state to exercise its edu-
cational functions. .The endowment of scholar-
sJiips, especially travelling scholarships, has been
of greatest value in increasing capacity and intel-
ligence for promoting communal interests. As
long as the practice of forestry does not exist, or
is poorly developed in the United States, it is
240 ECONOMICS OF FORESTRY.
desirable to give opportunity to competent stu-
dents for observing its practice where it is well
developed. A year's, or even a half-year's, travel
through the well-managed forest districts of Ger-
many or France gives more insight into the
possibilities, advantages, and methods of forest
management than a lifetime spent in wrestling
with the problems without having seen a practi-
cal solution elsewhere.
Next, no more efficient means of education in prac-
tical arts which, like forestry and agriculture, rely
still largely on empirics can be devised than the
establishment of experiment stations. Experiments
always imply the expenditure of means and energy
for an uncertain result, by which, to be sure, the
experimenter may profit, but, unless the experi-
ment is carried on in the quiet of a laboratory, he
is not alone benefited ; the observer, who does not
share in the expense, shares in the benefit. Hence,
while the principle of self-interest will lead to ex-
perimentation, expediency makes it desirable, in
some directions at least, to broaden the field of
experimentation, and to make the results fairly
and openly accessible to the whole community.
This is especially so where the use of a limited
resource, like the soil, to its greatest efficiency, is
of benefit to the whole of society.
If, as has been practically conceded, experimen-
tation in agricultural lines is best done by state
institutions, this is still more true in forestry lines,
METHODS OF FOREST POLICY. 241
on account of the time element involved in most
forestry experiments. In agriculture the answer
to an inquiry may be often secured in inexpensive
ways, and may be given in one season ; while in
forestry, years of patient waiting and observation,
wholesale methods or measurements, large areas,
and a large number of cases, are required to
permit generalization. In both directions the
activity of the private investigator is at a disad-
vantage. To conduct investigations that must be
continued for decades, and in a large way, a sys-
tematic plan and organization is needed, such as
only a public institution usually has at command.
Moreover, comparability of results can be secured
only when uniformity of method has been assured,
and this again is more likely secured by coopera-
tion between state institutions, or even by the char-
acter and organization of a single state institution.
The advantage of connecting such experiment
stations with institutions of learning needs hardly
any argument ; the mutual increase of educational
facilities and opportunities is patent. These edu-
cational means can, of course, be extended by
proper methods of publication of results, by or-
ganization of meetings for their discussion, by
so-called university extension, and finally, by the
promotion of associations which have for their
object the increase of application of knowledge in
the actual forestry practice. Such associations
give opportunity of impressing and driving home
242 ECONOMICS OF FORESTRY.
what is desirable in practice, and also of finding
out what are the needs of the private owner, and
what the state should do to further his interests.
The state of Minnesota has, for more than a
quarter of a century, supported the efforts of such
an association with considerable satisfaction by
yearly appropriations. The countenancing of such
private endeavor in educational directions is cer-
tainly good state policy.
A more direct and far-reaching influence upon
private activity, still of an educational character,
is properly exercised by the state in securing and
publishing statistical information. Statistics, intel-
ligently gathered and presented, form the necessary
basis for a safe judgment of existing conditions and
past progress of development, and also for forecast-
ing the future tendencies of development and pos-
sibly directing its progress; they give clews, and
are guides, not only for rational legislation, but also
for rational conduct of private business. While
self-interest may be quite efficient to ascertain con-
ditions of supply and demand in daily, weekly, or
monthly business for the sake of private business
use, for the sake of the prosperous development
of the community at large and of giving general
direction to private endeavor, it is desirable that a
state institution ascertain periodically the condi-
tion of a whole industry and its relation to other
industries.
Such ascertainment is done with satisfaction
METHODS OF FOREST POLICY. 243
only by the machinery of the state, which can
make inquiries uniform, compel answers, and has
no special interests to represent which might
influence the reliability of the statements. In
forestry statistics especially, the difficulties of as-
certaining conditions of supply are beyond the
capacity of individual inquiry, owing to the com-
plicated nature of the object of inquiry. If there
is difficulty in determining quantity and value of
standing merchantable timber, which is within the
actual vision of the estimater, how much more
difficulty must be found in judging the prospec-
tive quantity and value of the unperfected crop,
the promise of the future ; and this is the essen-
tial knowledge upon which is to be based, private
as well as state activity with reference to this
resource.
We may only briefly indicate what kind of sta-
tistical knowledge would be desirable in order
merely to direct public policy. 1
In the well-ordered state the soils most fit for
agriculture should be devoted to systematic food
production, but just so should the non-agricultural
soils, the absolute forest soils, be devoted to the sys-
tematic production of wood-crops ; moreover, as we
have seen, the forest in certain situations exercises
a potent influence on cultural conditions. Hence
1 For a fuller discussion see " Considerations in gathering For-
estry Statistics," by the author, in Quarterly Publications of the
American Statistical Association, 1898.
244 ECONOMICS OF FORESTRY.
the knowledge of the extent of forest area of a
country is by itself meaningless ; the character of
the soil the forest occupies, its topographical loca-
tion, and its relation to the hydrography of the
country, must be known to permit an estimate of
cultural conditions, to prognosticate likely change
in area and the desirability of interference in its use.
To get an idea of the amount and value, present
and prospective, of the existing resource, there
must be known the composition, i.e. relative occur-
rence of merchantable kinds and conditions as to
density, age, and character of growth, damage by
fire, etc., and, most difficult of all to ascertain, con-
ditions and stages of development of the young
crop. Only forestry experts can so ascertain such
statistics as to give them value. The other side
of the question, market conditions and statistics
of wood-consuming industries, offers some peculi-
arities, but no difficulties.
Furthermore, when forest management is once
established, not only the condition of the resource,
but the methods of its management, call for sta-
tistical inquiry.
In addition to these educational methods which
incite private activity in the right direction by in-
direct means, namely, by increase of knowledge,
there are more direct ameliorative or promotive
methods to be found in bounties which are given
to aid private endeavor in the pursuit of private
industry.
METHODS OF FOREST POLICY. 245
These may take the form of assisting by money
gifts, by furnishing plant material, by giving land
as in our timber claim planting, by making work-
ing plans or otherwise specifically assisting in
private forest management beyond the giving of
general information, and finally by tax release and
tariff duties.
We are approaching in these methods closely to
paternalism, when the state is doing for the indi-
vidual what the individual could or should do for
himself, when the state is doing more than provid-
ing opportunity for individual activity; at least
the danger of transcending proper policy and
abusing public interest is always present with
these methods.
It is, therefore, necessary to scrutinize much
more carefully the conditions under which proper
policy is subserved by them. Curiously enough,
these paternal methods have found much more
favor and are more extensively used in our coun-
try than in the European countries, which are
usually charged with the opprobrium of paternal-
ism ; and in spite of the fact that the results have
been rather disappointing, the advocates of these
methods continue successfully to impress their
opinions upon legislatures.
The fact that these methods have failed before
does not, to be sure, argue that with a change in
conditions and with more circumspect supervision
they may not be employed with better results, yet
246 ECONOMICS OF FORESTRY.
the past experiences should serve at least the pur-
pose of exercising caution in their employment.
In the years 1868 to 1873 a wave of legislation
for the encouragement of timber planting, either
under bounty or with exemption from taxation, went
through the country from Maine to Nebraska, cul-
minating in the so-called timber culture acts by
the federal government in 1873-1874. All of these
laws proved practically ineffective, or at least the
results were inadequate except in taking money
out of the treasuries.
Yet only in 1899 the State of Indiana revived
the idea in a law " for the encouragement of for-
estry," with an attempt at specifications which in
themselves are devoid of tangible principle. This
law provides that any owner may declare one-
eighth of his property as a permanent forest res-
ervation, this portion to be assessed at one dollar
per acre, provided he either plant and maintain
for three years, or, if natural woods, have on hand,
not less than 1 70 trees per acre ; he must keep out
cattle, sheep, and goats until the trees are four
inches in diameter ; and whenever any of the 1 70
trees die or are removed, he must replace and main-
tain the number and protect them until they are
four inches in diameter, and he may never cut or
remove more than one-fifth of the trees in any year.
A reference to the chapters on " Natural His-
tory of the Forest " and on " Silviculture " will
show how futile and inadequate this encourage-
METHODS OF FOREST POLICY. 247
ment of forestry must prove to be in a timbered
state like Indiana.
In Pennsylvania, according to a legislative act
of 1897, the owner needs to have only 50 trees to
the acre, which must, however, measure at least
8 inches in diameter 6 (!) feet above ground ; as
long as he keeps these in sound condition, in "con-
sideration of the public benefit to be derived from
the retention of forest and timber trees," he is to
have 80 per cent of the tax on such lands refunded,
provided that this be not more than 45 cents per
acre and that no more than 50 acres are entitled to
such release. From this last restriction one would
suppose that a larger acreage would not be a pub-
lic benefit; one fails also to see the rationale of
the other measurements and numbers required,
nor is it apparent what benefit to the public any
50 acres with 50 trees to the acre without special
reference to its location might bring.
The timber culture acts of the federal govern-
ment, which had in view the amelioration of cul-
tural conditions in the treeless territory of western
prairies and plains, a very proper concern of gov-
ernment, conferred title to 160 acres or smaller
amounts of the public domain, if 40 acres or a
proportionate smaller acreage was set out to trees.
The crude provisions of the law and lack of proper
supervision led to its abuse, and the results have
been mostly disappointing, leading to the repeal
of the law in 1891.
248 ECONOMICS OF FORESTRY.
The federal government also practised the
method of furnishing plant material; this was
done, however, with inadequate means and with-
out proper discrimination.
The writer himself, when in charge of the For-
estry Division, United States Department of Agri-
culture, was enjoined by law to distribute plant
material, and did so long enough to convince him-
self that the size of the country and the number
of people with equal rights to this bounty, as well
as the practical difficulties in handling such plant
material, which must necessarily vary in kind
according to locality, forbid the practice, or, at
least, do not promise adequate results, except pos-
sibly in planting a few shade trees.
Yet, in connection with other methods of state
action and with proper organization, this method
has proved satisfactory in the European countries,
namely, when the state enforces, and, by techni-
cally educated officials, supervises reforestation of
alpine locations, barrens, and waste places, and
when the distribution of plant material is made,
not to private owners, but to associations and com-
munities, free, or at cost of production and on an
adequate scale. It may, of course, under similar
conditions and with similar judicious supervision,
but only then, be employed successfully in our
country.
Within the last few years the federal govern-
ment of the United States has inaugurated through
METHODS OF FOREST POLICY. 249
the Forestry Bureau of the Department of Agri-
culture another method of encouragement, which
is also practised in the old countries, namely, to
give to private owners specific advice as to the
management of forest properties, the government
bearing the larger share of the expense of securing
the data for these so-called working plans. But
for the educational feature involved, this would be
a violation of our principle that the state should
not do for the private citizen what he could do for
himself. If, however, the benefit to be expected
for the community at large is thereby secured, ex-
pediency would lend countenance to such a method.
The probability, however, is that in the absence of
an obligation to follow the working plan, and in
the absence of technical supervision in its execu-
tion, the results will be hardly commensurate.
The one principle under which the community
can properly be called upon to tax itself directly
by paying bounties, or indirectly by refunding or
reducing taxes and by imposing import duties in
order to encourage private industry is that the
community will thereby secure extraordinary bene-
fit. But the benefit must be specific, demonstrable,
adequate, and, moreover, it must be evident that
mere private self-interest will not be sufficient to
secure incidentally the desired benefit.
The power of adjusting taxes is a mighty lever
to industries, which can be used scientifically or
unskilfully, for good or for evil ; and those who
250 ECONOMICS OF FORESTRY.
advocate the use of the taxing power to encourage
the forestry industry are perfectly justifiable, pro-
vided it is used in a reasonable way.
As a matter of fact, taxation of woodlands is
at least in most forested states of the Union most
unscientifically applied, and in such a manner as
to encourage forest destruction and discourage
forest management. Moreover, the quid pro quo
for which taxes are primarily exacted, namely, pro-
tection of the property of individuals, is most
inadequately performed by the community.
It is customary to assess forest property by
including the value of the standing merchantable
timber; in other words, not only the apparatus
of production, but the product itself, the crop, is
taxed. If the same principle were applied to
agriculture, if the farmer were not only assessed
on the value of the land, buildings, and machinery,
but on the value of the growing crop itself, it
would certainly appear absurd, and discourage him
from all efforts to secure the highest values in his
crops.
To be sure, as long as the forest crop is a mere
gift of nature, bought and exploited like a mine,
the crop idea does not present itself forcibly ; as
soon, however, as forest management, continued
systematic forest crop production, is contemplated
and practised, a more equitable principle of taxa-
tion must be introduced, namely, the assessment
of the soil alone, the value being gauged by its
METHODS OF FOREST POLICY. 251
capacity for producing the lowest value of market-
able wood.
But since the harvest cannot be secured annually,
since it must accumulate for the length of a rota-
tion before a return for the expenditure of tax and
otherwise comes to the owner, a compound interest
calculation on returns as well as on the annual tax
must be made to come to a rational assessment
rate.
An example may make it clear how an equitable
valuation of a growing forest crop could be made
without going into much finesse.
If an acre produce annually at the average rate
of one-half a cord of salable wood, and it takes 30
years before the crop is ripe for harvest, and the
15 cords then harvested brought a stumpage value
or wood leave of 20 cents per cord or $3.00 per acre,
the soil rent upon which the assessment should be
established would figure, according to well-known
interest calculation (if a 5 per cent interest rate
be acceptable for such investment, which would
be fair for the present time in many places), as
3 x o 1 ?
r 1 = 4A cents, and the value of the soil as
I.O5 30 i
wood producer under the conditions named would
4-5
be -^ = 90 cents per acre.
And if, as is usual with real property, only 60
per cent of the value is taxed, the taxable value of
such an acre would be 54 cents. This would be
252 ECONOMICS OF FORESTRY.
fair if the county or state did its part of the con-
tract, namely, furnished adequate protection against
fire risk. This calculation leaves out any allowance
for cost of protection and administration, and, on
the other hand, also of the possibility of harvesting
higher-priced materials. Since it is usual to tax
the " wrecking value " rather than the true value,
it would probably be fair to assess upon the assump-
tion of this lowest value production or even still
further reduce the assessment to allow for risk and
cost of protection.
How do we find forest property actually taxed ?
For an example we may cite a definite case
from Wisconsin, a state where values are naturally
still unsettled, but stumpage is probably lower than
that assumed above. Here, for an aggregate of
tracts of hardwood lands from which the valuable
pine has been removed, the taxes for a number of
years have varied from 3 cents to 40 cents per
acre a year without any reference to changes in
condition or value, and have averaged about 10
cents per acre, that is to say, 20 to 30 per cent of
what probably is the year's production must be
paid to the tax gatherer. On a virgin growth,
with the pine left, the taxes were never below
50 cents. It is safe to say that no other property
is so heavily taxed. It is a premium on deforesta-
tion, after which the land, worth $6 to $7 per acre
for agricultural purposes, will be more reasonably
treated. And these examples of irrational taxa-
METHODS OF FOREST POLICY. 253
tion can be multiplied from every part of the
Union. No wonder that lumbermen argue the
necessity of escaping as quickly as possible from
this extortion, and are discouraged from consider-
ing the advisability of adopting forestry practice,
which even under more rational methods of taxa-
tion offers as yet only doubtful inducements.
