a ON tte igh Sipe ed Ann Pw hee ese, — tt ol > - 7 re Peso fetid ain! ur ee ee een tober tad me EPPS hagt Rete Sher thy i ¥ Seem ces Abe Bet Ne? Pe nae al oak Pte Atay! i Sycth nie eT + thy “i ws rf h ; < ENTER (pes Se ae ON it eR Cerca eee ie : i. € Wie ede ns af Ty SRE Re ath, Aa AEP Ds Fay ge Bt A od ha ya Biel imaday 6a sects aS in meer, ee ; vie Pe} Pree ay Rae Amasts el ak thle heey an a fr. et REO ET mag ere: 2 7 r ; i s i at ve ' 5 Pld ca Die een \ hee ay > eee . 2 oe as . % , om wy oe oe 7 y et a a tna hws « art tae An PM Bah det sa gmt f= > eee ie Ph ; ¥ LIBRARY OF ECONOMICS AND POLITICS, Independent Treasury System of the United States. By Davip Kintey, A.B. 12mo0......-s000 Soleieiain\i srarmine cose $1.50 Repudiation of State Debts in the United States. By WILLIAM A. Scott, Ph.D. IZMO cocceresessesereccessses Socialism and Social Reform. By RICHARD of by ELy, PheD;; EL.Ds T2ZMO ce cccsevesesesseses American Charities. By Amos G. 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PaixoTTo, Ph.D. r12MO0-eeeeeeeeseessecercceres The Economics of Forestry. By Prof. B. E. Fernow, Department of Forestry, Cornell University CHC SHEESH SES ESTES HSHESHEHSESHEHEHH HEHEHE HHT Oe net Irrigation. By F. H. Newe tt, U. S. Geological Surveyscceeeeeesseeee net 2.50 3-50 1-75 1.75 1.75 1-75 I-75 ECONOMICS OF FORESTRY A REFERENCE BOOK FOR STUDENTS OF POLITICAL ECONOMY AND PROFESSIONAL AND LAY STUDENTS OF FORESTRY ; BY BERNHARD E. FERNOW, LL.D. DirREcToR OF THE NEw York StTaTE COLLEGE OF FORESTRY, IN CORNELL University; LaTE CuieEF, Division oF Forestry, UNITED StaTES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE NEW YORK THOMAS Y. CROWELL & CO. PUBLISHERS THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, Two Copics ReEosiven NEC. 22 1902 ; 29-14 or ASE, W XKo. CoPyYRIGHT, 1902, By THOMAS Y. CROWELL & CO. Published December, 1902. Co felv Friend 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 POEPORIAL. 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. PREP ACE. In this volume it is proposed to treat of for- ests and forestry from the standpoint of political economy. 7 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 vii Vili 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. INTRODUCTORY: THE RELATION OF THE STATE TO NATURAL RESOURCES .. : : é CHAPTER II. THE FOREST AS A RESOURCE . g . : 3 CHAPTER Ii. THE FOREST AS A CONDITION . ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ CHAPTER IV. FOREST AND FORESTRY DEFINED 5 ‘ ‘ A CHAPTER V. FACTORS OF FOREST PRODUCTION AND BUSINESS ASPECTS CHAPTER. VI. NATURAL HISTORY OF THE FOREST .. ; : p CHAPTER Vit. METHODS OF FOREST CROP PRODUCTION: SILVI- CULTURE xi PAGE be 54 81 106 140 xli METHODS OF BUSINESS CONDUCT: FOREST ECONOMY PRINCIPLES AND METHODS OF FOREST POLICY. FOREST POLICIES OF FOREIGN NATIONS FOREST CONDITIONS OF THE UNITED STATES THE FORESTRY MOVEMENT IN THE UNITED STATES APPENDIX BIBLIOGRAPHY INDEX . CONTENTS. CHAPTER VIII. CHAPTER. IX. CHAPTER X. CHAPTER XI. CHAPTER XIl. PAGE 197 228 274, 33! 491 509 BCONOMICS OF FORESTRY. GHAPTER. .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 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- ful utilization. This is natural, as ae 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 B I 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. 23 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 of his opportunities which gives him greatest satis- faction in the present appears justifiable; while 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, “U‘ere 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 /azssezfatre policy is to be supplanted by a fazre-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, 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 time, but forever, widens its functions and extends 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! 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 ill effects become apparent, the 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 often irreversible, the damage 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 “ zztenszty” 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. It is true that as individuals the knowledge of the near exhaustion of the anthracite coal-fields 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 from ruining themselves financially and hazarding the future of their families, we do prevent associated portions of the community, — corporations, towns, and cities, — from jeopardizing their future by pre- venting them from extravagant expenditures and contracting of debts. This, too, is perhaps less i fe) 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 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 point of view resources may be classified under four heads, namely : — I. 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. II 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 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.! 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 water-power of the streams, largely dependent on the conditions of the forest, the fisheries, and to some extent the local climatic conditions, are 1The 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 débris, 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,! in Mississippi,? 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. 16, 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 such restoration, z.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- gible material, necessaries or conveniences of life, serving the purposes of gain, and which are, there- fore, objects of industrial enterprise ; while others, though desirable and necessary, serving indirectly for the comforts of society, industry, and progress 14 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. 15 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 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 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, ss ) 18 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, preéminently 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 preéminently for the exercise of the providential functions of the state to counter- act the destructive tendencies of private exploita- tion. CHAPTER | FI. 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- 21 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 xecessitzes, it is fair to say that over 99 per cent of all wood is used in supplying real wants, while less than 1 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), the carriers of civilization, lie on not less than 700,000,000 of wooden ties and need 140,000,000 annually for renewals;! they run over more than 2000 miles of wooden trestles and bridges, they carry their passengers and freight in over 1,000,000 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 FYOREST 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 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. oF 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 game 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.! 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 States, 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 . ‘ i ‘ $ 14,500,000 For by-products ‘ é . 1,000,000 For game. , . . ‘ go,000 It is seen that the by-products furnished about 7 per cent of the total income. THE FOREST AS A RESOURCE. 3I 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, ts unfortunately largely paid, not from surplusage, but from capital stock, and a future generation will have to make good the 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 D 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 Prairie, He ins and soils. arrens. North America. . . 45 5 50 South America. . . 78 12 Ce) mM Ne a 84 10 6 a ee 45 3 52 PEM eae ee 60 12 28 sitet. So ee 37 38 25 60% 7% 33% In billion acres. . . 18 2 10 36 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 :— Woop REQUIREMENT. Inhabitants, Per capita, millions. Per Total | Of which | ft, B.M. capita, | million | ft. B.M. cu. ft. | cu. ft. | million. North America. 80 300 | 2,400 | 40,000 500 ERIE oo we 40s cs 360 40 | 1,440 | 22,000 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. : . : . : - 37,000 Russia . e : - = F 4 . 12,000 Austria . : : ; : : : - 3,500 Germany ‘ ° : . . : - 3,000 Canada . £ . . . 2 : + 3,000 Sweden and Norway . ° , . . 2,000 China and Japan . . ‘ : ° - 2,000 France . . : . : : . s .¥,500 South America 5 . “ 4 5. 100 India. ° : ° . . : + "> 500 All others i 4 4 : 4 3 3,000 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 15 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 12 and 15 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 I,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. 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, — 1 on 22 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 much wood that forms part of manufactures imported, like pianos, wagons, etc. We have then 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 $150,000,000 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 2 of this half, giv- ing to these supplies of one species an economic THE: FOREST AS: A. RESOURCE. 4I 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, out 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- A4 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. ln other words, the natural forest resource as we find tt consists of an accumulated wood capital lying idle and awaiting the hand of a rational manager to dots 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 of 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 /z67- 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 the 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 FEE 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 perjacre. ; -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. 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 1820, 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 e¢ yield on an acre, stocked on best soil for a rotation of 120 years, z.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, 11 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 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. 7 E 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. Northern States. : : : . : 500 Southern States . + - ‘ - : 700 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 po 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 (ill. 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, buffalo, 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 the 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- ning of civilization, its necessary prerequisite. But while the removal and repression of the wood, as an impediment to culture and food pro- duction, is a necessary step toward a higher civili- 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 mountazn woodlands the habitations of the gods (rexévn aPavatwv), 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 débris, 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 périra faute des bois,’ and Colbert’s forest ordinance of 1669 — only indifferent attention to a conservative forest policy was paid, the members of the académie royale, Buffon (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. 61 * 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 Méjeanne 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 doctriné, 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- F 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 pifion 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 Jocal 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; 2.¢. 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 (1 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, z.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 débris. 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, 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 malarié), 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 resumé, taken from Bulletin VII, Forestry Division, U. S. Dept. of Agriculture, entitled ‘“ Forest Influences,” 1893, in which this question is exhaustively discussed. Clrar ree Ty 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. A fforesting 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 medizeval 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 crown, 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 olject 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 he 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 sud- stance of the trees itself, not their fruit, their beauty, their shade, their shelter, that constitute the vie 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 réquisite, 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. 3 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. QI 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- Q2 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 1158. 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 1368, 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 reéstablish- 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 Fotest 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 and 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 04 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 on 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 sczence of forestry, he develops superior positive methods in treatment and _ per- petuation of the forest and applies the avt¢ of for- estry; and, adding the financial aspect in the application of the art, he practises the duszness 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. Itis 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 “ow 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. H 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 L. of C: 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 Rioloea 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. IO0! as well as general physiology and biology; finally, he must specialize and become an expert on bio- logical dendrology, z.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, z.¢. 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. BASIS I. ForeEsT POLITICS Economic Aspects (The Condition) History of Forestry. Forestry Policy. Formulating rights and duties of the state, forestry legislation, state forest administration, education. » APPLICATION > 104 FOREST PRODUCTION Technical Aspects ais (The Crop) BASIS APPLICATION ECONOMICS OF FORESTRY. vik Io. II. T2. Forest Botany. Dendrology, systematic and biologic — forest geography — forest weeds. Factors of Site. Soil physics, soil chemistry, meteorology and climatology with reference to forest growth. Timber Physics. ~ Structure, physical and chemical proper- ties of wood, influences determining same, diseases and faults. Wood Technology. Application of wood in the arts —- require- ments — working properties — use of minor and by-products. . Silviculture. Methods of producing the crop and influ- encing its progress. Forest Protection. Forest entomology — climatic injuries — fire, etc. Forest Utilization. Methods of harvesting, transporting, pre- paring for market. Forest Engineering. Road building — water regulation —treat- ment of special cases, sand dunes, bar- ren swamps, moors, denuded slopes. FOREST AND FORESTRY DEFINED. 105 13. 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. 16. Forest Regulation. Preparing working plans, determining felling budgets, and organizing for con- tinuous wood and revenue production. 17. Forest Administration. Organization of a forestry service: busi- ness practice and routine, including for- est law and business law applicable to forestry practice. BASIS Business Aspects (The Revenue) III. Forest Economy APPLICATION 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. CHAPTER. NV; 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 106 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 Lec, 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. i 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 réle 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 suz 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 IIO 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. III 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,'! namely, 15 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 $1 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, 1 guard (Forster u. Waldw4rter) for every 1800 acres, I manager (Oberfors- ter) for every 9800, and 1 inspector (Oberforstmeister u. Forstrath) for every 61000 acres; and the common labor represents the annual employment of one man for every 175 acres. I II4 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,’ with a forest area under more or less intensive management of 75,000,000 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, IQ conservators, II7 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. I15 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 mzsz, 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 116 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 500,000,000 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- 118 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. f19 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. Theshortcycleof developmentin 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,! which contain a minimum of these rarer elements. 1The composition of wood is approximately 50 per cent C, 6 per cent H, 42 per cent O, 1 per cent N, I per cent mineral ash. 120 ECONOMICS 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.! 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.! 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. 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 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! The interesting fact is that all species produce on the same site the same weights, ' 1A one-hundred-year-old stand then contains at best 180 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 feet 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, z.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 $1 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 $2 5 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 $8o. 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+ £) 1.0p"—(S + £), or (S + £) (1.0f" — 1); ~ being the time during which the capital is tied up, and 7 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, z.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 z, and instead of the one hundred years substi- tute the general term of years 7 (rotation), the capital stock is the sum of the arithmetic series @+22+32... +72 which, according to well- . : i a e ° ° known mathematical laws, is — x (vz +2); or, since 7 2 7 is relatively quite small, it may be neglected, and if we substitute for rz = /, z.e. the annual increment of all the stands, the form becomes ae or in other 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 7 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 K 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 $1 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 percent 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;! 