Just as the direct tax can be regulated to en-
courage or deter private enterprise, so tariff legis-
lation, as is well known, has had the protective
feature added to its fiscal objects.
Import duties have been designed to reduce or
deter the importation of wood materials and to en-
courage home industry by this artificial raising of
prices, as in the United States and in Germany,
and export duties have been placed, as in Canada,
on raw forest products in retaliation or to prevent
reduction of raw materials and to insure their pres-
ervation for use in home industry. In both cases
the argument has been brought forward that such
duties encouraged the practice of forestry.
Theoretically, plausible reasons may be adduced
for such an expectation ; practically, no such results
can be noted. An increase in the price of wood
materials simply stimulates the forest exploiter to in-
creased effort in reaping the benefit while it lasts ;
he pockets the difference, and the increased mar-
gin only reduces the necessity of applying more
economical methods of utilization until home com-
petition, induced by the increase of price, counter-
254 ECONOMICS OF FORESTRY
balances the benefit; and even then the effect is
rather to greater wastefulness in the exploitation,
to forest destruction, or increase of effectiveness in
the existing wood-working business, than to the
establishing of a new industry, the forestry busi-
ness. A duty which prohibits or essentially cur-
tails importations, the demand remaining the same,
can only tend to increase the cut, and more rapid
decimation of our own resource.
In other words, the encouragement is toward
greater consumption of existing forest products as
far as the exploiter can bring it about, rather than
toward efforts at their renewal.
The reason is clear, if we recall our discussions
on the nature of forest growth and on the nature
of the forestry business.
The larger part of the harvest of a nature-grown
wild woods is inferior material, which is either
unsalable or unprofitable to handle. If the tariff,
therefore, stimulates wood consumption, or by the
exclusion of foreign-grown material necessitates a
larger output from the native woods, this waste
by necessity must be also increased. A rational
tariff, which had in view the benefit and conserva-
tion of the natural forest resource, would put a
premium on the importation of the better grades,
and would absolutely prohibit the importation of
the poorer grades, when the disparity of poor and
good grades in the home exploitation might be
somewhat alleviated, a closer utilization made
METHODS OF FOREST POLICY. 255
possible, and at least conservative lumbering would
appear more profitable.
Export duties, if placed high enough to prevent
practical exportation, would appear a more rea-
sonable method of influencing exploitation ; but
when we consider that, for instance in the United
States, the value of forest products exported hardly
exceeds 5 per cent of the value represented in
home consumption, and is counterbalanced to at
least one-half more by importations, it would appear
that the influence of an export duty, at least for
this country, could hardly have any appreciable
effect in establishing forestry practice.
But all such devices influence only the present
or short future, while the interests of the forestry
business are in a distant future. We must never
forget that financially forestry means foregoing
present revenue, or making present expenditures
for the sake of future revenue.
To induce private owners to begin such a con-
servative policy is hardly to be attained by tariff
legislation, unless a definite obligation is laid upon
them to spend a part of the increased 'earning in
that direction.
The case is entirely different when a systematic
forestry business is actually established and in
competition with importations from a country
where crude exploitation of virgin forests is still
practised, which threatens to make the home enter-
prise unprofitable.
256 ECONOMICS OF FORESTRY.
While in general mercantile business it may then
be argue'd that the unprofitable business had best
be abandoned, the forestry business, as we have
seen, occupies an exceptional position, both in the
time element required to secure working capital of
standing timber and establish the systematic in-
dustry, and in its general cultural significance, so
that, aside from mercantile considerations, inter-
ference from outside competition is harmful to
national prosperity.
Such is the case in European countries with well-
established forestry systems, when brought into
competition with countries which are still mainly
exploiting natural resources.
Yet a prominent writer on the subject of import
duties on wood 1 discusses the influence of such on
German forestry as follows :
" The question as to whether high prices, espe-
cially as a result of tariff, encourage to reforestation
and forestry practice or to forest devastation, is for
Germany, according to the latest statistics, of no
import. Deforestations on a large scale and ex-
cessive overcutting without reference to the future
are here neither induced by high prices nor pre-
vented by low prices, but are the regular concom-
itant of general economic crises and unsound
speculation periods."
The motives for tariff legislation in the old
countries were at first fiscal ones, then fear of a
1 Schwappach, " Forstpolitik," 1894, p. 161.
METHODS OF FOREST POLICY. 257
timber famine (intelligible by the absence of means
of transportation), resulting in export tariffs as
early as the sixteenth and continued through the
seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. To this mo-
tive was then added the mercantilistic one of desir-
ing to produce everything in the home country,
thus giving rise to protective import duties. Fi-
nally, the liberation from these economic fallacies, or
perhaps, I should say, the changes in commercial
economic conditions, and especially the influence
of railroad building since 1860, led, for Germany
at least, to a total abolishment of all duties in 1865.
Now, however, Germany as well as almost all
European countries, those which export a surplus
as well as the importing ones, have protective im-
port tariffs, the object being, as aforesaid, to foster
the well-established forestry business and to pro-
tect it against competition from virgin sources.
In Germany this protective legislation was
enacted in 1879, when the opening up of the vir-
gin woods of eastern Austro-Hungary, which are
simply exploited, not managed, had brought de-
structive competition to the forest administrations.
The specific duties amounted then to about 3
per cent on the value of unmanufactured logs and
timber, and 4 per cent on manufactured lumber,
.60 and 1.50 mk. respectively per cubic metre (70
cents per 1000 feet B.M.), with the result of re-
ducing importations, of the latter at least, by 40 per
cent; but the railroads equalized the difference,
s
258 ECONOMICS OF FORESTRY.
and in 1885 an increase in duties of 6 percent and
1 2 per cent respectively was inaugurated, which, in
1892, was again modified and reduced by special
treaties.
In the United States and countries similarly
situated the problem is quite a different one.
Forest management is not in existence. Our only
competitor on the lumber market is Canada. In
both countries the virgin forest is simply exploited ;
the protection afforded by a tariff would, therefore,
not be of that general economic import. A duty
which prohibits or essentially curtails importations,
the demand remaining the same, can, as has been
said, only tend to increase the cut and more rapid
decimation of our own resource. A duty which
does not prohibit or curtail essentially importations
is not likely to benefit the forest, but only to reduce
the profit of the Canadian lumberman, and possibly
to put a part of the difference into the pocket of
his American competitor.
The one promotive action of the state, which is
preeminently required to establish a proper forest
policy, the propriety of which cannot be questioned
for a moment, and which arises from the primary
function of the state, its police function, is to afford
protection to forest property, at least equal to that
afforded to any other property and adequate to the
peculiarities and needs of such forest property.
Such protection is the unquestioned right of the
forest owner, and without it he cannot be expected
METHODS OF FOREST POLICY. 259
to maintain a " sustained yield " management which
requires maintenance of a large wood capital sub-
ject to depredations and to destruction by fires
unless properly guarded.
Forestry as a business is practicable, nay, think-
able, only under the assumption of civilized, stable
conditions, and the first requisite of civilization is
reasonable safety of property.
There are, to be sure, especially in only partly
developed countries or sections of country, special
difficulties in enforcing laws and preventing crime ;
nevertheless, the obligation of the state is to make
an adequate effort.
It is not sufficient for the state to legislate, but,
at least wherever broad communal interests are at
stake, it must provide the machinery to carry out
this legislation. The impotency of the laws de-
signed to prevent forest fires is too well known
to need comment. In this respect, in police organ-
ization and the proper means of executing the laws
and of preventing damage, even the states which
have attempted to remedy the evil of forest fires are
wofully backward. We can learn from Canada
and from the British India forest department, how
a large amount of this damage can be prevented,
even in countries which as yet lack a systematic,
thoroughly established forestry system. Such pro-
tection is a conditio sine qua non, the first step
to a state forest policy, and the beginning of for-
estry practice.
260 ECONOMICS OF FORESTRY.
Our present conditions in that respect discour-
age, and rightly so, all efforts to provide for future
crops, and encourage rapid exploitation in order to
secure the value of the existing crop before the fire
has swept it away.
The principles most needful to keep in view
when formulating legislation for protection against
forest fires l are :
(1) A well-organized machinery for the enforce-
ment of the laws must be provided, in which the
state must be prominently represented, since the
damage done by forest fires extends in many cases
far beyond immediate private and personal loss.
(2) Responsibility for the execution of the law
must be clearly defined, and must ultimately rest
upon one person, an officer of the state ; but every
facility for ready prosecution of offenders must be
at command of the responsible officer.
(3) None but paid officials can be expected to
do efficient service, and financial responsibility in
all directions must be recognized as alone produc-
tive of care in the performance of duties, as well as
in obedience to regulations.
(4) Recognition of common interest in the pro-
tection of this kind of property can come only by
a reasonable distribution of financial liability for
loss between the state and local community and
the owners themselves.
Only when the state has made ample and reason-
1 See Appendix for draft of a forest fire law.
METHODS OF FOREST POLICY. 261
ably efficient provisions to protect forest property
may the community impose obligations upon the
owner and restrict him in the use of his property,
so that the protection can be made reasonably
practicable ; and only then and for such purpose
may regulations in the use of the property, inter-
ference by the state in its unrestricted manage-
ment, be adjudged admissible even in those
forests which we have designated as supply for-
ests, i.e. those which have mainly or only an indus-
trial and commercial significance. In other words,
we conceive as a primary condition for the applica-
tion of restrictive measures, in the use of private
property, that the state furnish a quid pro quo, a
compensation, direct or indirect.
It has frequently been proposed in the United
States to force the lumberman to burn his debris
in order to reduce the fire danger. This prescrip-
tion may be practicable and expedient in some
cases, but not in others ; in its generality it would
be both impracticable and inexpedient, unless
specific precautions and supervision accompany
it, as pointed out on pp. 188 ff. Here also the
practical objection would be properly raised that,
unless all the states, or at least a group of states
under similar conditions, exact such precaution, the
lumberman's industry in the one state which ex-
acts it would be placed at a disadvantage as com-
pared with the neighboring state which neglects
it. In such case, it would appear equitable that
262 ECONOMICS OF FORESTRY.
at least part of the burden should be borne by the
state or local community.
In European countries the existence of well-
organized state forest administrations renders the
execution of legislation for the protection of forest
properties much easier, since there is a machinery
of officials whose functions can be readily extended.
These officials, as well as those employed by
private owners under prescribed conditions, are
under oath, uniformed, and endowed with sheriffs'
power, and can, therefore, act readily. Even the
forest owner has, in Prussia, the right to call out
assistance to fight fires, which assistance is obliga-
tory on every citizen.
Curiously enough, regarding property rights, the
mediaeval idea, that the forest is more or less com-
mon property (" quia non res possessa, sed de ligno
agitur"), dominates still the modern laws of Europe,
which look with more leniency upon depredations
on forest property than upon other common theft,
and the proceedings and amount and character of
punishment are also special. Among the latter
obligatory work in the forest is a significant one.
But the punishment for incendiaries is so much
severer. The German code makes wilful incendi-
arism punishable by penitentiary up to ten years,
and negligent incendiarism by prison up to one
year. Railroad companies are obliged to main-
tain safety strips as described on p. 194, and are
enjoined to take other precautions.
METHODS OF FOREST POLICY. 263
With the efficiency of the state organization in
protecting forest properties comes also the in-
creased ability of the private interest to help itself,
and finally the propositions for a forest fire insur-
ance on the principle of mutuality, such as have
been lately ventilated, especially in the Prussian
province of Hanover and in Saxony, may become
practicable.
As we have seen in the chapter on silviculture,
there are, besides the fire danger, insect pests and
wind-storms to be feared, and hence they call for
measures of a police character. To insure against
excessive damage by insects, cooperation on the
part of private owners may be enforced, as is done
in most German states. To protect a neighboring
forest against windfalls, the removal of the adja-
cent forest growth is prevented in Austria, a rather
doubtful exercise of restrictive functions.
Generally speaking, restrictions and supervision
of private forest industry have proved themselves
mostly undesirable and impracticable; their only
justification would appear when protection of
neighboring properties or of general communal
interests demonstrably require them.
The mediaeval attempts at legislation which for-
estry reformers in the United States have made
or proposed, in their mistaken belief that the old
countries furnish a precedent, namely, restricting
private owners in the size of trees which they may
be allowed to cut, or requiring them to plant a
264 ECONOMICS OF FORESTRY.
tree for every one cut, will appear rather ludi-
crous to those who have read the three preceding
chapters.
How averse even European governments are to
restrictive measures may be learned from the man-
ner in which the Prussian law works ; where only
minor local interests are at stake, the prin-
ciple " de minimis non curat prater" prevails.
Whenever a property owner thinks or fears that
the mismanagement of his neighbor's property is
endangering his own property he may call for a
jury to view the case, and the state will interfere
according to the verdict, either forbidding absolute
clearing, or prescribing the manner in which the
property may be utilized ; the loss which, if any,
may accrue to the forest owner from this curtail-
ment of the free exercise of property rights may
be assessed on the complainant who is benefited,
as well as the cost of proceedings.
For fiscal reasons only, a supervision over the
management of forest properties belonging to
communities, villages, and cities is exercised on
the same principle which is applied in preventing
communities from incurring debts beyond certain
limits determined by the state. This supervision
consists usually in the requirement that no perma-
nent clearing be made without special permission,
that the plans of management be submitted for
sanction by the government, and that approved
skilled foresters be employed.
METHODS OF FOREST POLICY. 265
Wherever else supervision or interference with
the free exercise of property rights exists on the
part of the state, it is not based on questions of
supply, but of protection to threatened interests
of some magnitude.
In this respect, as we have seen, forest property
assumes a peculiar position.
The recognition of the fact that the removal of
the protecting forest cover may give rise to shift-
ing sands and sand dunes, which may encroach
and despoil larger areas beyond, is sufficient call
for the exercise of the police functions of the state
to prevent such damage, if we admit the providen-
tial character of such functions.
The experience that the deforestation or even
bad management of the forest cover, forest devas-
tation, on mountain tops and hills, leads to exces-
sive water stages, to destructive floods, filling
channels, thereby impeding navigation and silting
agricultural soils, damaging neighboring or dis-
tant interests, again makes the exercise of the
police function of the state, in the wider sense in
which I have defined it, necessary in order to
prevent the consequences of mismanagement of
the protective forest cover in such particular
situations.
The sugar planter in Louisiana, whose crop is
endangered or destroyed by overflows due to
causes a thousand miles away, has a right to pro-
tection through the government. The city mer-
266 ECONOMICS OF FORESTRY.
chant, the mechanic, the laborer, the professional
man, are either directly or indirectly interested in
the success of the agriculturist, and hence what-
ever disturbs the peaceful prosecution of the busi-
ness of the latter is a matter that affects everybody
and calls for public concern. He who is in safety
is as sure to feel the losses as he who is directly
in the path of the flood. Hence we should con-
sider the protection of our watersheds as much a
national problem as the improvement of our water-
ways, and even more so.
No new functions are called into play, simply
the primary function of all government, the police
function, only extended according to our present
knowledge of the relations of things.
Logically, to be sure, if it is once admitted that
the state is justified in preventing the mismanage-
ment of a property, when by such mismanagement
damage is inflicted upon neighbors, the further
suggestion lies near, that it may enforce the plac-
ing in proper condition of a property which in its
improper condition is a menace to other interests.
Here, however, the innocence of the owner in the
creation of these unfavorable conditions may mod-
ify the aspect of things, and we must appeal from
the police function to the wider socialistic function
which imposes upon the state the duty, not only
to maintain social existence, but to assist social
progress by cooperation, or, as Lester F. Ward
puts it, "to render harmless those forces which
METHODS OF FOREST POLICY. 267
now seem to be working evil, and to render useful
those now running to waste."
In this way we come to the function of internal
improvement. As a matter of fact, these princi-
ples have found expression in the forest policies
of various European nations, as we shall see in the
next chapter.
The forcible reforestation of denuded mountain
slopes by the owners with the financial aid of the
state, as carried on in France, Italy, Switzerland,
and Austria, is an admission of this double obliga-
tion, namely, that of the owner to keep his prop-
erty in proper condition and that of the state to
secure internal improvement. Such improvements,
to be sure, must be palpably of public benefit and
not of advantage to individual interests only ; where
forest growth would be simply useful, the state may
employ ameliorative measures, indirectly encourag-
ing private enterprise, but where a forest growth
is indispensable to the public welfare, its duty is
farther reaching, and coercion or other interference
is called for. It will appear at once that the dis-
tinction is one which must be made in each individ-
ual case. The adequacy of the interest for which
the state enters must be apparent.
As to the methods and manner of applying these
principles, a variety may be suggested. The de-
termination as to the protective quality and neces-
sity of maintaining the forest property as such, and
the quality of the state's interference, may be pre-
268 ECONOMICS OF FORESTRY.
scribed generally, as in the law of Italy, or specifi-
cally in each case, as in the law of Bavaria. The
interference may consist in simply forbidding an
absolute clearing, or else prescribing the manner
in which the property may be utilized.
Where, on account of the smallness of separate
holdings, a good forest management could not be
maintained, coercive cooperation, the management
of all the parcels as a unit, may recommend itself,
or else the state, having a well-officered forest
administration, may undertake the management
for the owner, at least for a time. Where refor-
estation becomes necessary, it has usually been
recognized incumbent upon the state either to re-
imburse, or at least to assist and alleviate, the bur-
den of reforestation by relieving from taxation, for
a given time, the land to be reforested, as is done
in France for thirty years, and in Austria for
twenty-five years, or by the granting of bounties on
plantations, as practised in Austria and Prussia and
also in the United States. Or else supplies of
plant material have been granted, or part of the
cost of planting is borne by the state, or else loans
at low interest have been given to ease the burden
of replanting. This very judicious assistance was
given by the province of Hanover during the years
1877 to 1883; in order to encourage the planting
of the Luneburg heath, the sum of nearly $100,000
was loaned to nine associations, ten cities, and
thirty-one private landowners, by means of which
METHODS OF FOREST POLICY. 269
about ten thousand acres of this hitherto barren
and almost useless part of the province became
productive.
Finally, however, it will be found that control
and supervision of private property is an unsatis-
factory, expensive, and only partially effective
method of securing conservative forest manage-
ment, where the necessity of maintaining a forest
growth may exist and the financial margin that can
be had from it is but small. Experience in the
old countries has shown that, in spite of the much
more perfect machinery for enforcing laws, and in
spite of the much more ready disposition to sub-
mit to laws, than we are accustomed to see in
this country, the attempts to control private prop-
erty have been largely without the desired result.
It then becomes preferable for the community to
own and manage such forest areas.
Such ownership may rest either in the state or
else in the county, the town, or other political sub-
division which seems most nearly interested in the
maintenance of the protective cover. To obtain
possession, if it cannot be had by purchase, the
necessity of exercising eminent domain may arise.
Such eminent domain is now exercised in most
civilized states where public objects, public safety,
or public utility require it ; usually, however, the
objects for which this power may be callecklnto
requisition are definitely stated by law. ^/
If the question of protection of forests be once
2/0 ECONOMICS OF FORESTRY.
recognized as of importance to the general welfare,
there is no reason why it should not be declared
by law to justify the exercise of this power. And
while usually the right to expropriation is reserved
to the state, and presumably the objects are sup-
posed to be an advantage to the whole, there can be
no logical reason why this right may not be exer-
cised for any parts of the state, or for any consid-
erable portion of the community, provided the
interest to be subserved is communal and not indi-
vidual. Where the interests are of less range or
significance, the maxim " de minimis non curat
pr<ztor" may place the matter in that class of
cases which must be adjusted by appeal to jury
and by simple police regulation, as provided by the
Prussian law.
In practice the expropriation of forest property
as a protective measure has found expression in
France, Italy, Switzerland, and Austria.
In France, according to the law of 1860, private
woodlands could be expropriated when the owners
refused to reforest or keep in forest, but restitution
could be demanded within five years ; this very
improper clause was abolished in 1882.
In Switzerland the canton is empowered to, and
at the request of the owner must, expropriate.
In Italy the state, province, or community can
exercise this right for the purpose of reforesting
slopes to secure stable soil conditions and to
regulate waterflow.
METHODS OF FOREST POLICY. 2/1
In Austria a limited right to expropriate exists
at the instance of the owner who cannot or does
not desire to submit to regulations.
We may now summarize briefly the results of
this discussion.
A rational forest policy requires a distinction
into supply forests and protection forests.
The former may be largely left to the free
exercise of private enterprise, the state affording
only the general protection accorded all property,
and also the more specific protection which the
peculiarities of forest property demand.
In addition, the educational functions of govern-
ment may be called into play by giving opportu-
nity to acquire the needed technical knowledge,
and such other ameliorative action may be resorted
to as will assist and make possible a conservative
management of forest property. This action is of
more import in the forest industry than in other
industries, because of its peculiarities, as pointed
out. In certain given cases, temporary exemption
from taxation, supplies of plant material, or better,
financial assistance, may prove beneficial when
the low rate of interest which the state commands
will benefit the forest owner and enable him to
reforest waste places, while tariff legislation, as
far as it is to protect not exploitation, but to make
possible a conservative forest management, may
become necessary. Ownership of portions of the
forest resource by the state, either as a fiscal
2/2 ECONOMICS OF FORESTRY.
measure, or, with much better reason, for the pur
pose of equalizing forest supplies and also for
educational reasons, may be extended to supply
forests, but probably these objects can be attained
by the ownership of protection forests alone.
In the case of protection forests the degree and
extent of their influence must determine the qual-
ity of state control. The police function, either in
its restricted sense or else extended in its meaning
to assume a providential character, lies at the base
of such control. Interference in or control of
private forest management may suffice in cases
where merely individual interests must be protected.
Financial assistance and partial assumption of
costs may be the proper policy where internal im-
provement is sought, where unavoidable disasters
are to be remedied, or where the interests of the
community must be protected and the owners are
not able to comply with the requirements. Where
far-reaching communal interests require the main-
tenance of a forest cover and its conservative
management, especially on poor mountain soil,
sand-dunes, etc., the ownership by the community,
the state, or smaller subdivision becomes unavoid-
able, since they can afford to forego revenue on
the investment and manage with the single view
to the general welfare.
The freedom of private forest ownership has in
Germany, and especially in Prussia, led not only to
forest dismemberment and forest devastation, but
METHODS OF FOREST POLICY. 273
also to inconsiderate clearing. On good soils this
clearing may lead to something permanently better ;
on mediocre and poor soils the result has been
that agriculture, after the fertility stored up by
the forest is exhausted, impoverishes the deluded
farmer. These soils are now utterly ruined wastes,
and can be made useful by reforestation only.
Finally, when the ideal, the socialistic, coopera-
tive, most highly organized state will have de-
veloped, the policy will be that the community shall
own or control and devote to forest crops all the
poorest soils and sites, leaving only the agricul-
tural soils and pastures to private enterprise.
CHAPTER X.
FOREST POLICIES OF FOREIGN NATIONS.
THE conditions which a hundred years ago in-
fluenced the policies of European nations in regard
to their forest policies, namely, the necessity of
looking out for continuance of domestic supplies
have long ago changed. At that time the fuel
question was still the important one, for coal had
not yet become an established substitute, and, in
the absence of railroad transportation, home sup-
plies were a necessity.
The many ordinances and laws, therefore, which
attempted to assure continued home supplies have
fallen into disuse, although the desirability of foster-
ing home production and of securing the advantages
of a general economic character which come from
forest management notably the employment of
labor in winter time, which the forest industries
offer have still an influence upon the policy of
governments, or are at least academically discussed
as properly establishing a government interest even
with regard to supply forests.
In the main, however, the state forest policies
of the European governments are based upon the
274
FOREST POLICIES OF FOREIGN NATIONS. 275
protective value of the forest cover, and the recog-
nition that private interest cannot be expected or
is insufficient to secure proper regard to this feature
in its treatment of forest areas.
It cannot be said, however, that a finally settled
policy exists in any of the states, not even in
Germany, but only that it is in a highly advanced
stage of formation, with the tendency of increasing
governmental interference.
All the various methods of giving expression to
state interest are employed ; the educational func-
tion, the police function, and finally state owner-
ship, being brought into use.
State ownership of forest areas, which in the be-
ginning of the century began to decrease under the
influence and misapplication of Adam Smith's teach-
ing and the doctrine of individual rights, urged to
its extreme consequences after the French Rev-
olution, is now on the increase. Thus France,
during and after the Revolution taking the lead in
this dismemberment of the forest property, which
the monarchy had maintained (then nearly 12 mill-
ion acres), sold during the years 1791 to 1795 nearly
one-half of the state forests, and continued to reduce
the area until there remained in 1874 but one-fifth
of the original holdings. Since then a reversal of
the policy has been in practice, the area of state
holdings is being increased, besides financial as-
sistance in reforesting on a large scale being given
to private owners and communities.
2/6 ECONOMICS OF FORESTRY.
In the budget for 1902, of $2,800,000 appro-
priated for the state forest department, $1,000,000
was set aside for the extension of state forests
and necessary improvements in those now existing.
The state now owns about 2,800,000 acres, some-
what over 12 per cent of the total forest area,
managed by a staff of 700 officials and protected
by 3500 guards.
In addition, private forest property is absolutely
controlled as regards clearing ; no clearing may be
done without notice to the government authorities,
and in the mountain districts not without special
sanction by the same.
This control is especially stringent with refer-
ence to the holdings of village and city corporations,
which represent over 27 per cent of the forest area.
These must submit their plans of management to
the state forest department for approval, and are
debarred from dividing their property, thus insur-
ing continuity of ownership and conservative man-
agement.
The necessity for such control became apparent
in the first quarter of the century, when, as a
consequence of reckless denudation in the Alps,
Cevennes, and Pyrenees, whole communities be-
came impoverished by the torrents which destroyed
and silted over the fertile lands at the foot of the
mountains. Some 8,000,000 acres of once fertile
soil in twenty departments were involved in these
disastrous consequences of forest destruction on
FOREST POLICIES OF FOREIGN NATIONS. 2//
over 1,000,000 acres of mountain slopes. The work
of recovery was begun under the laws of 1860 and
1864, and a revised law, the reboisement act, of 1882.
Under this law the state buys and recuperates the
land, or else forces communities or private owners
to do so with financial aid from the government.
Since the operation of this law the state has
spent in purchases of worn-out lands, in works to
check the torrents and in reforesting, nearly $20,000,-
ooo, not including subventions to communities and
private owners. It is estimated that more than
$30,000,000 more will have to be expended before
the area which the state possesses or will possess,
probably some 800,000 acres in all, will be restored.
The work of fixation of sand-dunes, which has
occupied the attention of foresters in all states
bordering the sea-coast, has been prominent in
France since the beginning of the nineteenth cen-
tury, especially in the Department of the Gironde,
where during the years 1802 to 1864 a round
$300,000 were spent in* cooperation between the
state, the municipal corporations, and private own-
ers to fix the 250,000 acres of sand-dunes and turn
them into pine forest, which now, together with
1,500,000 acres of forest planted in its protection
during the last century, yields a constant revenue
and occupation for the poor population.
A state forestry school at Nancy educates the
officers, and is among the best on the Continent.
England, in the home country, has had little
2/8 ECONOMICS OF FORESTRY.
need of a forest policy on account of its insular
position and topography, although one-quarter of
the country is waste, on which it would pay to
cultivate wood-crops. It imports nearly all its
needed wood supplies with over $100,000,000. Of
the 3,000,000 acres of woodlands, mostly devoted
to purposes of the chase or to parks, 2 per cent are
state forests, and so encumbered with rights of
adjoining commoners as pasture or for wood sup-
plies that no rational management is possible.
But in India there is a well-organized state forest
administration, and the government there exercises
itself also in promoting private forestry. The
policy here differs from those in existence on the
Continent of Europe, in that it is based on the sup-
ply question rather than the protective value of
the forest cover.
In the past the native people of India, as far as
known, never realized the importance of their for-
ests. They were mostly more or less common
property, or else belonged to the rajas. They were
cleared, destroyed, mutilated at all times and in all
places, and the use of wood seems never to have
formed an important factor in Hindoo civilization.
With the advent of foreign commerce, exploita-
tion for the more valuable export timbers received
a new stimulus, and the forests were culled regard-
less of the future either of forest or people. This
exploitation was aggravated by the construction
of railways, which, in themselves large consumers,
FOREST POLICIES OF FOREIGN NATIONS. 2/9
also offered a premium on all that contributed to
increased traffic. When at last it was noticed
that the demands of timber for public works in
some localities could no longer be supplied without
costly transportation, the matter received the tardy
public attention-.
The present effective organization of a forest
department and forestry service, covering now a
forest property of nearly 100,000 square miles,
was established under the guidance of German
thought and German methods, and for nearly half
a century the heads of the state forest department
were German foresters. 1
Although the conditions surrounding the prob-
lems of the Indian forest department are quite dis-
similar from those with which we have to deal in
our country, it will nevertheless be of interest, and
suggestive for our own efforts in establishing for-
estry practice, to give some space to a brief account
of what has been established in India.
In 1859, Dr. (now Sir) Dietrich Brandis was
appointed superintendent of forests for Pegu ; in
1862 he was charged with the duty of organiz-
ing a forest department for all India, and in 1865
he was appointed the first inspector-general for
the forests of India under the first Indian Forest
Act. During the forty years of its existence this
department has steadily and rapidly grown in the
1 Refer to the excellent account of this movement in B. Ribben-
trop, " Forestry in British India," Calcutta, 1900, 245 pp., 8vo.