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 isnot 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 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,! that at the present time an absolutely safe, satisfactory long time investment in this country cannot net more than 3 to 34 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“Tetters 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 1 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 1 acre in 13,167 was lost by fire, less than 0.007 per cent of 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 the 35 years from 1830 to 1865, and from 1850 to 1895 it rose nearly 50 per cent, namely from 3 cents to 44 cents per cubic foot, all together an increase of 14 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. I4I 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, z.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 L 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. 3 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 dlis- 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. Nota 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 partbus 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,! 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 recelve 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 treé 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 consequence the 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 avazlable 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, z.e. the intensity of utilization of the light, is the important factor in weight production, and, ceteris paribus, 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, z.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, z.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 100 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 100 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 wsefu/ 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, z.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, z.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 M 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, z.¢. 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.+ 7 Le 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 200th 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- (vol of stand = # x 164 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 esthetic 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 168 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 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 asacrop. All his operations keep in mind continuity and permanency for the future. Reproduction not only, but repro- duction of the most useful kinds! 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, 1Of 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. 170 ECONOMICS OF FORESTRY. 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. Bt 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, z.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 reéstab- 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- 174 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 4 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 ‘“gfoup 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 financiai 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 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. N 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. E79 * 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. JW/z#tel- wald, Fr. tazllis composé) 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 fwtaze 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. 180 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 guantity of wood in the tree is increased by the open stand, it is done at the expense of gualtty. 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. 181 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 182 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, 184 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, z.¢. 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 débris, dead and dying trees, in which insects develop; finally, as wltzma 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. 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 1JIn 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. 186 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. 187 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 débris, 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. 188 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 débris 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 débris, 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 débris, 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 débris 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 débris 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,! 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 fromsmoke-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 débris, 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 débris 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 débris 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 dé- 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 1o 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. IOI In fact, the application of silviculture, z.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 192 ECONOMICS OF FORESTRY. was not over 100 acres. This comparative im- munity is due to both administrative and police regulations. The Indian forest Jaane 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, of 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 Oo 194 ECONOMICS OF FORESTRY. fight the fire are on hand, for if débris 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 débris, 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, z.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. 198 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, z.¢. 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. CHAPLEER Vili 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. Sz/viculture 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, 2.¢., 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, z.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. Nachhaltigkettsbetrieb, Fr. Possibilité), 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,! 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 sah: it as far as practicable. The ideal conduct of the management “ Sree 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. 201 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. 128 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 (v=normal felling age) z.e. normal age classes must be present, so that an annually equal normal felling budget (rt=1) might be harvested, the reproduction being looked after, and the best possible, i.e. zormal accretion (2), being secured by silviculture. Asa result of these two conditions the zormal stock (S,) 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, andthatit “assumes the general expression S, = a ; that is to 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 xor- 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, z.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 xormal stock or formula methods. These compare the actual stock (S,) with the normal stock (.S,,) 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 (4) which will secure this equalization may be expressed by formula :— is Sa— Sn é b=T 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! 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 a 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 fulness ; but it would be abhorrent to ec ic thought thus to waste the energy of naturé. 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 P 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, z.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 reéstablishment 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 of 10200 120 7 contained 6880 cubic feet, it would have produced 6880 80 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 80-year-old wood averaged for all sizes 3 cents per cubic foot, and of 120-year-old wood 4 cents, then in the above example the average value 10200X4 _ 120: 74 $3.40 per year, while in the second case it would 6880 x 3 80 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 = 85 cubic feet; if a stand at 80 years an average per year of == 86 cubic feet; accretion in the one case would be have been = $2.58 per year, hence 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 votation 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- werth). 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 80-year rota- tion to the amount needed for a 100-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 1ooth year, which can only then be harvested, will ex- ceed the results which could be had by harvesting in the 80th 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 34 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,” z.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 7” years (years of rotation) forever; the income is therefore in the nature of a periodic or intermittent interminable rent or revenue (/), the capital value of which at present (C,) being found by well-known mathematical methods in the expression C, = aes The rent or revenue 1-Opf"—I1 is composed of the final harvest yield (Y,), and of intermediate incomes by thinning (7), occurring in the years a, 4, etc., the values of which have to be ex- tended for purposes of comparisontothesame time in which the harvest yield occurs, namely to the year 7. The expenditures which have to be offset are the out- 216 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 foradministration, whichcan beexpressed as acapital (A), furnishing yearly forever the needed amount. With these items we can then express the soil rent value — i Vet Tal -0 2" T p1-0 pr—?.ee + Ty, 1-0 p"-I—c-1-0 Zt" ay Se 1-0 p"—I 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 218 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 Io inches diameter, 23 trees above 12 inches diameter, 18 trees above 14 inches diameter, and it is ascertained that it requires 12 years for an 8-inch tree to growinto the 10-inch diameter class, 16 years for a 10-inch tree to grow to 12-inch, and 14 years for a 12-inch tree to grow to 14-inch di- ameter, then if a 10-inch standard were adopted the present cut would remove the 28 trees above 10-inch diameter, and no exploitable size will again be found before 12 years; while if the 12-inch standard were adopted, the return for another har- vest based on the same standard could not be made before 16 years, and the 14-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, to | 20 | 30 | 40 | s5oyears. Iaches. M ft. B.M. M ft. B.M. fe) 4.6 .40 | 1.04 | 2 3722) 4.85 12 4. .44| 1.24 |2.48 | 4.14 .76 | 1.84 | 3.32 This table shows that, while the cut to 10-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 14-inch, and the average annual production is then largest, namely, 3:32 30 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 ageclasses in sufficient number and amount are in existence to take the place of the older ; = 110 feet B.M. per year. 220 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! 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 :— Stumpage value of Diam. of log Real Contents. Contents in forest grown material (length ro feet). Xx Io lumber at mill. {per cubic foot if price per M ft. = $5.00. Inch. Cubic feet. Feet B.M. Cents. 10 65 ag 1.8 14 is 62 2.4 18 211 122 2.9 24 376 250 3-3 30 588 422 3.6 1Stumpage 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 methodof 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.! 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. 1The 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 zwzzd 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. 3 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. dX: 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 zesthetic 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. Inthe 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. 3 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, z.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 circumscribing 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- ships, 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 codpera- 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 R 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.? 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 adsoluze 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, z.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. _ R; 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 170 trees per acre; he must keep out cattle, sheep, and goats until the trees are four inches in diameter; and whenever any of the 170 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 guzd 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 Seeks = 44 cents, and the value of the soil as 1.05 — 1 wood producer under the conditions named would 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- MEEFHODS 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 argued 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 sti!l mainly exploiting natural resources. Yet a prominent writer on the subject of import duties on wood ! 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. 267 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 I2 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 essentzally 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 preéminently 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 gua 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! 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- 1See 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, z.¢. 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 guzd pro quo, a compensation, direct or indirect. It has frequently been proposed in the United States to force the lumberman to burn his débris 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 medizeval idea, that the forest is more or less com- mon property (“guza 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, codperation 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 medizval 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 pretor’’ prevails. Whenever a property owner thinks or fears that the mismanagement of his neighbor’s property is endangering his own property he may call fora 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 erzstence, 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 fizanczal 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 codperation, 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 eorecl 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 called into requisition are definitely stated by law. If the question of protection of forests be once 270 ++ +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 pretor” 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. 271 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 272 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 quai- 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, codpera- 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 eh ow lel oI eee Imperial forests . . . nie EN he ae ee ee Communal forests (eee see br Ret Bsc emigre ie We age SeePE SEM TOLESES 5 yp wl pp * Of, He ee ee Pe MTERS 8p pg ie pe He Mes pe pO eM een ee eee eee RIECSS 5 5p" Vi’ ee cee te aw a eh ede 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 $1 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. 3 | 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 (alsoin 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 I1.1 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 Wiirtemberg, 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 off- 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,” z.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 of 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 1808, 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 PoRiot 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 Wiirtem- 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 paciaes — (a) Clearing of forest requires a state permit: illegal clearing is punished with a fine. (2) 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. (2) 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 14 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 Ziirich is added to show how an intensively man- aged small forest property under most favorable conditions of market compares with the more ex- 325 FOREST POLICIES OF FOREIGN NATIONS. ob'b ivr'r jot’ jorz [hier | ¥S Joos gz tI OO. iz" Sis jtgr ick" ob |bS'1 o60'r | vob teite = ta le’ 1s9q° | ZE jose o$L*e | obo'r pore ice". ize" -s2.6 > Senta eee All;ether conifers.” <=... 0. Suny ke Oe or altogether 30,000 million feet of coniferous ma- terial, leaving for all the hardwoods 10,000 million feet, of which the oaks furnished 3000 million feet. The largest part of the cut was furnished by the Southern states and the Lake Region, each with 13,000 million feet, New England and the North Atlantic states furnishing 6000 million, the hard- wood region of the Central states 5000 million, the Pacific states 4000 million, the rest, of 2000 million feet, coming from scattered localities. Since that time the general relation of the dif- ferent regions has remained the same, but the rela- tive amounts have changed, the White Pine cut of the Lake Region has been considerably reduced owing to waning supplies, the Southern and Pacific coast cut has been increased. (For further statis- tics, see Appendix.) Our principal and most important supplies, then, are found in the White Pine of the lake states and the yellow pines of the Gulf and South Atlantic states. The Atlantic forest, as we have stated, is essen- tially a forest of deciduous-leaved trees, in which the conifers occur mixed or in small bodies. Only FOREST CONDITIONS. 