280 ECONOiMICS OF FORESTRY.
area managed, the number of men employed, and
the revenue derived for the state. In 1898 this
forestry department had control of about 90,900
square miles of forest, nearly half of all the for-
ests, and about 10 per cent of the entire area of
India. Of these state forests, nearly 82,000 square
miles are " reserve " or permanent state forests,
while the rest are held, as "protected" and "un-
classed," and will become reserve or permanent
forests as fast as the necessary surveys and settle-
ment can be made.
The area of protected reserved forests is con-
stantly varying, for although new areas are taken
up, others are changed into reserves. About
28,000 square miles of forest property of the em-
pire remain still unclassed. On page 114 we have
given an account of the personnel required in the
management of this largest and youngest forest
department of the world and its financial results.
More than half of India lies within the Tropics,
and over 60 per cent is farther south than New
Orleans, the latitude of which is 30. From this
it is apparent that the climate is generally hot, but,
owing to diversity of elevation and peculiarities of
the distribution of rainfall, it is by no means
uniform.
The rains of India depend on extraordinary sea
winds, or "monsoons," and their distribution is
regulated by the topography of land and the rela-
tive position of any districts with regard to the
FOREST POLICIES OF FOREIGN NATIONS. 281
mountains and the vapor-laden air currents. Thus
excessive rainfall characterizes the coast-line along
the Arabian Sea to about latitude 20 N., and still
more the coast of Lower Burma, and to a lesser
extent also the delta of the Ganges and the south-
ern slope of the Himalayas. A moderately humid
climate, if gauged by annual rainfall, prevails over
the plateau occupying the large peninsula and the
Lower Ganges Valley, while a rainfall of less than
fifteen inches occurs over the arid regions of the
Lower Indus. In keeping with this great diver-
sity of climate, both as to temperature and humid-
ity, there is great variation in the character and
development of the forest cover. The natural dif-
ferences in this forest cover are emphasized by the
action of man, who for many centuries has waged
war against the forest, clearing it permanently or
temporarily for agricultural purposes or else merely
burning it over to improve grazing facilities or for
purposes of the chase. Thus only about 20 per
cent of the entire area of India is covered by
woods, not over 30 per cent being under cultiva-
tion, leaving about 50 per cent either natural
desert, waste, or grazing lands. The great for-
ests of India are in Burma; extensive woods
clothe the foot-hills of the Himalayas and are scat-
tered in smaller bodies throughout the more humid
portions of the country, while the dry northwest-
ern territories are practically treeless wastes. In
this way large areas of densely settled districts are
282 ECONOMICS OF FORESTRY.
so completely void of forest that millions of people
regularly burn cow dung as fuel.
In the greater part of India the hardwood forest
(conifers are scarce and confined in locality) con-
sists not of a few species, as with us, but is made
up of a great variety of trees unlike in their habit,
their growth, and their product, and if our hard-
woods offer on this account considerable difficul-
ties to profitable exploitation, the case is far more
complicated in India. In addition to the large
variety of timber trees, there is a multitude of
shrubs, twining and climbing plants, and in most
forest districts also a dense undergrowth of giant
grasses (bamboos), attaining a height of 30 to 120
feet. These bamboos, valuable as they are in
many ways, prevent, often for years, the growth
of any seedling tree, and thus form a serious
obstacle to the regeneration of valuable timber.
The growth of timber is usually quite rapid;
the bamboos make large, useful stems in a single
season. Teak grows into large-size saw-timber in
fifty to sixty years. But in spite of this rapid
growth and the large areas not now in forest but
capable of reforestation, India is not likely at
least within reasonable time to raise more timber
than it needs. In most parts of India the use of
ordinary soft woods, such as pine, seems very re-
stricted, for only durable woods, those resisting
both fungi and insects (of which the white ants
are specially destructive), can be employed in the
FOREST POLICIES OF FOREIGN NATIONS. 283
more permanent structures, and are therefore ac-
ceptable in all Indian markets.
With the irregular distribution of forests, the
peculiarities of Indian affairs, and the unsurveyed
wild, and difficult conditions of the forests them-
selves, it is but natural that the work thus far has
been chiefly one of organization, survey, and pro-
tection, and to a far less degree an attempt at im-
provement by judicious cutting and reforestation.
Over 23,000 square miles have been surveyed
for forest purposes since 1874, at a cost of over
$1,500,000.
Work of establishing and maintaining boundary
lines, which is often a very difficult and costly
matter in the dense tropical jungles, involved
during one year, 1894, an expense of over $40,000,
and there are at present over 93,000 miles of such
boundary lines maintained. Besides this survey
work proper, there is a large force constantly at
work to ascertain the amount and condition of
timber supplies and to prepare suitable plan for
their exploitation and improvement, so that over
20 per cent of the entire forest area, or about
20,000 square miles, is by this time managed with
definite working plans as to amount of timber to
be cut, the areas to be thinned, reforested, etc.
The work of protection is chiefly one of pre-
venting and fighting fires. This protection, with
present means, cannot be carried on over the entire
forest areas, of which large tracts are not even
284 ECONOMICS OF FORESTRY
crossed by a foot-path, and in a land where the
regular firing of the woods has become the cus-
tom of centuries, and where, in addition, intensely
hot and dry weather, together with a most luxu-
riant growth of giant grasses, render these jungle
fires practically unmanageable. In all forests
near settlements the forest must be isolated by
broad "fire traces" or otherwise. In the jungle
forests these traces must be broad ; the grass,
often taller than an elephant, must be cut and
burned before the grass on either side is dry
enough to burn. Similarly, the traces in the long-
leaf pine forests must be very wide and first con-
verted into grass strips, cut or kept clean by
burning. In spite of the unusual difficulties there
were, in 1898, over 32,000 square miles protected
against fire, and on only 8 per cent of this area
did the element succeed in doing any damage.
In this work, too, great progress has been made
during the last twenty years ; the efficiency has
steadily increased, and the expense, about $10 per
square mile in 1883, has been reduced to less than
half, or 2 per cent, of the gross revenue.
In the protection against unlawful felling, or
timber stealing and grazing, the government of
India has shown itself fully equal to the occasion
by a liberal policy of supplying villagers in prox-
imity to the forests with fuel, etc., at reduced
prices or gratis. Over $2,000,000 worth was thus
disposed of in 1894-1895, the incentive to timber
FOREST POLICIES OF FOREIGN NATIONS. 285
stealing being thereby materially reduced. A
reasonable and just permit system of grazing,
where again the needs of the neighboring villagers
are most carefully considered, not only brings the
government a yearly revenue of nearly $800,000,
but enables the people to graze about 3,000,000
head of animals in the state forests, without doing
any material damage to tree growth.
Though the forests of India are now, and will
continue for some time, little more than wild woods,
with some protection and a reasonable system of
exploitation, in place of a mere robbing or culling
system, yet the work of actually improving the
forests steadily increases in amount and perfec-
tion.
In the large teak forests of Burma, as well as
other provinces, care is taken to help this valu-
able timber to propagate itself ; the useless kinds
of trees are girdled, huge climbers are cut off, and
a steady war is waged against all species detri-
mental to teak regeneration. Where the teak has
entirely disappeared, even planting is resorted to.
Thus in Burma over 35,000 acres have been re-
stocked with teak by means of taungyas, or plan-
tations, where the native is allowed to burn down
a piece of woods, use it for a few years as field
(though it is never really cleared) on condition of
planting it with teak, being paid a certain sum for
every hundred trees in a thrifty condition at the
time of giving up his land.
286 ECONOMICS OF FORESTRY.
Similarly, the department expends large sums
in establishing forests in parts of the arid regions
of Beluchistan, and, on the whole, has spent on
cultural operations, in different years, from 2 to 5^
per cent of its gross revenue, namely, at the rate
of about $125, ocx) per year, over 100,000 acres
having been planted since 1880.
In disposing of its timber the government of
India employs various methods. In some districts
the people, paying a small tax, get out of the
woods their needs. In other cases, the logger
pays for what he removes, being neither limited
in quantity nor quality of product. The prevalent
systems, however, are the permit system, where a
definite amount is to be cut and paid for, and the
contract system, where the work is more or less
under control of government officers, and the
material remains governmental property until paid
for. To a limited extent the Forest department
carries on its own logging operations. In spite of
many difficulties, a poor market (no market at all for
a large number of woods), wild, unsurveyed, and
practically unknown woodlands, unusual and costly
organization and protection, the forestry depart-
ment has succeeded, without curtailing the timber
output of India, to prepare for an increase of
output in the future, and at the same time has
yielded the government a steadily growing revenue
which bids fair before long to rank among the
important sources of income.
FOREST POLICIES OF FOREIGN NATIONS. 287
The growth of both gross and net revenue is
illustrated in the following figures, rounded off,
and figuring the rupee at one third of a dollar. 1
Proportion of
Period.
Revenue.
Expenditure.
Surplus.
Expenditure to
Revenue.
M dollars.
Per cent.
1865-67
I,2OO
740
460
6l
1868-72
1,540
I,IOO
440
7 1
1873-77
2,180
1,470
7IO
67
1878-82
2,360
1,630
730
67
1883-87
3>5 6
2,280
1,280
64
1888-92
4,75
2,700
2,050
56
1892-97
5,7
3,120
2,580
55
1897-98
5,930
3,400
2,530
57
This steady rise in revenue in response to a rise
in expenditures, is one of the best arguments of
the efficiency of the administration, brought about
by a liberal policy in paying for efficient adminis-
tration, including a generous pension system a
policy which in its results compares most favor-
ably with the stingy, niggardly policy which usually
prevails in the United States in the employment
of public officers. The inspector-general receives
about $8000, and the conservators about $5000
per annum.
1 The figures given on p. 115 differ on account of different value
used in translating rupees.
288 ECONOMICS OF FORESTRY.
In the expenditures it is of special interest to
note that fire protection absorbs less than 2 per
cent of the gross revenue, namely, about $100,000
per year, and about as much is expended on cul-
tural operations, while the superior staff absorbs
a little over 1 3 per cent and the subordinate staff
with office establishments 14 per cent.
The forest laws of India were, like those of most
countries, a matter of growth and adaptation, with
the important difference, however, that the well-
defined object of preserving a continuous supply
of the all-essential timber was from the beginning
steadily kept in mind. The principal acts are
those of 1865, 1869, and especially the "Indian
Forest Act" of 1878, with secondary legislation
applying to particular localities, such as the act of
1 88 1 for Burma and of 1882 for Madras, and others.
In general, these forest laws provide for the
establishment of permanent or " reserved " state
forests, to be managed according to modern for-
estry principles. They provide for a suitable
force of men, give the forest officers certain
police powers, prohibit unwarranted removal of
forest products, the setting of fires, or otherwise
injuring the forest property. The laws also regu-
late grazing and the chase by permit systems, and
prescribe rules by which the work of the depart-
ment is carried on, as well as the manner in which
officers are engaged, promoted, etc. Since the
peculiar circumstances require men specially fitted
FOREST POLICIES OF FOREIGN NATIONS. 289
and trained, schools were established to furnish
the recruits for this steadily growing service.
There is one at Cooper's Hill, England, where
a thorough course is intended to prepare men for
the superior staff positions, and the Imperial school
at Dehra Dun, which is to supply the great num-
ber of the executive staff, the young men starting
in usually as guards or rangers at a pay of about
$25 per month, working their way up to places
worth $50 per month, and if well suited, eligible
for further promotion. In the Dehra Dun school
and the executive staff, the native element is fast
making itself felt, and there is little doubt that the
men of India will soon be able to manage the for-
ests of their own native land.
In most of the English colonies, there exist also
beginnings of a forest policy, and in several of them,
at least, forestry departments, albeit inefficient or
impotent, as in New South Wales, whose timber
wealth, originally enormous, is now rapidly deterio-
rating under a loosely managed license system,
although the department of agriculture and for-
estry employs some 350 "foresters " and assistants
on the 5,500,000 acres of forest land belonging to
the government.
Similarly in Western Australia, the conservator
of the department of woods and forests is appar-
ently powerless to extend any improved system of
utilization over the 20,000,000 acres of woodlands
to which the magnificent Eucalypts, especially the
290 ECONOMICS OF FORESTRY.
Jarrah, Karri, and Red Gum, lend special value.
The government merely controls the cutting by
issuing licenses under certain reservations, and
by collecting the revenue.
In South Australia, which is mostly a forestless
plains country, a forest department was instituted
in 1876 for two purposes, namely, to plant and ad-
minister state forest reservations, and to grow trees
for free distribution. In 1890 there were about
215,000 acres planted and in reservations, and dur-
ing the fourteen years some 4,500,000 seedlings
had been distributed ; the expenses above receipts
having been $120,000 during the period.
Cape Colony seems to be similarly situated,
mainly forestless, and hence merely interested in
tree planting, which is done in a small way by
four conservators, who are directly under the Min-
ister of the Colony. Here the government also
assists municipalities in covering their watersheds
by contributing half the expense.
Even in the Soudan we note a beginning, a report
for a plan having lately been at last called for.
The Germans in their African possessions have
also begun to introduce their painstaking forestry
methods with success.
Two years ago Egypt also entered the ranks of
states with a forest policy, encouraging reforesta-
tion by relief of taxes on planted land.
The country which, next to British India, can
claim to have the largest forest area under one
FOREST POLICIES OF FOREIGN NATIONS. 291
policy is Russia. Although one of the export
countries, with $30,000,000 to $35,000,000, and
largely in the pioneering stage, Russia in Europe,
well wooded with 500,000,000 acres in forest, al-
though much in poor condition, has a well-devised
forest policy, developed within the last thirty or
fifty years, which consists not only in maintain-
ing government forests to the extent of about
300,000,000 acres, divided into 1500 districts
under tolerably good management, and 15,000,-
ooo acres of Crown forests, personal property
of the royal family, but in restricting private
owners (110,000,000 acres in large domains and
75,000,000 in lands of small owners) from abuse
of their property, where the public welfare de-
mands, while in the prairie country in southern
Russia large amounts of money are spent by the
government in planting forests and in assisting
private enterprise in the same direction.
With the Siberian forests and those of the Cau-
casus added, the area of government forest may
reach the large figure of 600,000,000 acres, which,
though not yet all placed under management, is
sooner or later to come under the existing forest
administration.
The restrictive policy dates from a very elabo-
rate law passed in 1888, and extended greatly in
1900, in which the democratic spirit in the constitu-
tion of the body controlling the exercise of property
rights is interesting. The approval of working
292 ECONOMICS OF FORESTRY.
plans, or of clearings on private property, is
placed in the hands of a specially constituted
committee for each county, which includes the
governor, justices of the peace, the county council,
and several forest owners, and the government
itself must secure the approval of this committee
for its operations.