351 where the soil becomes sandy, the drainage being rapid, are to be found extensive pineries composed of these frugal species to the exclusion of the more fastidious hardwoods. In the rich loamy soils of the central agricultural states — Ohio, Indiana, IIli- nois, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Missouri— the coni- fers are of less importance or mostly entirely absent, the hardwoods in greatest variety and most excel- lent development occupying the ground exclusively. The North Atlantic forest, north and east of this purely hardwood region, originally contained every- where the valuable White Pine among the oaks and maples, Beech, and Basswood, to which farther north the Yellow Birch, replacing the oaks, is asso- ciated. But now the merchantable pine areas of importance are confined to the northern part of Wisconsin and Minnesota, with a remnant in Mich- igan, although some scattered pine, especially young growth, is found in all the other Northeastern states, and small bodies of old timber on the Alleghanies even as far south as North Carolina. Similarly, hemlock is distributed over the whole area, but the large bodies are mainly confined to western New York and Pennsylvania, soon to be exhausted, while the spruce, so much prized for paper-pulp, is found in quantities mainly in the northern New England states and the Adirondacks of northern New York. The northern parts of this white pine region furnish also a valuable yellow pine, the so-called Red or Norway Pine, which is often included in the 352 ECONOMICS OF FORESTRY. estimates of White Pine, although its quality is quite different. So important a part does the White Pine play in our timber supply that speculation as to the amount available has occupied the mind of the lumber world for many years. The census of 1880 at- tempted to secure an estimate of timber standing at that time; the estimates then published indicat- ing twenty years’ supply at once showed their influence upon price for stumpage and upon stand- ards of merchantable material. By reduction of this standard, by increase of means of transportation, by more careful cutting, sawing, grading, and handling, and partly by new growth, the supplies have been considerably length- ened, so that in 1897 the writer, compiling later estimates,! could still find in the three main white- pine-producing states nearly 40,000 million feet, which with a greatly reduced cut will last a few years longer, when the king of the woods will have been reduced to an inferior rank. In the same document the supplies of all conif- erous interchangeable material, standing ready for the axe in the Northern states, was estimated at a round 100,000 million feet, while the annual cut at that time was placed at round 18,000 million feet. Since then the conception of what is mer- chantable timber has greatly changed, small-sized 1 See Senate Document, No. 40, 55th Congress, Ist session, 1897, “White Pine Timber Supplies.” FOREST CONDITIONS. 353 logs and small-sized trees have become salable, the cut, at least of White Pine, has been considerably diminished, and hence supplies will last still for years to come. In addition, on the areas which in earlier years had been culled less severely, the trees that were left have put on growth sufficient to become marketable (second growth!); and occasion- ally also natural volunteer reproduction has come, furnishing new supplies. Nevertheless, even if the estimates were doubled and quadrupled, the time of practical exhaustion of this resource will be upon us before recuperative measures have been fairly started. The Southern forest, although showing greater variety and number of species, does not add many hardwood species of economic value, which are not represented in the Northern forest. But in conif- erous species it furnishes invaluable supplies by a group of hardwooded yellow pines, the Bald Cy- press, and to a lesser extent the Pencil Cedar or Juniper. The sandy soils in which the Southern states along the Atlantic and Gulf coast abound are occu- pied by vast pineries, in which for hundreds and thousands of square miles the hardwood species are almost absent except in the loamy hummocks and river-bottoms. The most important and valuable of these pines is the Longleaf or Georgia Pine, which predominates over the largest area in a belt paral- leling the coast from North Carolina to eastern 2A 354 ECONOMICS OF FORESTRY. Texas, varying in width from 60 to 150 miles. In its southern range it is joined by the Cuban Pine, of equal or even greater value, although in the market not differentiated, and by the Loblolly Pine ; in its northern range it extends into the mixed forest which covers a belt of 20 to 60 miles more, in which the Longleaf Pine is associated with Short- leaf Pine, in the market called North Carolina Pine, with Loblolly or Oldfield Pine (called Virginia Pine), and with hardwoods. North of this belt of mixed forest the pine area is increased by the Shortleaf Pine, occasionally asso- ciated with the Loblolly, occupying the sandy soils. Although the Longleaf and Cuban pines are supe- rior in quality, the other two have not much less value and application in the arts, being often sub- stituted ; and hence we can consider the whole pine belt as a unity, an area of about 150,000,000 acres, within which these pines do or did occur in mer- chantable quantities. Deducting the farm area and making allowance for hardwood areas interspersed between the pineries, the pine-producing area is probably not quite two-thirds of the area of distri- bution, or round 90,000,000 acres. The available supplies of standing timber were estimated by the writer seven years ago at between 200,000 and 300,000 million feet. At that time the annual cut exceeded 7,000 million feet, and as it has con- stantly and rapidly increased, the waning white- pine supplies stimulating the Southern lumber in- FOREST CONDITIONS. 355 dustry, it is probably safe to reduce this stand by at least 70,000 million, so that at best, less than the lower estimate is remaining to satisfy a demand of now over 10,000 million feet annually. We must again and again accentuate that these figurings are neither mathematics nor statistics in the sense of the enumerator, but are calculations of possibilities or probabilities sufficiently close to give an insight into the general situation. By changing standards, by cutting more closely, by avoiding waste in logging and sawing, by avoiding extravagance in the use of the materials, we may lengthen the time during which these stores may last, but unless they are replaced by reproduction, they must give out within much less time than it takes to grow a log tree, for the timber which we now cut is mostly 150 to 300 years and more old, and none of these pines make suitable sawlogs in less than 60 to 120 years. What under prevailing practices the chance for spontaneous natural reproduction and the condition of the cut-over areas are, may be learned from read- ing the excellent monograph on ‘The Southern Pines,’ by Dr. Charles Mohr.!. The practice of -annual firing of the woods, to improve the grazing, has in most places effectually prevented renewal of the pines. One of the forest industries using a by-product, 1«¢The Timber Pines of the Southern United States,” Bulletin No. 13, Division of Forestry, U. S. Dept. of Agriculture, 1896. 356 ECONOMICS OF FORESTRY. which is derived from bleeding the Longleaf Pine, the naval store industry, producing now values to the amount of $20,000,000 per annum, has also done much to reduce supplies and reproduction. While it might have been carried on, as it is in France, without injury to timber or young growth, the crude methods employed have destroyed much timber before the saw miller was ready to use it, and much more has fallen a prey to the destructive fires which have followed the turpentine gatherer. Besides the pines there is found in the swamps of the Southern states another valuable conifer, the Bald Cypress. The area occupied by this species is naturally small, and with an annual cut which may now be much more than 5,000,000 feet, it can be soon exhausted, and the reproduction, which is naturally less ready on lands under water for several months in the year, may be counted as ntl. Of hardwoods we have large areas throughout the entire Atlantic forest, and as our consump- tion is relatively small, and the hardwoods repro- duce readily, their future is easily provided for. In the more settled parts of the New England and North Atlantic states and on the northern Appa- lachians of Pennsylvania and New York, the timber forest of hardwoods has mostly been supplanted by the coppice, producing only firewood and small dimensions, but it will be an easy task to change it back into timber forest. FOREST CONDITIONS. 357 It is in the coniferous materials that we are most concerned, for they form three-fourths of our consumption, and their reproduction in competition with the hardwoods and the fires is not promising. Some ignorant people —ignorant both as to re- quirements of the wood industries and as to the condition and character of our forest resources — have claimed that the natural growth of young trees, without any attention, following the opera- tions of lumbermen, would suffice to replace that which is removed and would continue to furnish the required material. J The observant student, not to speak of the pro- fessional forester, can readily see that culling the valuable kinds and leaving the inferior tree weeds in possession of the soil almost entirely prevents in many cases reproduction of the valuable species. In other cases where the production of valuable kinds does take place, as, for instance, with the Southern pines, whenever the young growth is not killed by fires, the development is so unsatis- factory, that where with proper attention a new crop might be available in seventy to a hundred years, twice the time will be required to make clear timber of quality. In most cases recurring fires retard this natural re-growth still further or prevent it altogether. Of the character and conditions of the Western forests we have almost more detailed information than of the Atlantic forest, thanks to the various 358 ECONOMICS OF FORESTRY. government surveys and railroad-land cruisings, and the examinations of. the federal forest reservations by agents of the United States Geological Survey. These forests are all coniferous, the broad-leaved trees playing an insignificant part, although the Pacific Coast forests contain some valuable oak, ash, and maple. The Western forests are mainly confined to the mountain slopes, varying in char- acter with latitude and altitude, z.e. with the varia- tion in moisture and temperature conditions. We have seen that probably 50 per cent of the wood- land area may be ruled out from consideration as timber producing, so that roughly only round 100,000,000 acres remain for that purpose, one- half on the Rocky Mountains, the other half on the Pacific coast. If this were all untouched, we might have found for the Rocky Mountain forest a stand of not exceeding 200,000 million and for the Pacific coast forest 1,000,000 million feet, but: from these stores during our occupation of these territories at least 200,000,000 people have drawn their annual requirement of probably not less than 500 feet, and that in a wasteful- manner ; a large amount of material has been exported to neighboring states and across the sea, and a still larger amount has been destroyed by fire, so that, gathering indications from the reports of the Geo- logical Survey, the amount of standing timber, ac- cording to present standards and under present methods of utilization, will probably be less than FOREST CONDITIONS. 359 700,000 million feet. It must be understood, that especially on the Pacific coast, where lumbering is carried on not merely to supply local wants but for export, the most wasteful use of the timber is forced upon the lumberman by the destructive competition, the distance from market, with high freight rates, reducing the material actually market- able by 50 to 80 per cent and more below Eastern standards, the merchantable diameter limit in the Puget Sound regions being at present twenty-two inches. Even in the Black Hills, in lumbering the pine of the forest reserve, mostly for local use, it has been estimated that 50 per cent of each tree cut for lumber is left in the woods, fully one and one- half cord for every thousand feet utilized. Throughout the Rocky Mountain forest the hard- wooded Yellow or Bull Pine is the most important tree, often occurring in pure stands as on the plateau forest of Arizona. To this are joined the Douglas or Red Fir, becoming more prevalent and better developed toward the north, the Engelman Spruce and several other inferior spruces and firs, and occasionally a hemlock. Toward the north, in Idaho, where the timber improves in development and the forest in density, a white pine, the Silver Pine, and a larch of pro- digious dimensions, form most valuable stands, together with the Giant Cedar. Thousands of square miles are covered with the Lodge-pole Pine in pure stands almost entirely useless for timber, 360 ECONOMICS OF FORESTRY. although furnishing fire wood and small dimension material. Thousands of square miles of the high elevations are occupied by the Subalpine Fir and scrubby pines of no commercial value ; in addition fire has not only damaged but destroyed thousands of square miles. The following figures abstracted from the United States Geological Report cited are illustrative. In the Priest Forest Reserve, which comprises about 1000 square miles, of which 850 were found timber- producing, at least 70 per cent of the timber once standing is estimated as destroyed by fires dur- ing the last thirty years, a loss in value of over $100,000,000. “ Excepting a small area of about 1600 acres along the Lower West Fork, there is no body of timber of 1000 acres or even 500 acres extent not scorched by fire. In the lower zones there are over 200,000 acres on which the destruc- tion is practically complete. In the subalpine zone at least 40,000 of the 60,000 acres have been more or less injured by fire.” In the Bitterroot Reserve, which contains over 4,000,000 acres, of 1,000,000 acres examined only 60 per cent was found wooded, half with the com- paratively valueless Lodge-pole Pine, 20 per cent with inferior Red Fir, and only 30 per cent with the valuable Yellow Pine, over 20 per cent of the origi- nal stand having been destroyed by fire in the last forty years. On the east slopes of the Cascades and Sierras FOREST CONDITIONS. 361 and throughout the Interior Basin arid conditions prevail, and hence wherever forest areas occur, the trees stand open and are stunted, and gener- ally of no commercial value. Yet the open pine forest of the Blue Mountains, of the slopes and plateau of eastern Oregon, made up of Bull Pine, furnishes at least a welcome local timber supply ; and the northern part of Washington, where moisture conditions improve, shows the effect in permitting an extension of the Rocky Mountain forest type of northern Idaho, with Bull Pine and Silver Pine of commercial value accompanying the comparatively valueless Lodge-pole Pine. The Pacific coast forest presents four types. The northern type, covering the west slope of the Cascade and the Coast ranges through Washington and Oregon, derives its value mainly from the Douglas or Red Fir, and is characterized both by density of startd and individual development and by dense undergrowth in response to the great humidity of the climate. Associated with the fir is found a hemlock of not much inferior develop- ment, but at present left unused, and the Giant Cedar. In the higher elevations some excellent true firs, Silver Pine, Engelman, and other spruces add variety, and along the seashore the Sitka Spruce and Port Orford Cedar of limited distribution, while Yellow or Bull Pine occupies the sandy flats and drier slopes. In its extension over the Coast Range of California the type changes somewhat, although 362 ECONOMICS OF FORESTRY. the same species are present and the density is alike, but the Redwood, congener to the Big Tree, is added, and, in its narrow, long belt of distribution from Oregon to the Santa Cruz Mountains, replaces in importance the Douglas Fir, which seems to lose in value in its more southern range. The extension of the Cascade forest over the Sierra Nevada shows a much greater change, al- though the same species continue in the composi- tion with the same magnificent development, but the Sugar Pine, a congener of the Michigan White Pine, of ponderous development, is added and be- comes the main and most valuable timber tree, and the forest grows open, the undergrowth more scanty. Here the giant Big Trees occur in occasional groves, of historic interest more than of commercial value. Toward the south, both on the Coast Range and on the Sierra, the value of timber growth greatly diminishes, becoming reduced in size, the stand opening more and more; finally, in the southern ranges of the San Gabriel, San Bernardino, and San Jacinto mountains, the timber of value, Yellow and Sugar Pine and Red Fir, occurs only in groves among the brush and chaparral which covers most of the dry slopes. We have seen that the timber-producing area of this Pacific coast forest may not be estimated at more than round 60,000,000 acres, containing somewhat over 600,000 million feet of merchant- able timber. Upon the basis of a compilation of FOREST CONDITIONS. 363 timber cruisings of railroad companies, the United States Chief Geographer has for the states of Washington and Oregon placed the merchantable timber at less than 350,000 million feet on 38,000,000 acres, which appears to us a rather low estimate even with the high standard at pres- ent prevailing. Timber cruisings are usually from 20 to 50 per cent below the actualities. The writer still believes that it would be per- fectly safe for purposes of this general discussion to raise this estimate 20 per cent, and, applying the same stumpage for California on a timber-produc- ing area of 18,000,000 acres, to arrive at the above figure, leaving 180,000 million feet of the amount credited to the Western states on page 52 to be found in the Rocky Mountains and scattered regions of the West. Indeed, with a change in standards and in log- ging practice, and especially with a more rational utilization of all the useful timber, this estimate ‘may readily be doubled or even trebled, as the writer had done in the Senate document cited, when comparing supplies with the consumption of the whole country. | Since the cut of lumber in the Pacific coast states does not exceed at present 5,000,000,000 feet, no immediate apprehension regarding supplies would be justified. Yet, when we find that the value of the mill-product of the three states in- creased according to the census from $8,000,000 in 364 ECONOMICS OF FORESTRY. 1880 to $30,000,000 in 1890, and to $54,000,000 in 1900, the security for the future is not as assured as the mathematical statistician figures out from the given data, especially since it is well known that forest fires keep in check useful reproduction and also consume or make useless considerable quantities of standing timber. (See note on page 336.) Unsatisfactory as is our statistical knowledge of our forest resources, it is sufficient to arouse most serious apprehension as to future supplies. We have, in.the forests of the United States out- side of Alaska, a supply of coniferous material most unevenly distributed and not exceeding 1,200,000 million feet to satisfy a demand of at present 30,000 million feet per annum and con- stantly growing. Even if the estimates of supplies were doubled, and if fires were stopped, it must be evident to any student of the field that the repro- duction, left to nature alone, cannot replace in time our requirements. The argument for the adoption of immediate recuperative and conservative measures from the supply point of view, in which the writer for a quarter century has used his breath and pen with indifferent result, would appear well sus- tained. Small beginnings toward the solution of the prob- lems which arise from this condition of things have been made, but the importance of the forestry FOREST CONDITIONS. 