By this law, throughout European Russia, wood-
lands may be declared " preserved forests " on the
following grounds : That they serve as preven-
tives against the formation of barrens and shifting
sands, and the encroachment of dunes along sea-
shores or the banks of navigable rivers, canals,
and artificial reservoirs ; that they protect from
sand drifts towns, villages, cultivated land, roads,
and the like ; that they protect the banks of navi-
gable rivers and canals from landslides, overflows,
or injuries by the breaking up or passing of ice ;
that when growing on hills, steep places, or declines,
they serve to check land or rock slides, avalanches,
and sudden freshets ; and that they protect the
springs and sources of the rivers and their tribu-
taries. One hundred million acres of private
forest have thus come under supervision.
In these preserved forests, working plans are
made at the expense of the government, and in
the unpreserved forests at the expense of the
owners. In each province the government main-
tains an inspector-instructor, whose duty is to
advise those who apply to him in forest matters,
FOREST POLICIES OF FOREIGN NATIONS. 293
and as far as possible he is to superintend on
the spot all forestry work. The government has
established nurseries, from which private owners
can obtain young trees and seeds at a low price.
The owners are allowed to employ as managers
of their forests the trained officials of the forest
administration, while medals and prizes are given
yearly to private owners for excellency in forest
culture and management. Two higher and thirty
lower schools of forestry are also maintained by
the government.
The forest institute in St. Petersburg, with a
staff of 15 professors and instructors, and about
450 students, and one at New Alexandria, near
Warsaw, supply the superior staff. But the most
important and characteristic feature in educational
direction are the 30 silvicultural schools, in which
the rangers or under-foresters are educated, al-
most entirely at government expense. There are
usually 3 teachers employed, and forestry offi-
cials having also other duties, for the 20 students
at each of these schools. The total expense of
such a school is about $3300, of which the state
contributes about $2500.
Another characteristic feature is a method, re-
vived in 1897, from German precedent of 150 years
ago, and also practised in France, to secure refor-
estation of cut-over lands. The wood-merchant
who cuts timber on government lands, especially in
the pineries, is obliged to clear the ground of debris,
294 ECONOMICS OF FORESTRY.
replant it, and hand it back to the government in
satisfactory condition. To insure compliance with
this condition, a deposit of $2 to $4 per acre is ex-
acted. Results are not as yet on record. <-"'
Russia's small neighbors at the southwestern
frontier, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Roumania also
can boast of quite effective forest administration.
In the former, which is to the extent of 50 per
cent forested, the state has, since 1878, instituted
an orderly management on its 5,000,000 acres of
forest property, while Roumania, since 1881, has
not only a forest administration for its 2,500,000
acres of state lands, but has also a very efficient
and strictly enforced forest protection law, under
which 84 per cent of all the forest lands, the total
forest area being 6,800,000 acres, are declared pro-
tection forests, and their plans of management
must be sanctioned by the state authorities. Since
1892, there is also established a forest melioration
fund, to which the state contributes 2 per cent of
the gross revenue from its forest property, for the
purpose of encouraging reforestation.
In Austria, which is wooded to the extent of
30 per cent, and which exports over $40,000,000 in
excess of imports, the disastrous consequences
which the reckless devastation and abuse of her
mountain forests by their owners has brought
upon whole communities, have led to a more
stringent and general supervision of private and
communal forests than anywhere else. In 1868 a
FOREST POLICIES OF FOREIGN NATIONS. 295
law was enacted which released reforested areas
from taxes for 10 years, and under some condi-
tions for 25 years; the effect seems to have been
mainly a moral and educational one. Since 1883
there has been in progress a work of recuperation
similar to the French reboisement work, in which,
up to 1894, nearly $1,500,000 had been spent, the
state contributing variously from 25 to 100 per
cent toward covering the expense, the state itself
having reforested over 200,000 acres of waste
lands. A fully organized forest department man-
aget the government forests, 2,500,000 acres, or
10 per cent of the total forest area, which are
gradually being increased by purchase.
Nearly 2,000,000 acres are declared protection
forests, and the state exercises the right to ex-
propriate or place under supervision private prop-
erty for protective purposes. Lately (1898), for
the purpose of directing the government's policy
regarding the use of its soil resources, a Land-
wirthschaftrath (agricultural council), composed
of 75 members, has been instituted, consisting of
farmers, foresters, miners, and others. One higher
and several lower schools supported by the state
provide instruction.
Austria's sister state, Hungary, also has a well-
established forest administration, and since 1879
has had a law providing for supervision of private
forest lands and for reforestation of waste lands,
with the assistance of the state.
296 ECONOMICS OF FORESTRY.
Italy has long suffered from the effects of forest
devastation by droughts and floods, but the gov-
ernment was always too weak to secure effective
remedies. Densely populated, with one-third of
its area unproductive and one-quarter almost be-
yond redemption, no country offers better oppor-
tunities for studying the evil effects of deforestation
on soil and waterflow. The state owns only 1.6
per cent, or 1 16,000 acres of forest, the balance of
7,000,000 acres belonging to communities and cor-
porations or to individuals. Yet by the laws of
1877, revised in 1888, the policy of state inter-
ference is clearly denned. Excellent though the
law appears on paper, it has probably not yielded
any significant results, since owing to the finan-
cial disability of the government there has not
even been general enforcement. This law placed
nearly half the area not owned by the state
under government control, namely, all woods
and lands cleared of wood on the summits and
slopes of the mountains above the upper limit of
chestnut growth, and those that from their charac-
ter and situation may, in consequence of being
cleared or tilled, give rise to landslips, caving,
or gullying, avalanches and snowslides, and may
to the public injury interfere with watercourses
or change the character of the soil or injure local
hygienic conditions. Government aid is to be
extended where reforestation appears necessary.
Of the 76,000 acres which required immediate re-
FOREST POLICIES OF FOREIGN NATIONS. 297
forestation for reasons of public safety, only 22,000
were reforested in twenty years up to 1886, the
government contributing $85,000 toward the cost.
In the revised law of 1888, as a result of the
past experiences, an elaboration of the same plan
was attempted by creating further authority to
enforce action. It is now estimated that 534,000
acres need reforesting at a cost of $12,000,000, of
which two-fifths is to be contributed by the state.
Expropriation proceedings may be instituted
where owners refuse to reforest, with permission
to reclaim in five years by paying, with interest,
the cost of work incurred by the state.
The latest addition to the inefficient means of
coping with the evil is an Arbor Day imported
from the United States.
A forestry school at Vallombrosa furnishes all
needed opportunity to learn the necessary forestry
methods.
Our little sister republic, Switzerland, has had a
long struggle during the first half of the nine-
teenth century to come to a rational forest policy,
although the damage done by its absence was
clearly enough seen. Only in 1898 has the fed-
eral government finally succeeded in becoming the
executor of the protective laws in all cantons. These
laws prohibit clearing in the high Alps without sanc-
tion by the federal authorities. With the assistance
of the bund reforesting is done where needed. A
forestry school in Zurich educates the staff.
298 ECONOMICS OF FORESTRY.
Sweden and Norway have been the great forest
exploiters and exporters of wood materials of the
last fifty years, supplying especially England with
most of her needs. A comparatively large forest
area (over 60,000,000 acres) accessible to water
transportation by the many fiords and streams in-
vited this exploitation, the product of which, to the
extent of over 60 per cent, goes to England and
France and amounts now to nearly 2,000,000,000
feet, B.M.
In Sweden, which contains nearly three-fourths
of the forest area, crude beginnings of government
interest are recorded from about the year 1500.
In the year 1720 a director of forests was ap-
pointed, the germ of the present Government
Forest Department. It was then that the previous
lax policy of the government gave place to a some-
what sentimental solicitude. " It is rather amus-
ing to read the jeremiads that were given utterance
to both inside and outside the Riksdag by the
men of light and leading of that age with regard
to the question of forest exhaustion, when only the
fringe of the woodlands had been touched and
forest property had scarcely a nominal value as a
realizable asset . . . the champions of a policy of
restriction originated equally as much in an appre-
hended deterioration of climate as in an actual
scarcity of wood. Both these apprehensions proved
groundless, and we have the testimony of one
of the foremost public men of Sweden that the
FOREST POLICIES OF FOREIGN NATIONS. 299
climate of Norrland, especially, has been much
improved the last sixty years by the partial cutting
down of the forests." 1
In the first part of the nineteenth century laws
were passed to restrict clearing, determine the
minimum size of logs to be cut, and, in some
parts (Lapland), where climatic deterioration was
specially feared, preventing all cutting without per-
mission from the government. The more system-
atic administration of government forests, some
18,000,000 acres, dates from the year 1860, and
with it a more conservative policy in the exploita-
tion generally. The success of this administration
seems not to have been conspicuous, due partly,
perhaps, to an ultra conservative management,
partly to the license system under which much
of the State forests are cut over by lumbermen.
Continuous agitation and troubling prophesies con-
cerning the future of the timber trade led, in 1 894,
to a special investigation of the subject by a com-
mission sent out from the University. As a result
of this inquiry it appears that Sweden is fully able
to continue her present cut, or even increase it,
without exhausting her resource, provided it is
sufficiently protected to permit its renewal and the
cutting is done conservatively.
The simplicity of the composition of the forest,
namely, pine and spruce with oak almost exclu-
1 "The Wood Industries of Sweden," Timber Trades Journal,
1896.
300 ECONOMICS OF FORESTRY.
sively, insure the renewal with valuable species,
although it appears that the spruce is gaining over
the pine. Replanting has been begun even by
private forest owners ; in some cases on large
areas. Towns and country districts and parishes
own extensive forest tracts. The parish of Orsa
is an example of several in similar condition, real-
izing a fund of $2,500,000 from its forest lands,
which does away with the need of taxes. These
areas are under the management of a local com-
mittee, with the governor of the province as chair-
man, a crude selection system only being practised.
The country which has attracted the greatest
interest in all matters pertaining to forestry, be-
cause the science of forestry is there most thor-
oughly developed and applied, is Germany.
It may, therefore, be of interest not only to
describe the forest policies of Germany more
fully, but briefly to trace their historical develop-
ment.
Although as early as Charlemagne's time a con-
ception of the value of a forest as a piece of prop-
erty was well recognized by that monarch himself,
and crude prescriptions as to the proper use of
the same are extant, a general, really well-ordered
system of forest management hardly existed until
the beginning of the eighteenth century. Spo-
radically, to be sure, systematic care and regular
methods of reproduction were employed even in
the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries.
FOREST POLICIES OF FOREIGN NATIONS. 301
To understand the development of the present
forest policy in Germany, one must study the
peculiar conditions and development of property
rights that led to it. Germany was originally set-
tled by warriors, who had to keep together in order
to resist enemies and conquerors on every side,
and to be ready to move and change domicile at
any moment. The soil which was conquered was,
consequently, not divided, but, owned as a whole,
was managed by and for the whole tribe. It is only
in the sixth century that signs of private property
in woodlands are discernible. Before that time
it was res nullius, or, as it is expressed in legal
manuscripts, " quia non res possessa sed de ligno
agitur."
Wood being plentiful and yet needed by every-
body, it appeared not a crime to take it unless it
had been already appropriated or bore unmistak-
able signs of ownership, such as being cut or
shaped. But severe punishments were in earliest
times inflicted for incendiarism and for damage to
mast trees, since the seed mast for the fattening of
swine was one of the most important uses of the
forest.
There was not much need of partition, especially
of the forests. The community, to which all the
land of a district belonged, and which was man-
aged by and for the aggregate of society, was
called the " mark," a communistic institution of
most express character, and every " marker " or
302 . ECONOMICS OF FORESTRY.
shareholder was allowed to get the timber needed
by him for his own use without control.
This early communal ownership of forest land
undoubtedly explains the fact that even to-day
over 5 per cent of the forest is owned by com-
munities, cities, or villages. Gradually the neces- \
sity of regulating the cutting of the wood became
apparent, as the best timber in the neighborhood
of the villages was removed ; and we find quite
early mention of officials whose duty it was to
superintend the felling, removing, and even the
use of the timber. By and by even the firewood
was designated by officials. Manufacturers re-
ceived their material free of charge, but only as
much as was needed to supply the community.
Occasionally there were rules that each man had
to plant trees in proportion to his consumption.
So that by the end of the fourteenth century quite a
system of forest management had been developed.
Meanwhile the Roman doctrine of the regal
right to the chase had also begun to assert itself
by the declaration of certain districts as ban for- ,
Y
ests, or simply forests, in which the king exclu-
sively reserved the right to chase. The kings
again invested their trusted followers and nobles
with this right to the chase in various districts,
thus gradually dividing the control of the same.
While at first these reservations did not bring
with them restrictions in the use of the timber or
pasture or other products of the forest, these uses
FOREST POLICIES OF FOREIGN NATIONS. 303
were gradually construed as exercised only by
permission, and the former owners were reduced
to holders of " servitudes," i.e. holders of certain
rights in the substance of the forest. The fact
that the feudal lords frequently became the ober-
markers, or burgomasters,, of the mark community
lent color of right to these restrictions in the use
of the property, besides the assertion that the
needs of maintaining the chase required and en-
titled them to such control.
It is interesting to note that through all the
changes of centuries, these so-called servitudes
have lasted until our own times, much changed, to
be sure, in character, and extended by new grants,
especially to churches, charitable institutions, cities,
villages, and colonists. Such rights, to satisfy
certain requirements from the substance of an
adjoining forest, were then usually attached to the
ownership of certain farms, and involved counter
service of some sort, usually in hauling wood or
doing other forestry work.
Sometimes when the lordly owners of large
properties exercised only certain prerogatives to
show ownership, these, in the course of time,
lapsed into the character of servitudes, the forest
itself by occupation becoming the property of the
community. With changes in value and other
changes in economic conditions, these rights often
became disadvantageous and more and more cum-
bersome to either or both sides.
304 ECONOMICS OF FORESTRY.
The present century has been occupied with the
difficult labor of relieving this state of things and
making equitable arrangements by which the for-
ests become unencumbered and the beneficiaries
properly satisfied by cession of land or a money
equivalent.
This chapter of the history of forest policy is
especially interesting to us, as a tendency, nay the
practice, exists of granting such right to the public
timber to the settlers in the western states, which
by and by will be just as difficult to eradicate when
rational forest management is to be inaugurated.
Over 5,000,000 marks and several hundred acres
of land were required in the little kingdom of
Saxony to get rid of the servitudes in the state
forests. The Prussian budget contains still an
item of 1,000,000 marks annually for this purpose ;
and although over 22,000,000 marks and nearly
20,000 acres of land have been -spent for this pur-
pose in Bavaria, the state forests t there are still
most heavily burdened with servitudes.
The doctrine of the regal right to the chase, as
we have seen, led to the gradual assertion of all
property rights to the forest itself, or at least to
the exclusive control of its use. This right found
expression in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries
in a legion of forest ordinances, aiming at the
conservation and improvement of forest areas,
and abounding in detailed technical precepts.
At first, treating the private interest with some
FOREST POLICIES OF FOREIGN NATIONS. 305
consideration, they gradually more and more re-
strict free management. Prohibition of absolute
clearing, or at least only with the permission of
the government ; the command to reforest cleared
and waste places ; to foster the young growth ;
limiting the quality of timber to be felled ; the pre-
vention of devastation by prohibiting the pastur-
ing of cattle in the young growth, rules in regard
to the removal of the forest litter, of pitch gather-
ing, etc., were among these prescriptions, with
many others, such as prescribing the manner
and time of felling, the division into regular fell-
ing lots, determination as to what is to be cut as
firewood and what as building timber. Then,
with the increasing fear of a reduction in sup-
plies, followed prohibitions against exportation,
against sale of woodlands to foreigners, against
speculation in timber by providing schedules of
prices, and from time to time entire exclusion
from sale of some valuable species. Even the
consumer was restricted and controlled in the
manner of using wood.
In mediaeval times, besides private forests of the
king and lords, only the communal forest (all-
mende) was known, and small holdings of farmers
were comparatively rare until the end of the
middle ages.
The Thirty-years War and the following troub-
lous times gave rise not only to extended forest
devastation, but also to many changes in owner-
306 ECONOMICS OF FORESTRY.
ship of woodlands. With the growing instability
of communal organization of the " mark," division
of the common property took place, and thus
private ownership by small farmers came about,
reducing the communal holdings. Colonization
schemes by holders of large estates also led to
dismemberment.
A very large amount of the mark forest came
into possession of the princes and noblemen by
force, and later the possessions of the princes were
increased by the secularization of the property of
monasteries and churches. Until the end of the
last century these domains belonged to the family
of the prince, just as the right to the throne or the
governing of the little dukedom, thus contributing
toward the expenses of government.
But when, as a consequence of the French
Revolution and the Napoleonic wars and subse-
quent changes, the conception of the rights of the
governing classes changed, and in some states,
like Prussia, much earlier, a division of domains
into those which belonged to the prince's family
as private property and those which were state
forests was effected, so that now the following
classes of forest property may be distinguished :
(1) State forests, which are administered by the
government for the benefit of the commonwealth,
each state of the confederation owning and ad-
ministering its own.
(2) Imperial forests, belonging to the empire
FOREST POLICIES OF FOREIGN NATIONS. 307
and administered for its benefit, situated in the
newly acquired province of Alsace-Lorraine.
(3) Crown forests (Fideicommiss), the owner-
ship of which remains in the reigning family,
which are administered by state government, but
the revenues of which are in part applicable to
government expenses.
(4) Princely domains, which are the exclusive
and private property of the prince.
(5) Communal forests possessed by and admin-
istered by village and city communities, or even by
provinces as a whole for their own benefit.
(6) Association forests, the remnants of the old
" mark " forests, possessed by a number of owners,
the state sometimes being part owner.
(7) Institute and corporation, school or bequest
forests, which belong to incorporated institutions,
like churches, hospitals, and other charitable institu-
tions.
(8) Private forests, of larger or smaller extent,
the exclusive property of private owners.
The proportions of these classes of property
which existed in the beginning of the century
experienced considerable changes by the sale of
state forests, the sales being due partly to finan-
cial distress, partly to a mistaken application of
Adam Smith's theories, which supposed that free
competition would lead to a better management
and to the highest development of the forest in-
dustry as well as of other industries.
308 ECONOMICS OF FORESTRY.
This tendency, however, was checked when the
fallacy of the theory became apparent, especially
with reference to a property that demands con-
servative treatment and involves such time element
as we have seen.
The hopes which were based on the success
of individual efforts were not realized, and al-
though control of private action had been retained
by the state authorities, this could not always be
exercised, and the necessity of strengthening the
state forest administration became apparent. The
present tendency, therefore, is not only to maintain
the state forests, but to extend their area by pur-
chase, mostly of devastated or deforested areas and
by exchange for agricultural lands from the public
domain. Thus, in Prussia, the increase of state
forest area has been at the rate of 14,000 acres per
year since 1867; during the decade 1891-1900
170,000 acres of waste lands were added at the
average cost of $10 per acre, and the budget of
1900 contained $800,000 for that purpose. Bavaria
spent about $6,000,000 in such purchases during
the last 50 years.
In districts where small farmers own extensive
areas of barrens a consolidation is effected ; the
parcels of remaining forest and the barrens are
put together, the state acquires these and pays
the owners either in money or other property.
In Prussia, during the decade 1882-1891, 30,000
acres were in this way exchanged for 1 7,000 acres,
FOREST POLICIES OF FOREIGN NATIONS. 309
and in addition some 200,000 acres, waste or
poorly wooded, were purchased at an expense of
$3,500,000, round numbers. During the same
decade the reforestation of 80,000 acres of waste
lands was effected, while nearly 75,000 acres in
the state's possession remained to be reforested.
The annual budget for these reforestations of I
waste lands has been $500,000 for several years.
The area of barrens and poor soils in Prussia,
fit for forest purposes only, is estimated at over
6,000,000 acres, which it is the policy of the State
gradually to acquire and reform.
The present distribution as regards property
classes of the round 35,000,000 acres of forest in
the whole empire is about as follows, varying, to
be sure, very considerably in the single states of
the confederation :
State and Crown forests (of which the Crown owns less than
2 per cent) 32.7
Imperial forests I
Communal forests (5,000,0x20 acres) 15.2
Association forests 2.5
Institute forests 1.3
Private forests 48.3
Half of the forest area consists of small holdings,
below 2500 acres, while 15 per cent is in over
12,000 acre domains. In Prussia, the private
forest property comprises 53 per cent, with many
large domains, while the state and Crown forests
represent 31! per cent, the communal forests 12.5
per cent, the 'balance being institute forests.
310 ECONOMICS OF FORESTRY.
The state and Crown forests are all under well-
organized forest administrations, sometimes ac-
credited to the minister of finance, sometimes to
the minister of agriculture. These yield an an-
nual net revenue of from $i to $5 per acre of
forest area, with a constant increase from year
to year, which will presently be very greatly ad-
vanced when the expenditures for road building
and other improvements cease.
In the state management the constant care is to
avoid sacrificing the economic significance of the
forest to the financial benefits that can be derived,
and the amount cut is most conservative.
The Imperial forests are of course managed
in the same spirit as those of the several state
forests.
While the present communities, villages, towns,
and cities are only political corporations, they
still retain, in some cases in part, the character of
the "mark," which was based upon the holding
of property.
The supervision which the princes exercised in
their capacity of Obermaerker or as possessors of
the right to the chase, remained, although based on
other principles, as a function of the state, when
the " mark " communities collapsed ; the principles
being that the state was bound to protect the
interest of the eternal juristical person of the
community against the present trustees, that it
had to guard against conflicts between the interest
FOREST POLICIES OF FOREIGN NATIONS. 311
of the individual and that of the community in this
property, that it should secure permanency of a
property which insures a continued and increasing
revenue. The principle upon which the control
of these communal holdings rests is then mainly
a fiscal one.
The degree of control and restriction varies in
different localities. Sale and partition and clearing
of communal forest can usually take place only
by permission of the state authorities, and is
generally discountenanced except for good reasons
(e.g. too much woods on agricultural soil).
With reference to 5.6 per cent of communal
forest property, this is the only control, entirely of
a fiscal nature. The rest is more or less closely
influenced in the character of its management,
either by control of its technicalities or else by
direct management and administration on the part
of the government.
Technical control makes it necessary that the
plans of management be submitted to the govern-
ment for sanction, and that proper officers or
managers be employed who are inspected by
government foresters. This is the general sys-
tem, under which 49.4 per cent of communal forests
are managed (as also in Austria and Switzerland),
giving greatest latitude and yet securing conserva-
tive management. To facilitate the management of
smaller areas several properties may be combined
under one manager, or else a neighboring govern-
312 ECONOMICS OF FORESTRY.
ment or private forest manager may be employed
to look after the technical management.
Where direct management by the state exists,
the state performs the management by -its own
agents with only advisory power of the communal
authorities, a system under which 45 per cent of
the communal forests are managed (also in Austria
and France).
In Prussia this system exists in a few localities
only, but since 1876 it is there provided as penalty
for improper management or attempts to avoid
the state control.
This system curtails, to be sure, communal
liberty and possibly financial results to some ex-
tent, but it has proved itself the most satisfactory
from the standpoint of conservative forest manage-
ment and in the interest of present and future
welfare of the communities. Its extension is
planned both in Prussia and Bavaria.
Sometimes the state contributes toward the cost
of the management, on the ground that it is carried
on in the interests of the whole commonwealth.
A voluntary cooperation of the communities with
the state, in regard to forest protection by the
state forest guards, is in vogue in Wiirtemberg,
as also in France. Institute forests are usually
under similar control as the communities.
The amount of state influence, and especially
the control of private forests, is extremely vary-
ing from state to state, even for the same state
FOREST POLICIES OF FOREIGN NATIONS. 313
in different districts. A direct state control of
some kind is exercised over only 29.7 per cent
of the private forest, mostly in southern and mid-
dle Germany, while 70.3 per cent of the private
property is entirely without control.
As far as the large land-owners are concerned,
this has mostly been of no detriment, as they are
usually taking advantage of rational management ;
but the small peasant holdings show the bad effects
of this liberty quite frequently in the devasted
condition of the woods and waste places. As a
competent writer puts it : " The freedom of private
forest ownership has led in Prussia not only to
forest dismemberment and devastation, but often
to change of forest into field. On good soils the
result is something permanently better ; on medium
and poor soils the result has been that agriculture,
after the fertility stored up by the forest has been
exhausted, has become unprofitable. These soils
are now utterly ruined and must be reforested as
waste lands."
Need, avarice, speculation, and penury were
developed into forest destruction when in the be-
ginning of this century the individualistic theories
led to an abandonment of the control hitherto
existing, and it was found out that the principle so
salutary in agriculture and other industries was a
fatal error in forestry.
According to the character of state control, the
entire forest area may be classified as follows :
314 ECONOMICS OF FORESTRY.
(1) Managed by state authorities as state prop-
erty, 11,360,000 acres, which is 32.7 per cent.
(2) Managed by the state authorities, but the
property of corporations, villages, towns, etc., a lit-
tle over 2,212,000 acres, which is 6.3 per cent.
(3) Under strict government control, the plans
of management and the permissible cut having to
be approved by state authorities (corporation prop-
erty), 3,875,000 acres, which is n.i per cent.
(4) Under supervision of the state, not only as
common property but as special property, subject
to inspection and, in part, to control of state forest
authorities (nearly all private property and that
partly belonging to large estates), 4,767,000 acres,
which is 13.7 per cent.
(5) Without any government control or super-
vision beyond that of common property, 11,490,-
ooo acres, which is 33 per cent. These forests
may be divided, sold, cleared, and mismanaged,
except under the certain cases before mentioned.
Here belong all private forests of Saxony and
Prussia and part of the corporation forests of
Prussia and all those of Saxony.
Where control of private forests exists it takes
various forms :
(1) Prohibition to clear permanently or at least
necessity to ask permission exists in Wurtemberg,
Baden, and partially in Bavaria. (Protection of
adjoiners !)
(2) Enforced reforestation within a given time
FOREST POLICIES OF FOREIGN NATIONS. 315
after removal of the old growth and occasionally
on open ground where public safety requires.'
(3) Prohibition of devastation or deterioration
a vague and undefinable provision.
(4) Definite prescription as to the manner of
cutting (especially on sand-dunes, along river
courses, etc.).
(5) Enforced employment of qualified personnel,
In addition to all these measures of restriction,
control and police, and enforcement, there should
be mentioned the measures of encouragement,
which consist in the opportunity for the education
of foresters, dissemination of information, and
financial aid.
In the latter direction Prussia, in the decade
1882-1892, contributed for reforestation of waste
places by private owners $335,000, besides large
amounts of seeds and plants from its state nurs-
eries. Instruction in forestry to farmers is given at
twelve agricultural schools in Prussia. In nearly
all states permission is given to government offi-
cers to undertake for compensation at the request
of the owners the regulation or even the manage-
ment of private forest property.
For the education of the lower class of foresters
there may be about twenty special schools in Ger-
many and Austria, while for the higher classes not
only ten special forest academies are available, but
three universities and two polytechnic institutes
have forestry faculties.
316 ECONOMICS OF FORESTRY.
Besides, all states have lately inaugurated sys-
tems of forest experiment stations ; and forestry
associations, not of propagandists but of practition-
ers, abound. As a result of all this activity in for-
estry science and practice, not less than twenty
forestry journals in the German language exist,
besides many official and association reports and
a most prolific book literature.
Germany, as constituted at present, has an area
of 133,000,000 acres about one-fifteenth of our
country, a population of about 47,000,000, or less
than 3 acres per capita, or only one-tenth of our
per capita average. Its forests cover 34,700,000
acres, or 26 per cent of the entire land surface.
A large portion of the forests cover the poorer,
chiefly sandy, soils of the North German plains,
or occupy the rough, hilly, and steeper mountain
lands of the numerous smaller mountain systems,
and a small portion of the northern slopes of the
Alps. They are distributed rather evenly over
the entire empire. Prussia, with 66 per cent of
the entire land area, and also of the entire forest
area, possesses 23.5 per cent of forest land, while
the rest of the larger states have each over 30
per cent, except small, industrious Saxony, which
lies intermediate, with 27 per cent of forest cover.
In spite of the care bestowed upon the manage-
ment of this resource, which is constantly yielding
larger returns as the properties get into regular
working order, the output now is probably 1500
FOREST POLICIES OF FOREIGN NATIONS. 317
million cubic feet of wood over 3-inch, or nearly
40 cubic feet per acre, Germany is next to Eng-
land the largest importer of wood materials, with
$70,000,000 excess of imports over exports, adding
25 per cent to her home product.
The condition of the forests depends largely
on the amount of control exercised by the state
authorities. It is best in all cases in the state
forests, it is almost equally as good in the cor-
poration forests under state control, and is poorest
in the private forests, particularly those of small
holders.
The control of the corporation forests is perfect
in a few of the smaller states only, notably Baden,
Hesse, and Alsace-Lorraine ; also in some districts
in Prussia where the corporation forests are man-
aged by the state authorities, the wishes of the
villagers or corporate owners being, however,
always duly considered. In a large portion of
Prussia, in Wiirtemberg, and in Bavaria the cor-
poration provides its own foresters ; but these,
as well as their plans of operation, must be ap-
proved by the state authorities, so that here the
management is under strict control of the state,
and favorable forest conditions are at least partially
assured. In Wiirtemberg the corporation is given
the choice of supplying its own foresters or else of
joining their forests to those of the state. This has
led to state management of nearly 70 per cent of
all corporation forests. Only the corporation for-
318 ECONOMICS OF FORESTRY.
ests of Saxony and those of a small part of Prussia
are without any supervision. Of the private for-
ests, those of Prussia and Saxony, involving 69 per
cent of all private forests of the empire, are en-
tirely free % from interference. They can be man-
aged as the owner sees fit, and there is no obstacle
to their devastation or entire clearing and conver-
sion into field or pasture. The remainder of the
private forests are under more or less supervision.