365 movement has by no means been fully and gener- ally realized, as we shall see in the next chapter; the difficulty of changing existing usages, lines of procedure, and modes of thought require unusual effort and require time. For the future, it is in the oe of much more importance to know the acreage available for timber growing and the capacity of production of that acreage than the actually available supplies. These, no matter how large, every intelligent man will admit, must sooner or later be exhausted, and we must rely upon the reproduction. The present acreage must, to be sure, change until all agricul- turally available lands have been turned into farms and all lands unfit for farming have been turned back into forest growth. But if we accept as mere indications of possibili- ties the present acreage of timber land on the At- lantic side as 400,000,000 acres, and assume that it can be made to produce at the same rate as the German forests under good management, it would be able to supply continuously the present con- sumption of 25,000,000,000 cubic feet. The most important, most immediately needful change in thought and practice, without which forestry, the provision for future supplies, cannot be practically applied, is that in regard to forest fires. Forest fires are the bane of the forests of the United States—the most destructive agency; for while, with the exception of the Western forests, 366 ECONOMICS ‘OF “FORESTRY. the yearly conflagrations destroy comparatively small amounts of standing timber, they kill the young growth, the hope of the future, and destroy even the soil, the fertility, an accumulation of cen- turies of decaying leaf-mould. In comparison with our figures of dona fide con- sumption the direct loss of material through fires would appear, from such incomplete statistics as are at hand, as a small matter, perhaps 2 to 3 per cent of the total value of forest products, but the indirect loss can hardly be overestimated ; besides, the seeming impotency of coping with this destruc- tive agency discourages more conservative forest management on the part of forest owners, who are, under the circumstances, naturally induced to shorten the risk and turn into cash as quickly as possible what is valuable in the forest growth, leav- ing the balance to its fate. That, with the reckless exploitation of our virgin woods, accompanied by these forest fires, which have become notorious throughout the world, not only timber supplies have been decimated, but the protective function of the forest cover on moun- tain slopes has been considerably injured in many places, goes without saying. | Although it is even more difficult to adduce defi- nite data regarding this influence, the argument of the pernicious influence of forest destruction on waterflow and loss of soil has found much more ready ears among the public. FOREST CONDITIONS. 367 Indeed it is often used in the most absurd, extravagant, and unintelligent manner. In the Eastern forest, especially the mountain forest, wholesale denudation is comparatively rare, since the lumberman usually culls merely; repro- duction at least of a shrubby vegetation is most rapid, and there would be little danger of losing the protective cover through lumbering operations if the fires were kept out. Even if a fire goes through the slash, it is not many years before a new vegetation has established itself, and only repeated fires can produce a real denudation. The effects are, of course, variable according to a variety of circumstances and conditions, the time of occurrence of the fires, the amount of débris to feed the flames, the character of the soil and its eover,. ctc. While the mountain forests on the Atlantic side show only here and there really serious detriment to soil and soil cover due to lumbering operations and fires, injudicious clearing for farm use and improper management of farm lands are much more frequently the causes of undue erosion and soil washes. Signs of the deleterious influences of undue deforestation are visible in all parts of the Eastern United States, and a chapter could readily be filled with detailed descriptions of regions which have especially suffered. 368 ECONOMICS OF FORESTRY. Sand-dunes have been created by forest removal on all parts of our sea-shore; uneven water stages have been aggravated in all the older parts. of the Union; soil washes can be seen in all the mountain and hill country, especially in the Southern states, with their abandoned or mismanaged farm lands. In the Western mountains, where fires are more destructive on account of the coniferous composi- tion and the dry climate, and where the pasturing of sheep in the forests prevents ready reéstablish- ment of vegetation, the results are even more readily observed. We are experiencing droughts, we are suffering from floods, we have uneven seasons; but how much of these conditions is to be ascribed to our forest conditions, how much to general cosmic causes, nobody can determine. At any rate these conditions can be discussed and corrected only for definite local points. We have, perhaps, nowhere as yet come to such state of affairs as those re- ported from the high Alps of France, Switzerland, Austria, and Italy, but a continuance of our present disregard of the soil cover must inevitably lead to them. Meanwhile the supply question is the more im- portant, and attention to this, leading to the practice of silviculture, will naturally also incidentally cor- rect the evils of denudation, CHAPTER: APE THE FORESTRY MOVEMENT IN THE UNITED STATES. From the very beginning of the settlement of the country some wise heads recognized that atten- tion to satisfactory forest conditions is as neces- sary as attention to other economic conditions. William Penn, the founder and first legislator of Pennsylvania, as early as 1682, stipulated in his ordinances, regarding the disposal of lands, that for every five acres cleared of forest growth one acre should be left to forest. In 1640, only two years after its settlement, the inhabitants of Exeter, N. H., adopted a general order for the regulation of the cutting of oak timber, then a most valuable export material, a precaution which other towns followed. In 1701, the governor of New York reports 40 mills in the province of New York, and referring to one working with 12 saws, he adds, ‘‘A few such mills will quickly destroy all the woods in the Province at a reasonable dis- tance from them.” And he recommended that. each person who removed a tree should pay for planting four or five young trees, as the Russians do to-day.} 1 See « History of the Lumber Industry in the State of New York,” by Colonel W. T. Fox, 6th Rept. of F. F. G. Com., 1901. 2B 369 370 ECONOMICS OF FORESTRY. In 1708, the provincial assembly of New Hampshire forbade the cutting of mast trees on ungranted lands under a penalty of £100, and at that early time the province had a surveyor- general of forests, appointed by royal authority, for the purpose of preventing depredations upon the timber. No doubt this early regard to the timber supplies in the face of plenty came largely through the momentum of education, suggested by the usages and methods of the mother coun- tries, where forest protection had already become an established policy, and even forestry practices existed. A century later, real want seems to have ap- peared, or at least anticipation of it. For, in 1795, the Society for the Promotion of Agricuiture, Arts, and Manufactures published a report on the best mode of preserving and increasing growth of tim- bers, an outcome of an inquiry by circular letter issued in 1791; and in 1804, the Massachusetts Society for the Promotion of Agriculture offered prizes for successful forest plantations; while the federal government, between the years 1799 and 1831, appropriated money for the purchase and passed legislation for the protection of live- oak timber, suitable for navy purposes, under which acts it acquired some 250,000 acres in Ala- bama, Florida, Louisiana, and Mississippi, — not as a matter of general forest policy, but to secure sufficient supplies of a special material, restricted FORESTRY MOVEMENT IN UNITED STATES. 371 in amount, and supposed to be a continued neces- sity for building war ships.} We can now smile at the concern expressed so early by writers in public prints, with regard to the threatened exhaustion of forest supplies. But it must be understood that the extent of our forest domain was then entirely unknown, the population was confined mainly to the Eastern coast country, and in the absence of railroad communication, only the supplies adjacent to rivers and sea were avail- able, and, just as in Europe, the fuel question was uppermost, as long as coal had not yet been de- veloped; hence location of supplies close to centres of civilization was of more moment. With the rapid development of the country, and the opening up of means of transportation, such as the Erie Canal, the apprehensions regarding supplies seem to have vanished. During the active period of expansion, from 1820 to 1860, when the population more than quadrupled, over one and a half million farms were established, mainly hewn from the forest, the timber in the absence of a ready market being largely burned in the log pile; and with the necessity of constantly having to subdue tree growth, not only a feeling of inexhaustible resources and hence of careless- ness, but almost a real pleasure in destruction 1 Laws to punish malicious and wilful incendiarism and some- times also careless firing of the woods were about this period en- acted in almost every state. 572 ECONOMICS OF FORESTRY. seems to have been inculcated in the early settlers. Then came the period of railroad building and the settling of the Western prairies and plains, after 1860, and then only the enormous lumber business, as we know it to-day, came into existence. The difference in the volume and character of the business of forest exploitation is most readily seen by comparing the census figures at different periods. In 1840, there were reported 31,560 lumber mills, with a total product valued at $12,943,507, or a little over $400 per mill. Small country mills, run like gristmills and often in con- nection with such, sawed to order for home con- sumption, or sent material to the mouth of the river, to be carried by vessel to home and foreign markets. By 1870, a change had already become apparent, when the product per mill was $6500, which in 1890 had grown to $19,000, or about three times the value of 1870 with only 21,011 mills reported. In 1865, the state of New York still furnished more lumber than any other state; it now is seven- teenth in the list with less than one billion feet. In 1868, the golden age of lumbering had arrived in Michigan, and this state is still second with over three billion feet; in 1871, rafts filled the Wisconsin River, and the state of Wisconsin is now the largest producer; yet the 30 mills of Eau Claire, 20 mills at Marathon, 20 mills at Fond du Lac, which in 1875 cut millions of feet, are now all gone. FORESTRY MOVEMENT IN UNITED STATES. 373 Besides the concentration of the lumber busi- ness into large establishments which these figures show, there are other interesting changes indicated in the census figures, which have a bearing upon the question of the need of a forest policy and the cause for its development. While in 1890 the efficiency of the single mill establishments had in- creased to three times what it was in 1870, and to nearly fifty times that of 1840, the total product had also increased in the last twenty years nearly three times, but the capital employed in the lum- ber industry had increased four and one-third times ; and while capital became less efficient with concen- tration, the unit product of labor also became less efficient in spite of the improvement of machinery, every dollar of capital producing less result by over 40 per cent in 1890, in the value of the product, and every dollar of wages producing less result by over 12 per cent, but the cost of raw material had increased over 16 per cent,—all these are signs pointing to the deterioration and exhaustion of supplies at least in the principal producing regions. The census of 1900 is, at present writing, not ac- cessible in a form permitting such comparisons, except that we can note an apparent increase in value of product of nearly 30 per cent over that of 1890. (See Appendix for further details.) It would be difficult to set a date or mark an event from which the change in the methods of the lumber industry, now such a stupendous factor 374 ECONOMICS OF FORESTRY. in forest decimation, might be reckoned; it came as gradually or as fast as railway systems de- veloped, and made accessible the vast fields of supply in the northwestern Lake states just as the supplies of the Eastern states began to weaken.1 By 1882 the Saginaw Valley had reached the climax of its production, and the lumber industry of the great Northwest, with a cut of eight billion feet of white pine alone, was in full blast. South- ern development began much later to assume large proportions, but by the present time the lumber product of the Southern states has grown to pro- portions equal, if not superior, to those of the Northern states. No wonder that those observing this rapid deci- mation of our forest supplies and the incredible wastefulness and additional destruction by fire, with no attention to the aftergrowth, began again to sound the note of alarm. Besides the writings in the daily press and other non-official publications, we find the reports of the United States Depart- ment of Agriculture more and more frequently calling attention to the subject. In the report issued by the Patent Office as early as 1849, we find the following significant language in a discussion on the influence of forests on water- flow and their rapid destruction : — “The waste of valuable timber in the United 1 See “American Lumber,” by B. E. Fernow, in “One Hun- dred Years of American Commerce,” D. O. Haynes & Co., 1895. FORESTRY MOVEMENT IN UNITED STATES. 375 States, to say nothing of firewood, will hardly be- gin to be appreciated until our population reaches 50,000,000. Then the folly and shortsightedness of this age will meet with a degree of censure and reproach not pleasant to contemplate.” The report of the Department of Agriculture for 1860 contains a long article by J. G. Cooper on “<. | gene | 170 1890 . . . | 2,892 | 128.5 | 1898 . . ~ | 4,435 | 286 an increase in 40 years by 400 per cent in amount, in 20 years by over 350 per cent in values, besides a considerable increase in its home production, as is shown in Chapter X, while the population increased only by about 38 percent. These figures would indicate in general an increase of 5 to Io times in per capita consumption; increase in prices accounting only to a limited degree for increase in the figures. In spite of the substitution of iron and stone for timber wood and of coal for fuel wood, the wood consumption in Germany has increased from about 1,625 million cubic feet in 1872 to 2,051 million in 1898. The consumption of fuel wood, to be sure, has lately decreased, but not in proportion to the coal mined, for the annual consumption of wood and coal per capita was as shown on opposite page. (This table leaves out importations, which add from 3 to 6 cubic feet, mainly to timber wood). NOTES. A19 Timber wood. Fuel wood. Coal. Cubic ft. | Per cent. | Cubic ft. | Per cent.| Tons. Per cent. 1872-75 | 13 100 27 100"; 1062 100 1876-80 | 12.4 95 26.3 95 1.169 IIo 1881-85 | 12.4 95 24.8 92 1.445 136 1886-90 | 13.4 103 23.8 88 1.686 159 I18gI-95 | 14 108 22.4 83 1.939 183 1896 14.5 III 22 62. |, 2.153 203 P. 22. Proportion of Wood consumed for Necessities. — In this connection it would have been proper to point out that this consumption refers to the net wood product. The un- avoidable very large waste, which occurs in the shaping of the raw material for use, and which in most cases is a total loss, amounts to almost 50 per cent, —that is to say, of the cubic contents of a round average log only half the wood falls from the saw in useful size, the balance being turned into sawdust, slabs, edgings, etc., which only under special conditions can be made useful. In addition, a large amount of wood in the shape of top and branches is left in the woods unused, unless a dense population or special industrial development makes its use possible and profitable; this loss may amount to another 20-30 per cent, so that of the wood of a forest-grown tree often not more than 20 to 30 per cent appears in useful shape. The following table shows how, in the usual mill practice, the loss varies with the size of material, and, at the same time, the value per cubic foot of forest-grown material increases with the size of log, a financial argument against the cutting of the smaller trees and also an economic argument for the urgency of devising uses for the mill waste and forest waste. Much of this waste can be utilized, but is usually thrown aside through ignorance of its value, or lack of handling facilities. 420 APPENDIX. VALUE ACCRETION AND WASTE OF Woop. Contents in cubic feet. Price at eg per M ft. Dies ‘ log Waste ptt} o TS ch a ee make Tp eae Mill aaa ace Rar ; log. product. ee Genta: 8 3.5 L3 63 9 2.6 12 7:9 - ae 3° 3-8 16 14 8 43 60 43 20 21.7 14 35 132 4.8 24 91:3 21 33 150 4.8 30 49 35 28 253 5-2 oe 87 67 23 486 5.6 50 136.2 IIo 20 993 5.8 The second column gives the actual cubic contents; the third gives the feet board measure, as noted in the most favorable log scale translated into cubic feet by dividing by 12; the third column shows the amount of waste experienced at the saw; the last column shows what the cubic foot actually in the log has been paid for, if a stumpage price per M feet board measure prevailed. P. 27. Wood for Fuel in the United States.— The census of 1880 made a comprehensive canvass of the fuel wood con- sumption, which showed that 33,375,000 persons used wood for domestic fuel at the rate of 41 cords per capita, while the total consumption for domestic, railroad, steamboat, and manufacturing purposes was nearly 146 million cords, the total valued at $322,000,000, or 2.9 cords per capita, nearly twelve times the German consumption. No statistics are at hand to estimate the present consumption of wood for fuel in the United States, but there are no reasons to assume that it has decreased appreciably in spite of the fact of the enormous increase in coal consumption, which is mainly due to indus- NOTES. 