In most districts a state permit is required before
land can be cleared. Devastation is an offence,
and in some states, notably Wiirtemberg, a badly
neglected forest property may be reforested and
managed by state authorities. In nearly all states
laws exist with regard to so-called " protection for-
ests," i.e. forests needed to prevent floods, sand
blowing, land and snow slides, or to insure regu-
larity of water supply, etc. Forests proved to fall
under this category are under special control, but
as it is not easy in most cases to prove the protec-
tive importance of a forest, the laws are difficult
to apply and not always enforced.
An increase of state supervision over private
forests has been attempted in Prussia by the
establishment of a law previously referred to,
which renders the owner of a forest liable for
the damage which the devastation or clearing
of his forest property causes to his neighbor.
This law, however, is so difficult to apply, and
puts the plaintiff to so great expense, that so
^
FOREST POLICIES OF FOREIGN NATIONS. 319
far it has not been enforced to any extent ex-
cept where the government itself is the injured
party. ,
Lately, as> a result < destructive floods in Prus-
sian rivers", extension of supervision by the state
is urged again, ,
Altogether we can distinguish the South German
policy which has been always inclined to be re-
strictive and coercive, from the North German
tendencies which have only lately developed in
this direction. The difference is perhaps due to
the fact that South Germany is mainly mountain
country, North Germany mainly plain.
The unusual floods in the Prussian rivers, es-
pecially the Oder, during the last decade, which
occasioned over $2,500,000 damage, led to the
appointment of a commission just as this year
in the state of New York to propose remedies.
In the two reports made in 1896 and 1898, the
influence of forest cover on retardation of snow-
melting, and of the forest floor on retardation of
run-off are admitted, but forest conditions are found
tolerably satisfactory. Nevertheless, new legisla-
tion is proposed to supervise private forest man-
agement so as to preserve existing conditions, the
following points being made :
1. The forest areas which are of importance to
the watershed must be definitely determined.
2. A prescription for their management is only
to be made, and if the management is found un-
320 ECONOMICS OF FORESTRY.
satisfactory by the county president, an appeal
may be made to the courts.
3. Clearing may be forbidden, subject to appeal.
4. If unpermitted clearing is made, reforesta-
tion may be enforced, but there is no right to force
reforestation of lands now not in forest.
5. The ploughing of slopes may be forbidden,
and regulation of drainage channels ordered, but in
that case the corporation, for whose sake this is
done, must pay the cost or damage to the owner.
6. The state is to give financial aid in secur-
ing this work.
Quite different in tone is the Bavarian law of
1852, revised and accentuated in 1896, which ab-
solutely forbids clearing, as well as any severe
thinning, except by permission, in all protection
forests, namely, on tops of mountains and ridges
and steep slopes, on the high Alps where danger
from land and snow slides is to be anticipated, or on
sand-dunes, and wherever waterflow is influenced.
The forest administration, either at the request of
the owner or, on its own motion and final decision,
by the forest courts, is to decide whether or not a
forest property falls in this category. The plans
of management for such properties must be sub-
mitted for sanction by the government under
penalty of $20 to $300, and even $600, per acre
for any disobedience. Nor does the state recog-
nize any obligation to compensate the owner for
such restriction in the use of his property, although
FOREST POLICIES OF FOREIGN NATIONS. 321
a proposition is now under discussion to give a
tax release for 20 years for reforested tracts, pro-
vided the owner foregoes all use of it for that
period.
The two smaller states of Baden and Wurtem-
berg seem to have succeeded better than any
other states in their restrictive policies. Wiirtem-
berg began proper measures, which have remained
fundamental, as early as 1614, remodelling them
in 1875 and 1879.
The "forest police law " of 1879 decides :
(a) Clearing of forest requires a state permit:
illegal clearing is punished with a fine.
() A neglected piece of forest shall not be-
come waste land ; the state authority sees to its
reforestation with or without help of owner, the
expenses to be charged to the forest.
(c) If the state forester is convinced that a pri-
vate owner cuts too much wood or otherwise mis-
manages his forest, he is to warn the owner, and
if this warning is not heeded, the forest authority
may take in hand and manage the particular tract.
(d) Owners of small tracts of forest can com-
bine into associations and can place their properties
with municipal or even state forests for protec-
tion and management. In the latter case they
share the advantages of part of the municipal or
communal forests which are managed by state
authorities.
The law of 1875 relating to the management
322 ECONOMICS OF FORESTRY.
and supervision of forests belonging to villages,
towns, and other public corporations, about one-
third of the forest area, places all the forests un-
der this category under direct state supervision ;
there being a special division of corporation or
municipal forests in connection with the state
forestry bureau. The law demands that all cor-
poration forests be managed in accordance with
the principles of a continued supply, the same as
the state forests. The corporation may employ
its own foresters, but these must be approved by
the forestry bureau and are responsible for the
proper execution of the plans of management.
These plans are prepared by the foresters and
must be approved by the state forest authorities.
If preferred, the corporation may leave the man-
agement of its forests entirely to the state au-
thorities. This is always done if a corporation
neglects to fill the position of its forester within
a certain period after it becomes vacant. Where
the state forest authorities manage either corpora-
tion or private forest, the forest is charged with eight
cents per acre and year for this administration.
This fee is generally less than it costs, so that the
state has been really making a sacrifice so far in
providing a satisfactory management for these
forests.
The forest policy of Baden has also been con-
servative for a long time, and there is no state
in Germany where the general conditions of the
FOREST POLICIES OF FOREIGN NATIONS. 323
forests are better. Since all municipal and cor-
poration forests are under direct state control,
being managed by the state forest authorities,
about 910,000 acres, or over 60 per cent of all
forests, enjoy a careful, conservative treatment,
which insures to them the largest possible return
in wood and money. But even the private for-
ests, representing another third of the forest area,
are under the supervision of the state authorities,
and though the private owner may use his forest
very much as he pleases, he can in no way
devastate or seriously injure it. Clearing re-
quires a permit, even a complete clearing cut,
which latter is permitted only if the owner guar-
antees the reforestation of the denuded area within
a given time. Bare and neglected spots in forests
must be restocked, and failure of private owners
to comply with the forest rules and laws leads to
temporary management of the forest by the state
authorities, such management never to continue
less than ten years.
It is evident that the existence of thoroughly
organized, efficient state forest administrations
make the execution of the laws regarding the use
of forest properties comparatively easy, and from
the technical point of view the supervision compe-
tent. Moreover, the good example which the
forest management of the state sets is of most
salutary influence, especially in showing that such
management pays.
324 ECONOMICS OF FORESTRY.
By good management for " sustained yield " the
yearly cut has been increased, in some cases
doubled, since the beginning of the century, and
the income has increased of course in greater rate,
partly due to advance in prices for wood, which
for a long series of years has not been less than
1 1 per cent annually, partly to increase in the
quality of the output, but largely to improvements
in transportation, for which large sums have been
expended, especially during the last fifty years.
The future promises even greater returns, when
all the properties are in working order and covered
with road systems.
Moreover, it is believed that the state adminis-
trations are now less profitable than they might be,
as they are managed with great conservatism and
without an attempt at greatest financial results, the
economic objects being kept foremost.
The following tables give most briefly an insight
into the financial aspect of forest management of
the leading states. They show that the financial
results vary considerably for the different adminis-
trations, owing largely to differences in market
conditions ; they also show the increase of revenue
from 1890 to 1897. The figures for the whole
country are in part rounded-off estimates for all
the state forests. The record of the city of
Zurich is added to show how an intensively man-
aged small forest property under most favorable
conditions of market compares with the more ex-
FOREST POLICIES OF FOREIGN NATIONS. 325
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326
ECONOMICS OF FORESTRY.
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FOREST POLICIES OF FOREIGN NATIONS. 327
PERCENTIC DISTRIBUTION OF MAIN EXPENDITURES, 1897.
Adminis-
Planting,
State forest of
Total ex-
penses.
tration and
protection
(mostly
Cutting and
moving the
timber.
sowing,
drainage,
work, wood
salaries).
roads, etc.
Per cent.
Per cent.
Per cent.
Per cent.
Prussia
e.2
21
14.8
7.c
Bavaria
48
24
2O
66
Wiirtemberg . . .
40
12
14.6
8.6
Saxony
16
12
14 S
6.4
Baden
46
Q.4
17.7
IO.4
tensively managed larger forest areas. Judging
from the results of the state administrations, it
can be assumed that Germany produces annually
wood values equal in amount to England's con-
sumption, namely, somewhat over $100,000,000, or
$3.00 gross and probably $1.75 net per acre, from
soils that are mostly not fit for any other use, and
which by being so used contribute to other favor-
able cultural conditions.
This net income, figured at 3 per cent, would
make the capital value of soil and growing stock
nearly $60 per acre, and the value of the entire
forest resource of Germany 2000 million dollars.
The revenues have apparently risen with the
increase of expenditures. In 1850, when Prussia
expended only 37 cents per acre, her net income
was 46 cents; in 1901 her expenditure had in-
creased to $1.43 and her gross revenue to $2.87,
328 ECONOMICS OF FORESTRY.
although wood prices for the entire Prussian cut of
300,000,000 cubic feet have in that period advanced
only 37 per cent ; while Saxony expended 80 cents
per acre in the beginning of the century and netted
95 cents, to-day she spends three times the amount
and has increased her revenue nearly fivefold.
The table of the distribution of expenditures is
especially interesting, showing that even in Saxony,
the very state where the timber is usually cut clean
and the land restocked entirely by planting with
nursery stock, the item of planting, etc., uses up
the smallest portion of the income.
From this brief outline it will be apparent that
forestry in its modern sense is not a new, untried
experiment in Germany, but that care and active
legislative consideration of the forest wealth dates
back more than four centuries ; that the accurate
official records of several states for the last one
hundred years prove conclusively that wherever a
systematic, continuous effort has been made, as in
the case of all state forests, whether of large or
small territories, the enterprise has been successful ;
that it has proved of great advantage to the country,
furnished a handsome revenue where otherwise no
returns could be expected, led to the establishment
of permanent woodworking industries, and has
given opportunity for labor and capital to be active,
not spasmodically, not speculatively, but continu-
ously and with assurance of success. This rule
has, fortunately, not a single exception. To be
FOREST POLICIES OF FOREIGN NATIONS. 329
sure, isolated tracts away from railroad or water,
sand-dunes, and rocky promontories exist in every
state, and the management of these poor forest
areas costs all the tract can bring and often more ;
but the wood is needed, the dune or waste is a
nuisance, and the state has found it profitable to
convert it into forest, even though the direct reve-
nue falls short of the expense.
The unsatisfactory condition of many of the
private forests and their uneconomic exploitation,
due to the speculative spirit developed after the
Franco-German War, are deplored, exposed, and
discussed with a view of extending state supervision.
In Bavaria, in spite of severe prescriptions and in
spite of the assistance given by the state, which
distributed 127,000,000 plants during the years
1893-1899, deforestation is in excess of reforesta-
tion, and the private forest diminishes. Similarly
in Prussia during the last twenty years over 75,000
acres were deforested by private owners, although
the state here too is exhausting all ameliorative and
persuasive means, which, however, remain ineffec-
tive. Hence the state buys the half -wastes, restocks
them at great expense, and thus public money
pays for public folly in not restricting ill use of
forest properties.
Of extra-European countries and nations, we
should at least mention Japan, as one that has had
a forest policy earlier than any of the European
nations, and has now as efficient and modern ap-
330 ECONOMICS OF FORESTRY.
paratus to carry it into effect as any, Germany
hardly excepted.
It is interesting to note that the historical de-
velopment of this policy considerably resembles
Teutonic development under the feudal system.
During the first century after Christ, and repeat-
edly during later ones, frequent edicts were issued
to enforce the planting of watersheds to alleviate
floods, and the state representatives, the provincial
princes, from early times took active interest and
supervised the fellings. 1
The forests thus protected by strict laws re-
mained in comparatively good condition, so that
in 1867, when the great modern change in the
government of Japan took place, they came into
imperial hands nearly unimpaired. A department
of forestry, instituted in 1874, in the department
of the interior, has the management of the state
forests, which comprise 17,500,000 acres, or 30 per
cent of the total forest area of 57,000,000 acres.
Some of the private forests, namely, those declared
protection forests, are under supervision. A forest
academy, according to German models, and at first
manned by German foresters, was established in
1882, which in 1890 was incorporated with the
University at Tokio.
1 See an interesting historical sketch in Zeitschrift fur das
gesammte Forstwesen, 1900.
CHAPTER XI.
FOREST CONDITIONS OF THE UNITED STATES.
IF considered simultaneously from botanical,
geographical, and economic points of view, the
forests of North America are unique in the world.
The forests of the tropics are richer in species ;
there are contiguous forest areas of greater extent
in other parts of the world, and other countries
possess forests of as high economic value. But it
may be fairly truthfully claimed, that in no part of
the world is to be found in combination under the
ownership of one nation, a forest area of so large
extent, of so high economic value, furnishing such
a large number of species of such varied useful-
ness and in such accessible form and condition.
Geographically and botanically we must differ-
entiate the country into two absolutely unlike
types, namely the Atlantic and the Pacific type.
Practically the entire surface on the Atlantic side
west to a meandering line, which follows more
or less closely the Mississippi Valley and runs no-
where beyond the ninety-ninth degree of longitude
was originally a vast continuous forest compris-
ing somewhat over one million square miles, or
332 ECONOMICS OF FORESTRY.
about 700 million acres, 1 of which less than 40 per
cent, or less than 300 million acres, have been
turned into farm lands, and an unknown acreage
has been culled of its valuable stores of timber,
ravaged by fire, or turned into useless brush lands.
The area to the west, almost twice as large,
1 200 million acres, is mainly a forestless, often
treeless area into which stretch like narrow penin-
sulas of varying width from the north the forested
mountain ranges of the Rockies, not exceeding
100 million acres of woodlands and the forest of
the Sierras and coast ranges of the Pacific with
nearly the same acreage.
The Atlantic forest occupying the humid regions
of the United States and covering both valleys and
mountains, composed of a large variety of broad-
leaved species with conifers intermixed, gradually
changes to the westward into the prairie country,
practically forestless, although not treeless, where
trees and forests of an inferior character are capa-
ble of growing, but where the grasses are able to
compete successfully with the arborescent flora.
To the west of the prairie belt lie the plains
and semi-arid regions, including deserts, irrigable
1 The figures used in this chapter lay no claim to statistical ac-
curacy but are merely rough approximations, sufficient to give a
general idea of relationships, such as the economist needs. There
are no accurate data at hand ; when not even the areas of the different
states are accurately known, official authorities differing widely, it
is useless to attempt anything but rounded-off figures.
FOREST CONDITIONS. 333
valleys, forestless plateaus, and mountains, where
tree growth is entirely absent or stunted, unless
artificially fostered. It is into this type of coun-
try that the Rocky Mountain forest protrudes, of
coniferous composition, for the most part of in-
ferior development, except in the more northern
portion ; and similarly, paralleling the coast from
north to south, extends the Pacific forest along the
mountain slopes of the Cascades, Sierra Nevada,
and Coast Range, practically almost wholly com-
posed of conifers, often of most magnificent de-
velopment, with only few broad-leaved species.