421 trial development. According to the United States Treasury Statistical Bureau’s Summary, the world’s production of coal rose from 144 million tons in 1860 to 450 million tons in 1883, and to 866 million tons in Igol, an increase in 40 years of over 500 per cent, and since 1820, when coal was first more generally recognized as fuel, the increase has been 4500 per cent. Five-sixths of the present consumption was furnished for the last 30 years by Great Britain and Germany, and Belgium, the largest consumer of coal per capita after Great Britain. The coal production of the United States, which in 1870 furnished but 15 per cent of the world’s supply, has grown steadily until in I901 it represented, with 295 million tons, 34 per cent, outstripping Great Britain and Germany. What the substitution of coal for fuel means may be realized by translating the coal consumption into wood consumption. The fuel value of a ton of coal may be set equal to about 100 cubic feet of wood; hence the 170 million tons of coal now consumed per annum in the United States supplant 17 billion cubic feet of wood. To raise this amount of wood continu- ously not less than 300 million acres, more than half our pres- ent acreage (at 56 cubic feet per acre), would have to be kept under good forestry management. P. 27. Cellulose and Wood Pulp Industry. — Wood pulp is either mechanically ground or chemically prepared, when it is called cellulose, or chemical fibre. Most of it is used for the manufacture of paper. The progress of the wood pulp indus- try in the United States has been marvellous, as shown by the growth in daily capacity of running wood pulp mills. While in 1881 this was less than 800,000 Ibs., it had more than doubled in 1887, and again more than doubled within two years in 1889, increasing steadily from that time. _ The following figures, taken from Lockwood’s Pager Trade Journal, include both mechanical pulp and chemical fibre, but do not take into account small amounts produced by paper mills directly : — 422 APPENDIX. Ibs. Ibs. 1889. - 3,814,600 180K.) 2 - 7,599,900 1890.4 « 4,141,700 FOODS: 4). - 8,330,400 LOL), 2 «.... 507,700 Fog0, 4. » 9,509,000 1892)... «bye ae 1Ba7 <>) . 10,438,000 1893 - + 6,495,400 From data collected by the twelfth census the daily capacity for 1899 may be estimated at round 12 million pounds. In other words, in the last ten years the capacity of the mills has been trebled. The census statistics unfortunately are not collected in a manner which makes those of one census comparable with those of others, as they either combine or separate paper and pulp, the raw and the finished product. This combination is explained by the fact that many mills produce their own pulp. Only the census of 1870, 1880, and 1890 separate the pulp business, showing respectively value of products of round $49,000,000, $57,000,000 and $79,000,000 for wood pulp alone. For the census of 1900, the manufactures of paper and pulp were reported together as representing a product of $127,326,- 162, from 763 active establishments and 29 idle ones. There is no possibility of differentiating precisely how much of this value is to be credited to wood pulp, but apparently only $28,000,000 are so credited as the cost of the wood materials to the manufacturers, while only $14,000,000 represent other materials, and $27,000,000 are for chemicals, fuel, etc. The total product of the wood pulp is given in amount as round 1180 tons, of which nearly one-half was produced by the es- tablishments using it, about one-half of the total being ground, the other chemically prepared pulp. In another table it is re- ported that 1,986,310 cords of wood were used by establish- ments using wood, and also 630,000 tons purchased wood materials, which may in part have been covered by importation. The amount of other paper stock used is only 1,000,000 tons, valued at $15,000,000, indicating that about one-half of our paper is made of wood. NOTES. 423 We may be safe from these figures to estimate the total wood consumption for this one manufacture, paper, as round 23 million cords, in addition to a certain amount of fuel wood and an import, in spite of high tariff rates, of about 70,000 tons in excess of exports, worth between $2,000,000 and $3,000,000. The wood value of this industry is then over $30,000,000. Spruce constitutes about 76 per cent of all the wood used ; in this amount, however, a considerable proportion of balsam fir, and lately hemlock, is included; 13 per cent is credited to poplar, and 11 percent to otherkinds. (For a brief but com- prehensive description of the industry, see Report for 1890, Division of Forestry, United States Department of Agricul- ture.) To secure the round 2 million cords of spruce alone, almost entirely cut in the northeastern states, at least 200,000 acres of virgin mixed woods must be annually culled, and over 2 million acres in pure spruce stands would have to be main- tained under good forestry management to secure this product continuously. The growth of this industry in European countries is not less remarkable, as may be seen from the fact that while in _ 1870 there were in Germany and Austria 92 wood pulp mills, in 1890 there were 836 reported, and 911 in 1896. In Sweden the export of wood pulp rose from 9003 tons in 1881 to 133,- 889 tons in 1895. In Germany the output of wood pulp con- sumes now over 500,000 cords of wood per annum, and, in the light of the anxieties which have lately been aroused in the United States regarding the enormous increase in this drain of our forest resources, it is significant to read the comment of one of the leading foresters of Germany: “The advantage of this industry for forest management is that the small sizes of coniferous wood, which could formerly be sold only as fuel wood at small prices or could not be sold at all, now have found a ready market, and by this competition the wood prices, especially for small wood, have risen. A Profitable forest 424 APPENDIX. management for private owners has in many places become possible only through the wood pulp industry.” This would indicate that in Germany it is the small-sized material, the tops, which go into this manufacture, while with us the logs are used, the tops are left in the woods, and no provision for re-growth is made. P. 28. Substitution of Other Materials. — Whatever the reasoning regarding the possible substitution of other mate- rials for wood, the historical evidence so far has been the other way: new and more extensive use of wood has accom- panied the development of these other materials. The increase of wood consumption parallel with the increase of consumption of its substitutes, coal, iron, and stone, simply ac- centuates the influence of the great modern industrial develop- ment and increase of civilization, which means increase in wants. P. 28. Tanning Bark. — The leather industry, which in the year Igoo produced, with a capital of over $356,000,0c0 and a wage of over $105,000,000, a product valued at over $615,000,000, relies for the tanning, in spite of the in- creased use of substitutes, still mainly on the bark of two kinds of trees, namely, oak and hemlock. Of the amount spent for tan materials ($17,000,000), nearly $12,000,000 is for such bark and bark extracts, denoting a consumption of about 13 million cords of tan bark, as against about half that consumption in 1880. The consumption of hemlock bark is nearly three times as great as that of oak. Consequently the largest production is to be found in western Pennsylvania and New York, where the largest supplies of this material are to be found, these two States producing about half the cordage consumed. One ton of hemlock bark will tan about 300 pounds of sole and 400 pounds of upper leather. The usual harvest of hemlock bark averages 12 to 15 cords per acre, worth $6 to $7 per cord. As long as the timber is used afterwards, which is now prob- ably done in most places, this utilization of a by-product is one of the important economies in forest utilization. : _ NOTES. 425 A very full account of the industry as far as its relation to forest supplies is concerned may be found in “Reports on Forestry” by F. B. Hough, Vol. III, 1882, pp. 68 to 128. P. 29. The Naval Store Industry.— The naval store in- dustry is confined to the pineries of the South, — Alabama, Florida, and Georgia being the principal producers. It supplies mainly materials used for the manufacture of var- nishes, paints, soaps, and in the rubber and paper industries, besides tar and pitch, and has grown most unprecedentedly during the last decade. While from 1850 to 1890 the increase of value in products was only from less than $3,000,000 to a iittle less than $8,000,000, in the decade from 1890 to I900 it rose, according to the census, to $20,344,888. The capital employed and the wages paid trebled, while the value more than doubled. This great increase may be only apparent, the difficulty of gathering statistics in previous censuses having produced too low figures; nevertheless, increase in industrial development must account for a large part of the increase. Nearly all the rosin produced and nearly one-half of the spirits of turpentine are exported. Through the investigations of the Forestry Division in 1890 to 1892 (see Report of Division of Forestry for 1892 for full description of this industry) it was established that this in- dustry can be carried on without any necessary detriment to the forest and the timber product, but unfortunately the necessary precautions and methods for such harmless use of these by-products are mostly not practised. P. 32. Relative Position of Forest Industries in 1890. — Census statistics of the employment of capital, persons em- ployed, and wages in the minor forest industries are either absent or more or less deficient. Moreover, in an industry in which many people are only temporarily or incidentally and for a part of the year engaged, the exploitation of the forests makes a close enumeration well nigh impossible. Hence, in comparison with other industries concentrated at centres of 426 APPENDIX. production or carried on with continuity, the forest industries lose relatively. To get a closer approximation to the truth, and a more just appreciation of the comparative significance of the forest resource, the writer, upon the basis of census data of 1890 and other information, made an attempt in 1896 to supply these deficiencies by estimate. In this estimate all wood and other forest products, as railroad ties and timbers, telegraph poles, fence material, cord wood, bark, and other by-products are included, leading to the following result :— LEADING INDUSTRIES COMPARED. Capital Raw Articles. in- Em- | Wages.| mate- | Prod- volved, | Ployees. rial. ucts. SS OSS Oe ee Oe lions. | sands lions lions lions Agriculture . . sos ae SSO 8,286 — ~~ 2460 Forest products, total ; — —. —- 1044 Forest industries, enumerated 562 348 102 245 440 Forest products, not enumer- ated (estimated) . . + + aF 598 Manufactures using wood (see table on opposite page). . 543 513 294 442 907 Mineral products, pan: siees are — — —— — 610 Coal Skea 343 300 109 160 Goldandsilver .... . 486 57 40 99 Pig-iron. . 134 34 16 TO |e maxAe Manufactures of iron and steel 414 176 96 327 479 Leather .. Sy itis Wis 102 48 25 136 178 Leather manufactures. Se RS 118 186 88 153 289 Woollen manufactures . . . . 297 219 77 203 338 Cotton manufactures . . .. . 354 222 7O 155 268 To secure the statement regarding the manufactures using wood, these were classified according to the estimated per- centage of wood entering into their products and assuming that capital, labor, and value of products stand in the same proportion as the raw materials used. As a matter of fact, there is probably more labor employed in shaping wood than this percentage would indicate. NOTES. 427 FOREST INDUSTRIES AND MANUFACTURES USING Woop. Raw Value Articles. Capital. ployees Wages material. |of product. Forest industries enu- merated: Thous’nds| Hundreds |Thous’nds| Thous’nds| Thous’nds Lumber and. mill products. . . . | $496,340 2,862 | $87,784 | $231,556 | $403,668 Timber products no manufactured at ii) eee 61,541 461 11,354 11,007 34,290 Wayalistores. :.. . 4,063 153 2,933 3,506 8,077 otal es 2A Ls 561,943 3,477 102,071 245,169 446,034 Manufactures __practi- cally all wood: Cigar boxes . . . 39374 55 2,134 39567 7,092 Packing boxes . . 13,018 140 6,477 14,245 25,513 Carriage and wagon 2 Sere arma 13,028 10g 5,208 1,388 16,262 Carpentering . . . 81,543 | 1,409 04,524 137,847 281,195 Cooperage . eat 17,817 247 11,665 2,037 38,618 Furniture _ factory products. ... 66,394 639 34,472 38,796 94,871 Kindling wood . . 1,300 18 772 1,187 25402 Bastsie ea --s. 907 8 572 331 1,239 el products} 120,271 869 48,970 104,927 183,682 MEGRES Si ts Saye): 1,941 18 2,1 Wood, turned and = hy Ss oe CAGVEO 6s, Ss 5 7,826 84 4,267 3,947 10,940 Woodenware. . . 2,712 31 1,237 1,499 3,598 Wisodtpalp.. . —.s\. 7,455 28 1,229 2,005 4,628 Wood carpet. . . 333 3 155 214 512 Ph Otale sn os) Se 337,908 3,050 212,027 331,523 672,750 Manufactures in which wood represents about 50 per cent of the raw materials:* Total . 169,983 1,356 71,460 114,383 229,408 Wood percentage . . 89,991 678 35,730 57,192 114,704 Manufactures in which wood represents about 3344 percent: ¢ Total] 321,059 2,143 123,588 148,578 318,218 Wood percentage . . 107,619 714 41,196 49,526 106,072 Manufactures in which wood represents about to percent: { Total 76,841 QI5 46,854 49,291 131,820 Wood percentage . . 7,084 92 4,685 4,929 13,182 Manufactures of wood: “) BY 1 | a ae nce 543,402 55134 293,038 443,170 906,708 * Includes carriages and wagon factory product, children’s carriages and sleds, steam and street cars, coffins and burial caskets, chairs, wheelbarrows, sewing machine cases, artificial limbs, and refrigerators, and shipbuilding. tare ¢ Includes agricultural implements, billiard tables, railroad and street car re- pairs, furniture repairs, washing machines and wringers, organs and pianos. ¢ Includes blacksmithing and wheelwrighting, bridges, brooms and brushes, gunpowder, artists’ materials, windmills, toys and games, sporting goods, lead pencils, pipes and pumps. 428 APPENDIX. The proportions in which the various kinds of products contribute toward the total of $1,044,000,000 in value were figured as follows : — Million | Million cu. ft. | dollars. Mill products, lumber, shingles, laths, pickets, staves, carriage, implement, and furniture stock, etc. (35,000 million feet B.M.) - | 6,000] 450 Railroad construction (ties, bridge timber, telegraph poles) : : ‘ : . 550] 45 Export timber. ° . : : : 12 5 Wood pulp... : ° . ; : 100 5 Miscellaneous bolt sizes . : : : 200| 50 Total materials requiring log and bolt sizes . : : . : : - | 6,862] 555 Fuel and fencing . : : . : . | 18,000} 450 Charcoal . : . . : : 250 rs Dyewood and piunpowder . ‘ ‘ : 16 5 Naval stores . . : : . 8.5 Wood alcohol and matic acid : ‘ ; 205 Tanning material . . . é . ‘ 15 Maple syrup and sugar . : : : : 5-5 Grand total . : ‘ . | 25,128 | 1044 The cubic contents are estimates of the forest-grown material which might furnish the amounts of prepared materials at the given values. They give an insight into the possibilities and necessities of supply and its character. The fuel wood con- sumption in the above estimate has been assumed to have been somewhat decreased from that of the census of 1880, the value per cord ($2.20) to have remained the same. NOTES. 429 As will be seen in the notes to Chapter XI, the census of Ig00 places the value of the mill products, including an uncertain part of the rest of bolt and log size material, at $566,832,984, to which at least the wood pulp with round $28,000,000 must be added, increasing this most important portion of forest products by about ro per cent. Inthe minor forest products the naval store industry has increased to over $20,000,000, the wood alcohol industry to nearly $4,000,000, the tanning materials being slightly reduced and the maple sugar industry slightly increased. The present value of all forest products, at places of first manufacture or consumption, may then be safely placed at round $1,100,000,000. The vaiue of the wood manufacture has naturally also increased, increasing by so much the eco- nomic significance of our forest resource. To gain an insight into the importance of the forest resource in our industrial world the following comparison will serve, in which the manu- factures requiring wood as an essential part of the manufacture, including sawmills, etc., are placed in opposition to all the manufactures of the country. In this comparison the reduc- tion for wood value only as given in the table on p. 427 has not been made. Capital. | Product. |Employees.| Wages. 1890. —————_|————_ Million. | Million. | Thousand. | Million. Amomammactures® <<: -.- . | 6,525 | 9,372 | 4,712: |: 2,203 Manufactures dependent omwood =.=. . . .| 4,402 | 1,756 | 1,093 542 Wood manufactures repre- sent of all manufactures | 21% 19 %, 339°) 2, 430 APPENDIX. P. 33. Wealth of the Nation.— The total wealth of the United States was estimated, upon the basis of census data, in 1890 to be distributed about as follows : — Billion dollars. Real estate not in farms . ; ' . . “. 262 Farm property inland . ; ; : ° « hae Farm property in cattle and equipment . : c4, ee Railways and telegraph lines . . : : + (98 Capital in large manufacturing industries . » - O55 Mines, quarries, and their capital stock . . eo) ie Gold, silver, coin, bullion . ‘ : : mae 6 All other property . : . : . ° : RF P. 35. Forest Area of the World. — As has been pointed out in various parts of this volume the forest area gives but an imperfect and unreliable basis for a discussion of the wood supply question; the contents and their condition and the accessibility to wood-consuming nations being the much more significant factors. The table on p. 431 condenses information, more or less reliable, regarding some of the more important forest areas of the world. While these figures cannot claim absolute cor- rectness, authorities varying more or less, they give at least approximate ideas of the relative position of the countries enumerated. P. 51. Wood Consumption in United States. — Making allowance for the increases appearing in the census of Igoo, we may now roughly state our consumption at 26 billion cubic feet, one-third of which szst be of log or bolt size,—a yearly harvest which could still be continuously supplied by our forest area of 500 million acres, if it were managed upon forestry principles, namely, as a crop harvested with due regard to its continuous reproduction, and if proper economy and differentiation of relative usefulness of material were practised. NOTES. 431 Be Forest area. | Per cent of | Per capita. State é ig Millionacres.| total area. Acres. ownership. Per cent. United States . .| 500 26 7 I.+ (see pp- 335-339) | (650) (34) (9) Gensda . . . .| .800 38 145 (probably avail- able, only) . | (350) | (17) | (64) MMU ee | OF 31 2.05 WEE oes ed ABEL 37.6 Lgegs 63 Migiand 28.) 50.5 61.6 20.37 40 Sweden... . 48.9 44 9 27.2 Semany .*. -. 34.9 25.8 .67 32.9 a 24.3 223 1.03 oR Byance. = . + 23.8 17.8 6.3 11.8 miuneary <6. 225, 28 1.30 16 ae 21.2 Ly 1.30 84 OEWay “nis = 17 21 8.50 11.6 Biiearia < . 10.8 45 3-25 Me Se 10.2 14.2 “33 4 Bosnia and Herzegovina . 6.8 53 4.33 70.2 Mey. =) oss 6.3 8 Roumania. . . re 16.9 1.00 47 Great Britain. . s 3.8 .20 3.6 Beetia 2 6 2.4 2.0 1.03 Switzerland . . 28 20.5 73 4.4 reece. +. ss 2 15.8 -93 80 Belgium . .-. Tea 17 -20 5 Portugal ee 8 55 215 8 Denmark . . . 6 6.4 “25 24 Holland 6 7 mY Luxemburg, . . 2 30.4 ele) one i 12 -40 50 Australia . Jae SS) 57 60 1.45 30 432 APPENDIX. NOTES ‘TO, CHAPTER Il, P. 63. Investigations in Forest Meteorology. — The results of the Bavarian observations, as well as the methods pursued, were published by Dr. Ernst Ebermayer in “ Die physikalischen Einwirkungen des Waldes auf Luft und Boden und seine klimatologische und hygienische Bedeutung,” Berlin, 1873. A very full summary is to be found in F. B. Hough’s “ Report upon Forestry,” Vol. I, Washington, Government Printing Office, 1878. A more complete discussion of the whole question and record of the investigations into “forest in- fluences” is to be found in Bulletin 7, Division of Forestry, U.S. Department of Agriculture, 1887, with further additions to be found in H. R. doc. 181, 55th Congress, 3d session, 1899, from which sources the following data are reproduced. P. 64. Inefficiency of Rain Gauges.— The inaccuracy of the rainfall measurements by the ordinary unprotected gauges is explained by Mr. Cleveland Abbe, in the Bulletin cited, as follows: “In the case of ordinary rainfalls we invariably have the air full of large and small drops, including the finer particles that constitute a drizzling mist and the fragments of drops that are broken up by spattering. All these are de- scending at various velocities which, according to Stokes, depend on their size and density and the viscous resistance of the air; the particles of hail descend even faster than drops of water, and the flakes of snow descend slower than ordinary drops. Now, when the wind strikes an obstacle, the deflected currents on all sides of the obstacle move past the latter more rapidly; therefore the open mouth of the rain gauge has above it an invisible layer of air whose horizontal motion is more rapid than that of the wind a little distance higher up. Of the falling raindrops, the larger ones may descend with a rapidity sufficient to penetrate this swiftly moving layer, but the slower falling drops will be carried over the leeward of the gauge, and, failing to enter it, will miss being counted as rain- _ fall, although they go on to the ground near by. Evidently, NOTES. 433 the stronger the wind the larger will be the proportion of small drops that are carried past the gauge; or again, the larger the proportion of small drops and light flakes of snow that constitute a given shower, the more a gauge will lose for a given velocity of wind. In brief, the loss will depend both upon the velocity of the wind and the velocity of the descent of the precipitation; therefore, a gauge will, in general, catch less in winter than in summer; less in a climate where light, fine rains occur than where the rains are composed of larger, heavier drops; less in a country or in a season of strong winds than of feeble winds; less when exposed to the full force of the wind by being elevated on a post, than when ex- posed to the feebler winds near the ground. .. . “The distinction between the effect of the winds in heavy rains and fine rains is very clearly brought out by Bornstein’s classification of the catch on twenty-six days of fine rain and forty-three days of heavier rains; the percentages are shown in the following table” : — 43 Heavy rains. 26 Fine rains. Wind force. ; é Deficit Deficit No. of days. per cent, No. of days. per cent. fe) t 23 I 17 6 8 25 2 13 13 6 18 3 7 14 6 46 4 6 17 2 52 Rain gauges under trees do not record all the rain fallen. The percentage of precipitation recorded under trees of different kinds has been found as follows : — Entire year. Warm season. Generakaverage . . . . » . 75 70 Average for deciduous trees . . 74 65 Average forevergreens. . . . 77 74 2F 434 | APPENDIX. These data are the result of observations at sixteen stations for about 150 years. The table shows that in the warm season 30 per cent of the rainfall in the open fields fails to reach the gauges under the trees. Taking all seasons together, 25 per cent is intercepted. This deficit does not include the water which drips from the leaves, for this is fairly accounted for by the gauges. It is the water which moistens the tree and its various parts and that which flows down the trunk. The former is evaporated with- out reaching the soil ; the latter reaches the soil finally, and is measurable. Some experiments have indicated this amount to be about 8 per cent of the precipitation. The same difficulties experienced with rain gauges are also found to attach to thermometers; the best thermometers placed side by side will vary by as much as 1.6° F. and usually 0.7° F., hence small differences of temperature may be merely inaccuracies, or due to non-uniformity of conditions, and cannot be argued as a result of forest influences. P. 69. Details of Meteorological Conditions within and out- side of Forests. — The following conclusions have been drawn from the German observations and are reproduced from the above-cited bulletin :— DIFFERENCE OF METEOROLOGICAL CONDITIONS WITHIN AND WITHOUT THE FOREST. (1) Soil Temperatures.— The general influence of the forest on soil temperatures is a cooling one, due to the shade and to the longer retention of moisture in the forest floor as well as in the forest air, which must be evaporated before the ground can be warmed. As a consequence, the extremes of high and low temperature within the forest soil occur much later than in the open, and both extremes are reduced, but the extreme summer temperatures much more than the winter temperatures. The difference between evergreen and deciduous forests, which almost vanishes in the winter time, is in favor of the NOTES. 435 deciduous as a cooling element in summer and autumn, while during spring the soil is cooler under evergreens. The effect increases naturally with the age and height of the trees. (2) Aur Temperatures under the Crowns.—The annual range of air temperature is smaller in the forest than in the open; the effect upon the minimum temperature (z.e. the effect in winter) is less than on the maximum temperature (z.e. the effect in summer). The combined effect is a cool- ing one. The range of temperature is more affected than the average absolute temperature, or, in other words, the moderating influence is greater than the cooling effect. The monthly minima for middle latitudes are uniformly re- duced during the year, and the monthly maxima are much more reduced during the summer than during the winter. On the average the forest is cooler than the open country in summer, but about the same in winter, with a slight warming effect in spring. The difference between the mean monthly air temperatures in the woods and in the open varies with the kind of forest much more than is the case for soil temperatures. The evergreen forest shows a symmetrical increase and decrease throughout the year. The deciduous forest shows a variable influence which diminishes from the midwinter to springtime, but increases rapidly as the leaves appear and grow, becoming a maximum in June and July, and then diminishing rapidly until November. The annual average effect is about the same both for evergreen and deciduous forests. Forests situated at a considerable elevation above the sea have sensibly the same influence on the reduction of the mean temperature as do forests that are at a low level. Young forests affect the air temperature very differently from mature forests; in the former the minimum temperatures are always reduced, but the maxima are exaggerated. The observations on which this conclusion is based ought, perhaps, to be considered as pertaining rather to the case of tempera- tures in the tree tops. 436 APPENDIX. (3) Azr Temperatures within the Crowns. — The mean temperature of the air in the tree tops, after correcting for elevation above ground, is rather higher than over open fields. The effect of tree tops does not appreciably depend upon the height of the station above ground. The effect upon the minima is generally greater than on the maxima, the total effect being a warming one. A tree-top station is in general intermediate, as to temperature, between a station near the ground in the forest and one in the open field. Evergreen forests show less difference between the temper- ature in the crown and below, and altogether more uni- formity in temperature changes throughout the year than deciduous growth. The vertical gradient for temperature within the forest on the average of all stations and all kinds of forest trees is large, varying from 0.61° F. per 100 feet in April to 2.50° F. in July. A reversal of the vertical gradient, namely, a higher temper- ature above than below, occurs in the wood, especially in the summer time. It also occurs in the open air regularly at night, and may be three or four times as large as that just mentioned. In general, the action of the forest tends to pro- duce a vertical distribution of temperature like that over snow or level fields on clear nights. (4) Air Temperature above the Crowns. — The tempera- ture, at considerable heights above the forest, appears to be slightly affected by the forest, and more so with evergreens than with deciduous growth. The vertical gradients of temperature within 30 feet above the tops of the trees are all reversed throughout the leafy season; the gradients are also greater above the tree crown than below, at least during the clear sky and calm air. The wind affects the temperature under and within the crowns, but makes little difference above them. The surface of the forest crown appears meteorologi- cally much like the surface of the meadow or cornfield. It is as if the soil surface has been raised to the height of the trees. NOTES. 437 (5) Azr Temperature in General. —F¥From the preceding generalizations it appears that the forest affects the tempera- ture just as any collection of inorganic obstacles to sunshine and wind; but as an organic being the forest may be also an independent source of heat. Careful observations of the temperature within the trunk of the tree and of the leaves of the tree show that the tree temperature is affected somewhat by the fact that the water rising brings up the temperature of the roots, while the food material from the leaves brings their temperature down, and the tree temperature, considered as the result of the complex adjustment, is not appreciably affected by any heat that may be evolved by the chemical processes on which its growth depends. It is not yet clear as to whether the chemical changes that take place at the sur- face of the leaves should give out any heat; it is more likely that heat is absorbed; namely, rendered latent, especially in the formation of the seed; the process of germination usually evolves this latent heat; the immense quantity of water tran- spired and evaporated by the forests tends to keep the leaves at the same temperature as that of the surface of water or moist soil. (6) Humidity of Air.— The annual evaporation within the forests is about one-half of that in the open field; not only is the evaporation within a forest greatest in May and June, but the difference between this and the evaporation in the open field is also then a maximum, which is the saving due to the presence of the woods. The average annual evaporation within the woods is about 44 per cent of that in the field. Fully half of the field evaporation is saved by the presence of the forest. The quantity of moisture thrown into the air by transpira- tion from the leaves in the forest is sometimes three times that from a horizontal water surface of the same extent, and at other times it is less than that of the water. The tran- spiration from leaves in full sunshine is decidedly greater than from leaves in the diffused daylight or darkness. The 438 APPENDIX. absolute amount of annual transpiration, as observed in forests of mature oaks and beeches in Central Europe, may amount to 50 per cent of the total annual precipitation and more; with conifers, only one-sixth to one-tenth of this. The percentage of rainfall, evaporated at the surface of the ground, is about 4o per cent for the whole year in the open field and about 12 per cent for the forest, and is greater under deciduous than under evergreen forests. The evaporation from a saturated bare soil in the forest is about the same as that from a water surface in the forest, other conditions being the same. The presence of forest litter like that lying naturally in un- disturbed forests hinders the evaporation from the soil to a remarkable extent, since it saves seven-eighths of what would otherwise be lost. The total quantity of moisture returned into the atmosphere from a forest by transpiration and evaporation from the trees and the soil is about 75 per cent of the precipitation. For other forms of vegetation it is about the same or sometimes larger, varying between 70 per cent and go per cent; in this respect the forest is surpassed by the cereals and grasses, while, on the other hand, the evaporation from a bare soil is scarcely 30 per cent of the precipitation. The absolute humidity within a forest exceeds that of the glades and the plains by a small quantity. The relative humidity in the forest is also larger than in the glades or plains by 2 per cent to 4 per cent. Forests of evergreens have from two to four times the influence in increasing rela- tive humidity as do forests of deciduous trees. The gauges in European forest stations catch from 75 to 85 per cent when placed under the trees, the balance represent- ing that which passes through the foliage and drips to the ground or runs down along the trunks of trees, or else is in- tercepted and evaporated. The percentage withheld by the trees, and which either evaporates from their surface or trickles along the trunk to the ground, is somewhat greater NOTES. 439 in the leafy season, though the difference is not great. De- ciduous and evergreen trees show but slight differences in this respect. More rain is usually caught by gauges at a given height above the forest crown than at the same height in open fields, but it still remains doubtful whether the rain- fall itself is really larger over the forests, since the recorded catch of the rain gauge still requires a correction for the in- fluence of the force of the wind at the gauge. In such cases, where over a large area deforestation and reforestation have seemingly gone hand in hand with de- crease and increase of rainfall, the possible secular change in rainfall must also be considered. Yet the experience of in- creased rainfall over the station at Lintzel, with increase of forest area, points strongly toward a possible interdependence under given conditions. By condensing dew, hoar frost, and ice on their branches, trees add thereby a little to the precipitation which reaches the ground, and by preventing the rapid melting of snow more water remains available under forest cover. The question as to the march of destructive hailstorms with reference to forest areas, which seems settled for some regions in France, remains in doubt for other, especially mountain, regions. From these statements we would expect as a consequence of deforestation an effect on the climate of the deforested area in three directions, namely: (@) extremes of temperature of air as well as soil are aggravated, (4) the average humidity of the air is lessened, and possibly (c) the distribution of precipi- tation throughout the year, if not its quantity, is changed. INFLUENCE OF FORESTS UPON THE CLIMATE OF THE SURROUNDING COUNTRY. (1) An influence of the forest upon the climate of its sur- roundings can only take place by means of diffusion of the vapor which is transpired and evaporated by the crowns, and 440 3 APPENDIX. by means of air currents passing through and above the for- ests being modified in temperature and moisture conditions ; the mechanical effect upon such air currents by which they are retarded in their progress may also be effective in chang- ing their climatic value. (2) Local air currents are set up by the difference in tem- perature of the air within and without the forest, analogously to those of a lake or pond, cooler currents coming from the forest during the day in the lower strata and warmer currents during the night in the upper strata. The latter currents, being warmer and moister, can be of influence on the tem- perature and moisture conditions of a neighboring field by moderating temperature extremes and increasing the humidity of the air. This local circulation is the one most important difference between forest and other vegetation. How far away from the forest this circulation becomes sensible is not ascertained. In winter time, when the temperature differences become small, no such circulation is noticeable. (3) The general air currents in their lower portions are cut off entirely by the forest, which acts as a wind-break. This in- fluence can of course be experienced only on the leeward side. How far this protection reaches it is difficult to estimate, but it certainly reaches farther than that of a mere wind-break, since by the friction of the air moving over the crowns a retardation must be experienced that would be noticeable for a considerable distance beyond the mere wind-break effect. Deforestation on a large scale would permit uninterrupted sweep of the winds, a change more detrimental where the configuration of the ground does not fulfil a similar function — in large plains more than in hilly and mountainous a and at the seashore more than in the interior. In an experiment made by F. W. King in Wisconsin the evaporation increased with the distance from the woods up to 300 feet; the difference in the amount at a station only 20 feet from the protecting forest being over 66 per cent. Even NOTES. 