For the purposes of this volume it is not
necessary to consider the forest conditions of the
newly acquired outlying dependencies and of the
far-removed Alaskan territory, except to state that
the interior of Alaska, being in the main an arid
country with a short season of vegetation, is
forested 'in the manner of such countries, the tree
growth mostly stunted and open, while the Alaska
coast forest partakes of the character of the Pacific
coast forest, with fewer species of conifers (mostly
only hemlock and spruce) of inferior develop-
ment.
The distribution then of forest country and open
country is most uneven ; three-fourths of the wood-
lands being concentrated on one side of the conti-
nent, the remaining fourth being collocated in two
parcels on the two great mountain systems of the
other side of the continent.
334 ECONOMICS OF FORESTRY.'
This distribution is, of course, mainly due to
climatic conditions; low relative humidity of the
air and deficiency of water supplies in the soil
having much to do with the absence of forest cover
over the larger part of our domain.
The economic significance of this condition
comes with the realization that the bulk of the
best agricultural soils of the United States lies
within the forestless region, and also that eventu-
ally the irrigable portion of the arid regions is
destined to be the richest, dependent on a rational
management of water supplies, i.e. of the forest
cover. On the other hand, while undoubtedly the
productive timber area of this region may be arti-
ficially extended in a small degree, the main timber
production of the country will have to be secured
where nature originally placed it, namely on the
east side of the continent, where climate favors
forest growth, and diversity of surface conditions
differentiates farm and forest soils. Here, where
the centre of population lies, and with it the bulk
of consumption, the problems of forestry and of
timber production need foremost attention.
So far, of the vast domain of the United States
(1,900,800,000 acres) not one-fourth is occupied by
farms ; in most sections of the forest country the
farm area l falls below 50 per cent and in no state
does it exceed 84 per cent. A vast area, there-
J The Census of 1900 gives the farm area as 841,201,000 acres,
of which, however, only 49.3 per cent are reported as improved.
FOREST CONDITIONS. 335
fore, is not yet appropriated to any particular
use, being wild lands, waste, or under forest.
The acreage given above would indicate a for-
ested area of not exceeding 650 million acres,
namely, the 900 million acres as given above, less
the improved farm area in the forest country, which
amounts to about 250 million acres ; but it should
be well understood that this represents merely
woodlands, areas covered with woody growth,
which must be very considerably reduced if we
apply the economic point of view and include only
areas that contain or can without human aid prod-
uce timber useful for the arts, if we discuss, in
other words, the forest area not as a natural con-
dition, but as a national resource.
Not only are large areas, especially in the west-
ern country, occupied by trees incapable of grow-
ing to valuable size or quality, but in the eastern
forest country there are large areas from which all
valuable growth has been removed by axe and
fire. These are sometimes turned into actual bar-
rens or are occupied by useless brush growth, which
effectually prevents the reestablishment of valu-
able forest growth without human aid, and hence
they are for the present withdrawn from useful
production.
Trustworthy statistics of the actually produc-
tive forest area are not in existence, although
figures have been presented as such by statis-
ticians without capacity to interpret their mean-
336 ECONOMICS OF FORESTRY.
ing. We can only attempt rough approximations,
applying to the data at hand personal knowledge
and impressions gathered in the field with pro-
fessional insight. We can readily admit that
these figures are often far from correct, yet not
so far but that they give a true conception of the
general condition of things.
Applying proper economic considerations, we
may at once halve the figures given for both the
Rocky Mountain and the Pacific forest, and re-
duce that of the Atlantic forest, after deducting
the actually enumerated farm area by only 10
per cent, a small allowance to make for actual
waste lands. 1 We thus arrive at an area of round
500 million acres as representing the real forest
resources of the country, a near enough ap-
1 Some basis for such reductions may be found in information of
the following kind :
The nearest approach to a statistical statement for one of the
Pacific Coast states, Washington, is made in the Twentieth Report
of the U. S. Geol. Survey, 1900, Part V, from which it appears, that
while the area reported as forest by the chief geographer is 47,700
square miles, only half that acreage is found to contain merchant-
able timber, of which two-thirds is located in the western one-third
of the state. Here, of 15,858 square miles, formerly covered with
merchantable timber, 20 per cent are reported cut and nearly 23
per cent destroyed by fire.
For the state of Oregon the same report upon rather insufficient
data reduces the reported woodland area of 54,300 square miles to
45,441 of timbered, i.e. economically valuable area.
A similar survey of one of the Atlantic forest states, Wisconsin,
described in Bulletin 15, Forestry Division, U. S. Dept. of Agricul-
ture, 1898, reduces the woodland, reported by the census of 1880,
FOREST CONDITIONS. 337
proximation for all practical purposes of the
economist.
The larger portion of this area of 500 million
acres is, however, not to be conceived as filled with
standing timber ready for the axe, but consists of
"culled" forest, which means that the merchant-
able timber of the better kinds has been removed
more or less closely.
How nearly this assertion must be true we may
learn from the simple contemplation of the fact,
that the constantly increasing population of the
United States has drawn its wood supplies from
this area originally of less than 700 million acres,
without systematic attention to reproduction. If
we assume that the consumption per capita has
not been quite as large as it is now (350 cubic feet),
although there is not much reason for such assump-
tion, and add up the population annually calling
for such supplies since the year 1780 only, we find
that not less than 2,500 million people have had
their annual requirements satisfied ; that means a
total of not less than 600 to 700 billion cubic feet.
from 31,750 square miles to about 26,904, of which nearly 50 per
cent is " cut over, largely burned over and waste brush lands, and
one-half of this as nearly desert as it can become in the climate of
Wisconsin."
From such statements it will appear that the method of arriving
at the forest acreage, used by Mr. Gannett, chief geographer, in the
Nineteenth Report of the U. S. Geol. Survey, namely to deduct the
farm area of twenty years ago from the total land area, leads to no
useful result for purposes of the economist,
z
338 ECONOMICS OF FORESTRY.
Taking into consideration the wasteful use of tim-
ber, the log-rolling fires in clearing for farm use,
owing to the lack of market, we may assume that
less than half of this consumption was secured
from these farm areas, the other part necessitating
the culling of certainly 30x3 million acres, so that
hardly 200 million acres containing merchantable
timber may remain, even if we make allowance
for aftergrowth. Comparing this probability cal-
culation with the amount of standing timber, given
on page 52, as an extravagant estimate, this area
would have to contain an average of 10,000 feet
B.M., or 2000 cubic feet of such wood as we
use, which is not likely to be the case, or at least
questionable.
This area, moreover, is continually reduced by
fire and by clearing for farm purposes, as the
change of improved farm areas in the forested
states from census year to census year shows,
namely, an increase of about 25 million acres each
decade in round figures. Some abandoned farms
in New England, and in the South, to be sure,
are gradually returning to forest growth, but these
additions are small in proportion to the farm in-
crease." Nevertheless, taking the forested area
actually grown or growing to timber, in good, bad,
or indifferent condition, it represents in the forest
country of the Atlantic side still 40 to 45 per
cent of the total land area, while about 20 to 25
per cent may be set down as waste lands.
FOREST CONDITIONS. 339
The productive forest area of the western coun-
try may be stated as not exceeding 14 per cent.
For the whole country the woodland area according
to the United States Chief Geographer, whose dis-
cussions on these questions contain many misstate-
ments and misconceptions, represents 37 per cent ;
according to the writer's conception of what may be
considered forest area, it is not much over 26 per
cent. This acreage of round 500 million acres
under proper management would barely be capable
of supplying continuously the present annual wood
consumption of the people of the United States,
which, as we have seen on page 51, amounts to
about 25,000 million cubic feet; while we esti-
mated that the virgin supplies still standing may
be able to satisfy the present consumption for
perhaps 40 to 50 years.
The immediate inauguration of conservative
treatment, of recuperative measures, and of proper
economies in the use of wood may, therefore, be
able to avert serious discomforts to be expected
from a shortage in wood supplies, provided there
be no increase in consumption, or perhaps even
a proportionate reduction, as the population in-
creases, which as we have seen in Chapter II. is
possible. So far the census statistics record an
increase of wood consumption, in values at least,
of a round 30 per cent for every decade, and hence
the economies, as well as the conservative and
recuperative treatment, should be begun now.
340 ECONOMICS OF FORESTRY.
The ownership of the forest area will largely
determine how far such conservative treatment
may be expected.
Governments, which are logically conservative
managers of their properties, own in the United
States as yet only an insignificant acreage. Thanks
to the forest reservation policy, inaugurated in
1891, the federal government has reserved and
continues to reserve and exclude from sale or other
disposal some of the public domain, which still
comprises over 500,000,000 acres.
It is uncertain how much of this acreage is for-
est covered. There are somewhat over 10,000,000
acres still held in the Eastern states, largely swamp
lands and forest, while for the Western states,
Mr. F. H. Newell, a few years ago, 1 estimated the
public lands open for entry as follows :
Brush lands 96,000,000.
Timber forest 70,000,000.
Desert 69,000,000.
Grazing land 374,000,000.
Since under the existing construction of the land
laws, the timber lands on the Pacific coast may be
entered as agricultural lands, and since the lumber
business of that region in the last few years has been
greatly extended, it is fair to assume that by such
entries the timber forest area of the public domain
has been considerably reduced from that estimate.
The forest reservations made by the federal
1 U. S. Geol. Survey, Ann. Rep. 1894.
FOREST CONDITIONS. 341
government to July i, 1902, comprise an acreage of
nearly 60 million acres, hardly more than i per
cent of the public domain, but it is well known that
a considerable portion of these reservations is not
timber land; they include brush lands, grazing
lands, and desert.
In fact the examinations by agents of the United
States Geological Survey indicate that of about 12
million acres examined, not more than 30 per cent
contains merchantable timber, and the amount of
such timber is estimated at not to exceed 24 billion
feet B.M. In other words, on this vast area can-
not be found one year's requirement for the whole
United States, or six years' supply for the mills now
operating in the Western states. There is no reason
to suppose that the rest of the federal reserves are
much better timbered, for the examined portions
seem to represent fairly well average conditions ;
hence, the forest reservation policy of the govern-
ment, as far as the supply question for the country
at large is concerned, has not, and indeed cannot,
alleviate matters very much. Even if all the tim-
ber lands now in possession of the federal govern-
ment were withdrawn from entry, and it is a short-
sighted policy not to have done so long ago, such
reservation would bear on local conditions of supply
only. But, indeed, for the welfare of the West-
ern states, the inauguration of the forest reservation
policy is of the utmost importance ; not only from
the timber supply point of view, but especially with
342 ECONOMICS OF FORESTRY.
regard to the question of water supply. The val-
leys of the West being, for the use of their almost
inexhaustible fertility, dependent upon irrigation
waters, the water conserving capacity of a well-
kept forest cover is indispensable, and in this direc-
tion even the brush lands are of value.
It would be only rational that the extensive plans
for the development of irrigation systems in the
West should include the rapid withdrawal from
entry of all the mountain forest and brush lands,
and their rational treatment with the main object
of preserving the soil cover.
In the Eastern states, the single state govern-
ments alone may carry out a similar reservation
policy, and indeed the beginnings have been made
here and there.
The state of New York owns nearly one and
one-quarter million acres with the avowed purpose
of increasing the acreage of state forest ; the state
of Pennsylvania has entered upon the policy of
acquiring state forest, and several other states are
at least discussing the propriety of such ownership.
But the majority of the states have not yet
waked up to their obligation in this respect, and com-
munities, like villages, towns, cities, counties, which
so often in Europe derive acceptable income from
forest properties, have not yet considered such a
policy, hence the forest areas are nearly entirely in
private hands.
As to the character of this private ownership and
FOREST CONDITIONS. 343
the distribution among different classes of owners,
we are without data. The census of 1880 gave .a
statement of the ownership by farmers of 200 mill-
ion acres in wood lots. This would mostly repre-
sent a conservative ownership, although farmers
do not always treat their timber lots as intelligently
as they might ; but it is quite certain that much of
this acreage has since passed into the hands of
lumbermen and wood-working establishments. 1
Among these we must discern between the
jobbers, who merely buy stumpage, i.e. the timber
without the land, who, therefore, take no interest
in the future of either, and hence are least con-
servative in their treatment of the forest, and the
land-owning class, who are apt to take more
thought of what may become of their holdings. It
is, however, only very lately that this interest ex-
tends in the direction of conservative lumbering
and of keeping the forest as such productive ; in
most cases the policy of " skinning " is still the
usual one, that means culling out the merchantable
material, with a very variable result as regards the
condition in which the forest is left. Sometimes,
as when the spruce or pine is cut out from the
mixed hardwood forest, its absence may be hardly
noticed by the layman, the forest cover is little
interrupted, and the scattered debris sooner or
1 The value of wood products, cut on farmers' wood lots, was
found by the census of 1900 to amount to less than 120 million
dollars.
344 ECONOMICS OF FORESTRY.
later decomposes, but the composition is surely
altered in the old timber as well as in the young
aftergrowth. Where the soft woods, which are
the most valuable and the most easily removed by
water transportation, had occupied a larger portion
of the mixed forest, or were found in pure stands,
or where hardwoods are lumbered, the case is less
hopeful for the future, the accumulation of debris
prevents largely a reproduction of valuable species,
and the succession is of inferior kinds and shrubs,
especially as the valuable seed trees have been either
entirely removed or greatly reduced. Sooner or
later fires run through the slashing, and if repeated
may destroy not only all the struggling after-
growth, but the humus, the soil itself, and so
render the land practically useless for genera-
tions.
Sometimes a fire at the right time may, however,
have done good by reducing the slash, and, if seed
trees were left uncut in the neighborhood, a de-
sirable aftergrowth may have established itself,
which but for a repetition of the fire would grow
into desirable timber.
In late years the severity of the culling pro-
cess has greatly increased, since with improved
means of transportation and reduced supplies
smaller sizes have become marketable; as a
result the chances of a valuable aftergrowth are
greatly diminished, and most of the logged areas
of to-day, differing from those of twenty or thirty
FOREST CONDITIONS. 345
years ago, are doomed to non-productive condition
for generations.
The owners of expensive permanent mill estab-
lishments, relying on timber supply, are naturally
more interested in a continuity of local supplies
than those who can readily change their location
when the supplies in one locality are exhausted.
Hence such manufactures as the paper-pulp in-
dustry will become or are already interested in
more conservative use of their holdings.
Lately, as in all commercial enterprises, a ten-
dency has developed in the lumber industry to con-
solidate forest properties and form trusts, which
own many thousands or even millions of acres of
forest land.
Such trusts may be and probably are mostly
formed for the immediate financial advantages ac-
cruing from combination, but they could, and, if
they consulted their true interests, would, practise
a more conservative treatment of their timber and
introduce forestry methods, which would prove in
the end the wisest continual fina 