4AI behind a hedgerow, 6 to 8 feet high, a difference of 30 per cent was noted in the same distances. Extensive observations made by the Canadian Agricultural Experiment stations show very considerable differences in crop production due to the effect of wind-breaks. The upper air strata can be modified only by the conditions existing near and above the crowns. At the same time they must carry away the cooler and moister air there and create an upward movement of the forest air, and thereby in part the conditions of this become also active in modifying air cur- rents. The greater humidity immediately above the crowns is imparted to the air currents, if warm and dry, and becomes visible at night in the form of mists resting above and near forest areas. These strata protect the open at least against insolation and loss of water by evaporation, and have also a greater tendency to condensation as dew or light rain if con- ditions for such condensation exist. This influence can be felt only to the leeward in summer time, and with dry, warm winds, while the cooling winter effect upon comparatively warmer moist winds is not noticeable. Theoretical considera- tions lead to the conclusion that in mountain regions only the forest on the leeward slope can possibly add moisture to a wind coming over the mountain, but this does not necessarily increase the precipitation on the field beyond. Altogether, the theoretical considerations are as yet neither proved nor disproved by actual observations, and as to rainfall, the ques- tion of influence on the neighborhood is still less settled than that of precipitation upon forest areas themselves. Wherever moisture-laden winds pass over extensive forest areas the cooler and moister condition of the atmosphere may at least not reduce the possibility of condensation, which a heated plain would do; but observations so far give no conclusive evidence that neighboring fields receive more rain than they otherwise would. (4) With regard to comparative temperatures in forest stations and open stations that are situated not far apart from 442 APPENDIX. each other, it would appear that the forest exerts a cooling influence, but that more detailed conclusions are hindered by the consideration that the ordinary meteorological station itself is somewhat affected by neighboring trees. The study of the stations in Asiatic and European Russia seems to show that in the western part of the Old World the presence of large forests has a very sensible influence on the temperature. Similar studies for stations in the United States seem to show that our thin forests have a slight effect in December, but a more decided one in June. It appears also that our wooded regions are warmer than the open plains, but there is no positive evidence that this difference of tempera- ture is dependent upon the quantity or distribution of forests or that changes in temperature have occurred from this cause. (5) When a forest encloses a small area of land, forming a glade, its enclosed position brings about special phenomena of reflection of heat, local winds, and a large amount of shade. For such situations it is found that the mean range of tem- perature is larger in the glade than in the open; the glade climate is more rigorous than the climate of open plains; the glade is cooler and its diurnal range larger during the spring, summer, and autumn. Favorable influences upon moisture conditions of the air are most noticeable in localities where much water is stored underground, with overlying strata which are apt to dry when our summer drought prevails. Here the forest growth is able to draw water from greater depths, and by transpiration return it to the atmosphere, thereby reducing the dryness and possibly inducing precipitation. In moist climates this action would be less effective or of no use. Hence in regions with oceanic climate, with moist sea winds, like England and the west coasts of Europe or of the northern United States, deforestation from a climatic point of view may make no appreciable difference, such as it would make in continental climates like the interior of our country, the Rocky Mountains, and Southern California. NOTES. 443 Whether large or small areas of forest and open fields alter- nating, or what percentage of forest is most favorable, can- not as yet be discussed, since we are not clearly informed even as to the manner and the amount of influence which forest cover exercises. In general we may expect that an alternation of large forested and unforested areas in regions which on account of their geographic situation have a dry and rigorous climate is more beneficial than large uninterrupted forest areas, which would fail to set up that local circulation which is brought about by differences in temperature and per- mits an exchange of the forest climate to the neighboring field. More recent experiments tend to modify somewhat the con- clusions arrived at heretofore, and indicate, as has been sug- gested, that the differences in temperature and humidity of woods and of open land that have been recorded are largely to be attributed to variability of instruments and of readings, and to nonconformity of conditions. Even the well-planned Austrian experiments have produced neither striking nor consistent results. In 1893 Dr. Lorentz Liburnau concluded that forests did not cool the air of the surrounding country, and that temperature extremes were even heightened in the immediate vicinity of the woods. Concerning humidity, it was found that while with one set of stations this appeared increased by an uncertain trifle through the proximity of the forest, in another set no influence was observed, and in one case the air current from the woods was positively drier at noontime than that of the open country, and even though Lorentz Liburnau is still hopeful in the mat- ter, he felt compelled to admit that a “distance effect” of forest influence was so far not demonstrated. Schubert, in 1895 and again in 1897, published results of extensive temperature measurements which point to an entire absence of influence in this respect, the air of the forest being in no case sufficiently cooler to warrant a decision. His ex- periments gave a difference of only 5° F. in favor of the pine 444 APPENDIX. woods. This author came to practically the same con- clusion regarding the humidity of the forest and the open country. INFLUENCE OF FORESTS UPON WATER AND SOIL CONDITIONS. (1) In consequence of deforestation, evaporation from the soil is augmented and accelerated, resulting in unfavorable conditions of soil humidity and affecting unfavorably the size and continuity of springs. The influence of forest cover upon the flow of springs is due to this reduced evaporation as well as to the fact that by the protecting forest cover the soil is kept granular and allows more water to penetrate and perco- late than would otherwise. In this connection, however, it is the condition of the forest floor that is of greatest imporiance. Where the litter and humus mould is burned up, as in many if not most of our mountain forests, this favorable influence is largely destroyed, although the trees are still standing. (2) Snow is held longer in the forest and its melting is re- tarded, giving longer time for filtration into the ground, which also being frozen to less depth is more apt to be open for sub- terranean drainage. Altogether forest conditions favor in general larger subterranean and less surface drainage, yet the moss or litter of the forest floor retains a large part of the pre- cipitation and prevents its filtration to the soil, and thus may diminish the supply to springs. This is especially possible with small precipitations. Of copious rains and large amounts of snow water, quantities, greater or less, penetrate the soil, and according to its nature into lower strata and to springs. This drainage is facilitated not only by the numerous chan- nels furnished by dead and living roots, but also by the influ- ence of the forest cover in preserving the loose and porous structure of the soil. Although the quantity of water offered for drainage on naked soil is larger, and although a large quantity is utilized NOTES. 445 by the trees in the process of growth, yet the influence of the soil cover in retarding evaporation is liable to offset this loss, as the soil cover is not itself dried out. The forest, then, even if under unfavorable topographical and soil conditions (steep slopes and impermeable soils) it may not permit larger quantities of water to drain off under- ground and in springs, can yet influence their constancy and equable flow by preventing loss from evaporation. (3) The surface drainage is retarded by the uneven forest floor more than by any other kind of soil cover. Small pre- cipitations are apt to be prevented from running off superficially through absorption by the forest floor. In case of heavy rain- falls this mechanical retardation in connection with greater subterranean drainage may reduce the danger from freshets by preventing the rapid collection into runs. Yet in regions with steep declivities and impermeable soil such rains may be shed superficially and produce freshets in spite of the forest. floor, and an effect upon water conditions can exist only from the following consideration. (4) The well-kept forest floor, better than even the close sod of a meadow, prevents erosion and abrasion of the soil and the washing of soil and detritus into brooks and rivers. _ This erosion is especially detrimental to agricultural inter- ests as well as waterflow in regions with thin surface and im- penetrable subsoils, and where rains are apt to be explosive in their occurrence, as in our western and southern country. The best soil of the farms is often washed into the rivers, and the water stages of the latter, by the accumulations of this soil, are influenced unfavorably. (5) Water stages in rivers and streams which move outside the mountain valleys are dependent upon such a complication of climatic, topographic, geological, and geographical condi- tions at the head waters of their affluents that they withdraw themselves from a direct correlation to surface conditions alone. Yet it stands to reason that the conditions at the head 446 APPENDIX. waters of each affluent must ultimately be reflected in the flow of the main river. The temporary retention of large amounts of water and eventual change into subterranean drainage which the well-kept forest floor produces, the consequent lengthening in the time of flow, and especially the prevention of accumulation and carrying of soil and detritus which are deposited in the river and change its bed, would at least tend to alleviate the dangers from abnormal floods and reduce the number and height of regular floods. Concerning the moisture of the soil the results of the most recent experiments differ. Ramann, in 1895, published a se- ries of results which indicated that the soil of the forest may be even drier than that of the neighboring open land. This view he finds strengthened by experiments made in small clearings within the forest, where he finds the soil of the sunny side of the clearing and that of the old forest itself decidedly drier than the soil of the shaded part of the clear- ing, though he also finds the soil under a young bush cover more moist than that under old timber. Whether a forest cover aids in the accumulation of ground water by improving the permeability of the soil was made the object of an experiment by Wollny, in a series of inconclusive small pot experiments which led this investigator to the ques- tionable result that bare land was more conducive to percola- tion than ground covered either by grass or trees. This would surely be true only if the bare ground, as in the experi- ments, is kept in an artificial, not natural, condition. Attempts to deduce the influence of forest on waterflow from wholesale measurements and observations have been made in this country by Vermeule, of New Jersey (see Proceedings American Forestry Association, Vol. XI, pp. 130-137, and report of New Jersey Geological Survey, 1894), and Rafter, of New York (Proceedings of American Forestry Association, Vol. XII, pp. 139-165, and report of State engi- neer and surveyor of New York, 1896), the former claiming that no appreciable influence existed, the latter calculating the influ- NOTES. 447 ence of the forest to be equal in value to five or six inches of rainfall, this amount of moisture being saved by its presence. Among recent papers which possess the highest value in describing the movements of water in the ground, and thus _throw light on a most important phase of the whole subject, Bulletin 32 of the Experiment Station, Fort Collins, Colo., by Professor L. G. Carpenter, is noteworthy. Professor Carpen- ter shows that it is possible by mechanical means (ditches in this case) to prevent the rapid run-off in high-water time and thus produce a steadier flow of a stream and also raise the level of the ground water, as well as saturate large areas of otherwise arid land. In other words, he shows that in Colo- rado the work of irrigation has resulted in a rise in the level of the ground water, changing deep wells into shallow ones ; that it has taken water out of the Platte and Cache la Poudre rivers, and saturated thousands of acres of formerly arid land, the seepage of which has changed dry branches into steady rivulets, and supplies already a steady inflow into the rivers, from which the water is taken above the fields. This inflow tends to make these rivers steady and uniform sources of water supply, and makes irrigation possible at points below where in former times such irrigation would have been out of the question. P. 78. Sanitary Influence. — The theories of the develop- ment of the various pathogenic bacilli in the soil which were based on Pettenkoffer’s authority have lately been discarded, and the origin of malaria has also experienced a different ex- planation by some authorities. The general statement that the forest soils, being removed from the contact with man’s occupations, is usually less favorable to the propagation of pathogenic microbes remains true, and at least this indirect relation of soil conditions to malaria exists, namely, that the mosquito, which is considered the direct breeder of the disease, is dependent for its development on swampy conditions of soil, stagnant water, pools, etc. 448 APPENDIX. NOTES TO CHAPTER IV. P. 81. The etymology of the word “forests” is doubtful. It is only certain that it is not, as has sometimes been claimed, of Latin, but of Germanic origin, as is evidenced from a manuscript of Zwentibold: “ut quandum silvam in bannum raagaeie et ex ea, sicut Franci dicunt, forestem face- remus.’ The ceneene connection between vor, first, fiirst and forst, which was originally written voorst (also vorst, vorést, forest, foreht, foreis), suggests the meaning attached to the word originally, namely, a piece of property set aside for the use of the king or “ Furst.” Other etymologists have tried to relate the term /oresta to fere (wild animals), ferarum statio, and to foris (outside), referring either to game preserves or to location outside the range of the settled country. Lately again the word has been referred to the Latin forus, a subdivided area. It is claimed that the original meaning, namely, “ restriction of the chase,” was of Roman origin. According to others the old German word signified “ wood- land,” and only in the sixth and seventh century was specially applied to the woodland owned by the kings or masters, and gradually in the eighth and ninth centuries assumed the restricted sense of reserved woodlands, and finally of the mere legal condition and rights. P. 83. Foresters (forestariz) and forest guards (custodes nemoris) are mentioned first under the Carolingians as hav- ing charge of the forest property of the kings or lords under the supervision of the majordomo; they had at first only police functions, and were often taken from the serfs. It was much later that their functions assumed a technical character. P. 84. It is interesting to note the historical develop- ment of the forestry idea in England and in the United NOTES. , 449 States by a comparison of the lexicographers from period to period. Richardson’s New Dictionary of 1846 defines a forest still as “a great and privileged wood or woody wilderness; some (Frenchmen) have generally interpreted it as a place whereto access and entry is forbidden by the owner unto others, and hence it seems that privileged fishing or large waters (wherein none but the lords thereof could fish) were also termed forests.” Webster’s Dictionary in 1863 did not contain the word “forestry” at all; “forester” was defined as (1) an officer appointed to watch a forest or chase, and to preserve game and institute suit of trespass; (2) an inhabitant of the forest ; (3) a forest tree. Forest was defined as (1) “an extensive wood or a large tract of land covered with trees. In America usually applied to a wood of native growth or a tract of woodland which has never been cultivated. It differs from ‘ woods’ chiefly in ex- tent.” The second meaning refers to the legal term, as explained in the text. The edition of 1880 gives essentially the same definitions for forest and forester, but contains also “Forestry: The art of forming or managing forests. (Rare.) ” In 1891 the rarity of the word “forestry” seems to have been overcome, the definition of forest remains the same; a forester has become “one who has charge of the grow- ing timber on an estate,” etc., and forestry is “the art of forming or cultivating forests; the management of growing timber.” “i Even the Standard Dictionary of 1895 finds it still necessary to explain that its definition, “ forestry, the art of developing and managing forests,” is based upon Professor Ely’s use of the word when referring to New York state having acquired forests in the Adirondacks and having entered upon forestry, and that its definition of a forester as “ one who has charge of a forest or of its timber, one who is versed in forestry,” is 2G 450 APPENDIX. based upon the use of the word in the Report of the U.S. Forestry Division for 1886. Nor is the definition of “ forest” any more certain of its propriety, lacking in definiteness: “a large tract of land covered with a natural growth of trees and underbrush ; a large wood, woodland, often with intervening spaces of open grounds.” NOTES TO CHAPTER. V. P. 113. Labor in Forestry. — The labor statistics of Ger- many for 1895 show one laborer employed to 310 acres in for- estry and one to 10.6 acres in agriculture —a still greater labor-intensity in agriculture than indicated by the figures in the text, which were drawn from less complete statistics. Altogether 352,566 people were deriving their living directly or indirectly from forestry, besides 900,000 in sawmills and woodworking industries, while 17.8 millions were engaged in agricultural pursuits. P. 116. Forest Labor in the United States. — In the United States, according to the census of Igoo, there were 382,840 wage-earners besides 14,333 clerks or other officials earning $153,000,000, and 43,322 proprietors engaged in forest ex- ploitation and sawmills and planing-milis, the wage-earners varying through the year from 350 to 650 thousand. Inlogging operations alone there were employed besides 2400 salaried officials and clerks on the average 121 thousand wage-earners, varying from month to month between go and 156 thousand, the largest number being employed in January and February, the smallest in July; the wages paid to these amounted to $46,000,000. ‘Translating the 35 billion feet, board measure, produced roughly into acreage, say 6 million acres represent- ing the harvest area, there was one man employed for every 50 acres cut over, giving rise to a labor earning of over $7 per acre; or, if we accept 500 million acres as the productive NOTES. 451 forest area, each 4000 acres of these furnish employment for one man in the harvest alone, for twice the number in the mills, and three times the number in woodworking establish- ments. Pp. 116 and 131. The Farmer’s Wood-lot.— The farmer’s wood-lot has its unquestionable value to the farmer and to the farm, not only in furnishing fuel and repair material, and in giving occupation during the leisure of winter, but also in producing values from those portions of the farm which are unfit for agriculture, if he owns such, and in the indirect benefits from preventing soil washes, and from its wind-break effects, if properly placed. Silviculturally the farmer’s wood-lot is at a disadvantage, on account of its isolation and small size. It is, therefore, con- stantly wind-swept, and unless particular care is taken to maintain a wind-mantle on the outskirts, the soil is apt to deteriorate, reproduction is made difficult, and danger from windfall is intensified. The time-element involved rules out the wood-lot from timber production ; the coppice and standard coppice manage- ment for the production of fuel wood and small dimensions alone fits the small farmer’s condition, and if in reach of a market for these, may prove very profitable. Timber produc- tion is practically not a business for small areas, although theoretically and under peculiar conditions in practice is not impossible. P. 122. ‘Provided the Litter is Left.’ The fallen leaves, twigs, bark, and other litter, decaying, form a mulch, which, covering the soil, preserves the soil water from being evapo- rated and keeps the soil in granular, permeable condition, most favorable to water conduction. Besides, the largest amount of the mineral constituents which the trees have pumped up from the soil is stored in these youngest parts, which are returned to the soil as the litter decays and forms the humus. In the average there are annually returned by the fall of leaves and litter in a dense forest from 1800 to 4500 452 APPENDIX. pounds per acre, containing, according to kind and condition of growth and soil, from 24 to 220 pounds of minerals, potash, phosphoric acid, magnesia, lime, etc., and 12 to 60 pounds of nitrogen, the whole equivalent to not less than 20 to 30 cents or more of fertilizer. ; This accounts for the well-known fertility of fresh forest soils, which have accumulated these minerals in the surface layers. A large literature on the subject of forest litter has been occasioned in Germany, owing to the conflicting interests of foresters and small farmers who desire to, and by necessity do, assist their scant crops by this forest manure, to the detri- ment of the forest crop. P. 134. Results of Forest Management in Saxony, and other state forest administrations. — The most intensive management is possible in this densely populated and highly industrial portion of Germany. The periodic changes from 1817, when a systematic forest management had only been begun, through the century are exhibited in the fol- lowing tabulation, giving results per acre on about 430,000 acres. 1817-26. | 1854-63. | 1884-93. Felling budget, cubic feet .| 60 70 go Timber wood, per cent . : 17 48 79 Gross revenue, dollars . : r75 3-54 6.67 Expenditures, dollars . : .80 ‘1; 2.30 Net revenue, dollars. . 95 2.39 4.37 Revenue per $1 expended, dollars . : : : 2.20 3.10 2.90 NOTES. 453 The net revenues in all the other German state forest ad- ministrations have risen in similar manner, namely, in dollars per each acre under management : — Year. Prussia. | Bavaria. | Saxony. 1830 44 .46 1.10 82 1.61 1850 46 65 1.63 iti 2.96 1870 87 1.99 2.45 2.62 4.18 1875 1.20 2.15 5-48 4.22 2.39 1880 92 1.29 4.08 2.66 3.25 These figures show the influence of boom prices following the Franco-German war, but the agricultural depression of the last decade in Germany, although noticeable in its effects on wood prices, has hardly interrupted the constant increase in the net yields of forestry. The gross yields of these forest properties contribute to the total gross budgets of the state administrations in Prussia, 4-5 per cent; Bavaria, 9-10 per cent; Saxony, 13-14 per cent; Wiirtemberg, 16 per cent; Baden, 8 per cent; Austria, 0.7 per cent; France, 0.7 per cent; Russia, 1.6 per cent. A further proof of the efficiency of forest management is to be found-not only in the greater total wood production per acre, which has been secured in all states by careful manage- ment similarly to that recorded for. Saxony -on p. 452, but also in the larger proportion of timber wood (over 3 inches diameter) which is coming to harvest, in part at least as a result of improved silviculture. AR4 APPENDIX. This timber wood per cent increased as follows : — Wear: Prussia. | Bavaria. | Saxony. st a Baden. Lago es 26 17 35 26 24 DRUID oe eee! niet Pog 29 19 45 32 28 DOO at a 30 32 61 4o 34 ey Se Sch, vaste 29 32 75 39 35 Pog e. eats 47 48 80 54 42 1895 - - + + | 50 50 79 53 44 The total net income from all the German state forests is $1.80 per acre, or $63,000,000. Of this gross yield, 65 per cent is for timber wood, from 3-10 per cent for by-products, the balance for inferior wood materials. How well deserved the reputation of the German forest administrations and financially how wise their maintenance has been may be judged by a comparison with other forest administrations. While in 1890 the German forest adminis- trations showed a net revenue varying from $1.30 to $4.46 per acre, and in the average $1.80, the state forests of the following countries yielded per acre in the period stated : — France =). ate fs) 6 BOF 2s oo a 2 Austria <6) )6 a), ae (9887-1893 ee: Sica’ -168 Hungary. -4 “50 6) 6! T885S1894> eis 32 Ruséia- ss) ce vk fei i et ee eae 02 Sweden. -..20!)35 oS OE oat ie eaves 48 Htaly ys. oa Ae we ae SRE YG ea, a Spain) s- weet sry, Se aang ee wee 72 In France, which comes nearest to the German results, a decline of gross yields has been noticeable in the last 40 years. The decade of 1860-1869 showed a total yield of round NOTES. 455 $8,000,000 average per year, while the following decades showed the averages of 7, 5.5, 5-4, 5-7, respectively ; the cause of it being probably, in the main, the change from timber forest to coppice. In Russia a constant increase in receipts during the last 15 to 20 years is the result of an-improved-forest administration ; every increase in expenditures bringing more than a com- mensurate result. This is brought out significantly by a comparison of yearly net yields and expenditures which were from 1885 to 1896: — Year Expenditures. Net revenue. E Million Rubel. Million Rubel. 1885 : . : . : 5-49 8. 1886 : . . ; . 5-48 8.2 1887 : . . : . mena “A 5 8.5 1888 ° ° ° . . 5°57 10.4 1889 : . ° ° ° 5.80 12.8 1890 ° : : . . 6.09 ey | a . . ° . 6.24 11.3 1892 . . . . ; 6.31 ea 1893 . : ae . 6.50 15.9 PR ig ey ge 6.89 19.6 RS ey) ga a 7.35 22.1 1896 ; ° . ; ; 7.76 26.5 The German administrations also show this relation of expenditure’to net revenues. Not only has every increase in expenditure in each state produced greater efficiency (see p- 327), but the net results from state to state are almost in direct relation to the expenditure, as will appear when com- paring the table of net yields with the following table of expenditures. The total expenditures are for the period from 1880 to 1896, the expenditures for administration alone for 456 APPENDIX. the period from 1890 to 1896, except for Prussia, for which the periods end in 1892: — Prussia. | Bavaria. | Saxony. het sis Baden. Total expenditures per acre, dollars . . .| 1.10-1.30] 1.50-2.40] 2.10-2.70| 2.20-2.50| 2.10-2.80 Per cent of gross revenue . ..°. .| 50-57 47-68 32-39 48-65 Administration expense : per acre, dollars . . 55 .87-.93 95 ; -56 Per cent of gross FEVENNG +) . 6 5 21.5 20.5-26.8 14 ° be) In the expenditures there are absorbed by woodchoppers 15-18 per cent of the income from wood sales. For planting alone the following expenditures per acre of forest were in- curred in 1894-1895: Prussia, 22 cents; Bavaria, 6.5 cents ; Saxony, 14 cents; Wiirtemberg, 17.1 cents; Baden, 18.8 cents. This means not per acre planted, but per acre under management. . . P. 138. Rise in Wood Prices. —A very careful and exhaus- tive investigation into the movement of prices for wood and for agricultural products in Prussia, comprising the fifty years from 1830 to 1880 (by Dr. Fr. Jentsch in Zedtschrifi fiir Forst- und Jagdwesen, 1887, pp. 91-108), during which time the price for wood (average) rose 74 per cent, namely, from 2} cents to 44 cents per cubic foot, brings out the following facts : — 1. The tendency of prices for agricultural products as well as for wood has been toward a rise. 2. Prices for wood have increased more rapidly than those of the staples wheat and rye (imports!), less rapidly than of potatoes, beef, and butter. 3. Prices for wood have risen more steadily than those for agricultural products. NOTES. 457 4. The relation between prices for wood and for wheat and rye shows a tendency in favor of greater rise in profits from forestry than from grain production. 5. Prices promise to rise further for an indeterminable time. ; This last prediction seems so far to have proved correct, as the following records from Upper Bavaria show. As an average result of yearly sales, round timber, f. 0. b. boat, brought in — Cents Cents Year. per Year. per cu. ft. cu. ft. MT ig spe Fo POOR 6 NS a es FBG ea Sao ORGS TRO sw he w+ TS ree me Pe The prices for boards (1 inch, 16-foot lengths) was per M ft., B.M.:— Widths . «.. 6 in. 8 in. ro in. 12 in. In 1886 . . .| $12.50 $13.60 $15.75 | $13.75 ia 1697-4. ~ 15.00 17.25 18.00 20.00 To gain an idea of the appreciation of the wood product, without reference to kind, size, and quality, the following series of figures will serve : — AVERAGE PRICE PER 100 CUBIC FEET OF WOOD REALIZED BY THE PRUSSIAN GOVERNMENT FOR ITS ENTIRE CROP (ABOUT 300,000,000 CUBIC FEET). 1850. . : . : . ‘ « $3-27 L055: % . ° . . . ° 3.66 1860 . : ° : : : : Peete 458 APPENDIX. AVERAGE PRICE PER 100 CUBIC FEET OF WOOD REALIZED BY THE PRUSSIAN GOVERNMENT FOR ITS ENTIRE CROP (ABOUT 300,000,000 CuBIC FEET) — Continued. 1865 . : ‘ . : : : - $4.71 1870. -. : . , P- : a ge PO7S"": . : : : as ae oo aE 1880 . ‘ SARS : ‘ : tae 1885. ° : . , ° . ot) iio 1890. . . = . : : . =e The highest price for any district was obtained in 1888, being $8.49, while the lowest was $2.82. The lower prices in later years are explained by the increased importations of wood, especially from Hungary, Russia, and Sweden. The influence which development of means of transporta- tion exercises on wood prices is interestingly exhibited in a comparison of the price prevailing in the district with lowest and the district with highest price, in Prussia. This relation changed during the last thirty years as follows, taking 100 for the lowest price: 1860, 100:600; 1870, 100:380; 1880, 100: 300; 1890, 100:220. In other words, the range of price decreased in the thirty years of railroad building to one-fourth of the original one. In 1892 the difference in prices was 100: 221, when timber wood stood 100: 267, firewood 100:177, while rye, the most general agricultural crop, showed the relation of I00: 116 in the lowest and highest market (a range of only 16 per cent); the bulkiness of the wood material circum- scribing its transportableness probably accounts for this great difference. To compare prices of wood in America no better means are at hand than the record of export prices on square timber from Canada, which brings the variable item of cost of produc- tion to a minimum, as given ina table in “ Forest Wealth of Canada.” NOTES. 459 CENTS PER CUBIC FOOT. * Year. White pine. Oak. Elm. BEG ne aa 4-55 13-14 7-10 A 51-10 14-17 74-14 a re 3-18 19-23 g-153 a rae 14-36 43-52 23-30 a ESS ee 18=35 42-49 25-30 I a Soeo is a oe 16-42 45-51 25-32 Pe Se oa 12-36 32-47 18-22 Per cent per annum approximately . 7-18 5-7 6-5 Showing not only a constant increase of not less than 5 per cent per annum, but also a variation in range, which indicates reduction in the supply of better quality. The price of logs exported from Canada during the 25 years from 1878 to 1893 appreciated, according to the same authority for all descriptions, 3} per cent, and for pine alone from $5.40 to $8.33 per M feet, or 5.4 percent. To explain the difference of these prices from the prices for square timber, it should be known that the square timber goes mostly from Quebec to Great Britain, the logs mostly from Ontario to the United States, a difference in market and location which depresses the log prices disproportionately. A study of the prices paid for timber limits in Canada, which are more acces- sible than such data with us, will also show the tendency and the rate of rising prices due to decrease of accessible supplies. The reduction in supplies is also well indicated by the change in the size of merchantable logs, which, in the seven years from 1887 to 1893, for which data are published in the above-citéd document, changed in the Province of Ontario for pine from 122.5 feet B.M. per average log to 98.5, and for other kinds from 79 to 57 feet B.M. 460 APPENDIX. NOTES TO CHAPTER VI. P. 144. Acclimatization. — Acclimatization, z.¢. use of ex- otic species for forest growing, has been sparingly practised except in planting where nature had not provided any native forest flora, the reason being that native woods usually satisfy the requirements, and that the long period of development before the real character of the wood and the behavior of the plant under new conditions can with certainty be determined deters the attempts. There would, however, appear to have been more hesitation than necessary on this last account. Trees which have lived in a climate for a decade during their infantile and youthful, tenderest stage, and behaved as in their native habitat, are not likely to change their character later. The Germans have for the last thirty years systematically tested and introduced foreign, especially American, species, with considerable satisfaction. Our white pine has been in existence in German forest plantations for over one hundred years and has been found most satisfactory. In Hungary over 170,000 acres of our black locust furnish to the wine- growers most satisfactory vineyard stakes. While it may still be considered safest to rely upon the native flora, yet if exotics, climatically adapted, promise more rapid growth, larger production, silvicultural qualities or quality of wood superior to the native, as for instance the Norway spruce, it is proper policy to supplant the inferior native, pro- vided that no more is expected of it than it does and can do in its native home. P.157. Weight Production per Acre. — It is to be under- stood that this equal weight production of various species from year to year presupposes the species to be, at least in general, adapted to the locality or site and climate; moreover, this statement refers only to the actual experience with Ger- man species in German climate and soils. This experience merely proves the self-evident fact that the same amount of water, sunlight, and temperature accessible in the same man- NOTES. 461 ner produces the same amount of wood material in weight, no matter what the species. The volumes would then vary in- versely as the specific gravity or weight of the woods, or ey 2 ARP UV, : Vy=— : —, which is also borne out by the results of the Sci German measurements. P. 159. Yield Tables. — A picture of the progress of a wood- crop is gained from the study of the so-called yield tables, which give the contents of the dominant growth of fully stocked stands in Io-year periods. For each species and dif- ference in soil and climate this must necessarily vary, hence normal yield tables are classified into five site classes. In re- ality there is rarely such a full stand to be found as the yield tables give; they represent the attainable maxima, serving as a standard of comparison. The following tables refer to first-class sites, and show the difference in production between shade-enduring fir and spruce and the light-needing pine. An approximation to a statement of saw material in board measure can, for the older age classes, be obtained by multiplying cubic contents by 2 to 3. Only the timber wood (over 3-inch) is stated, and the amount of material to be derived in thinnings, which represents from 20 to 40 per cent of the final harvest, is omitted. YIELD TABLE OF FIR, SITE CLAss I. Vv i ‘ Age Number | Average Volume, eines eseaernt of trees. | height, ft.) cu. ft. Average. | Current. | Per cent. 20 5300 17 990 50 197 26.1 30 2210 31 3,550 118 317 8.4 40 1220 43 6,530 163 224 3.2 462 APPENDIX. YIELD TABLE OF SPRUCE, SITE CLASss I. Volume increment. Number | Average Volume, of trees. | height, ft. cu. ft. Average. | Current. | Per cent. 20 2560 I5 987 49 98 II.0 30 1680 34 2,310 78 155 7.1 4o 1050 50 4,200 105 211 6.3 80 317 92 9,687 121 113 9 go 265 99 | 10,744 | 120 99 8 100 240 105 11,730 117 98 7 YIELD TABLE OF SCOTCH PINE, SITE CLASs I. | Volume increment. Age. Number | Average | Volume, of trees. | height, ft. cu. ft. | Average. Current. | Per cent. _—————OK€ | | LL | 80 245 86 75330 gI 58 8 go 200 92 7,840 87 50 6 100 170 93 8,275 83 45 5 The average maximum total wood production per acre per year in a 100-year rotation under German conditions, for Ger- man species, German forest management, and for different site 463 HUNDRED CuBICc FT. 180 0 10 #2 30 40 SO 60 70 80 90 100 N10 120YEARS Diagram showing comparative progress of yields of spruce, fir, pine, and beech, on best and poorest site classes. classes may be stated as follows, leaving out the yield in the thinnings, which may amount to as much as 4o per cent of the final harvest : — SITE CLASS. . I. ensift, | \euft.5) cus...) em ft. [en te ED ON eee 93 70 56 45 35 Motway Spruce.” . . + |. 4154: | 127 99 78 56 PEC woe Sse {eee | Tae a7 RMR ear gio eg) PO 85 70 50 35 By multiplying this average increment by 100, the years of rotation (or any number of years near that rotation), the total possible harvest per acre is obtained. It appears that 404 | APPENDIX. fir and spruce are the best producers, beech next, and pine, the most light-needing species, but also the most frugal as to soils, produces the least. Our White Pine compares probably more nearly to the spruce. The usual actual production falls, to be sure, considerably below these figures. The entire pro- duction of wood per acre of all the German forests is esti- mated as 50 cubic feet’ per acre per annum, or a total harvest of 1750 million cubic feet, half of which is timber wood and probably 4 billion feet B.M. saw material. For France the entire product is estimated at 356,000 million feet, or less than 40 cubic feet per acre. NOTES TO CHAPTER VII. P.177. Sprouting Capacity of Conifers. — The only conifer which sprouts vigorously and produces shoots growing into trees seems to be the Redwood (Seguota sempervirens) of our Pacific coast. Indeed, the peculiar appearance in the location of some of the old giants in a circle suggests that these even may have originated as sprouts from stumps of still older trees. NOTES. TO CHAPTER VIL. P. 213. Soil-rent Theory. Practicability and Profitable- ness of Silviculture. — The economic basis for forest manage- ment is not the same everywhere, hence the methods oi calculating the productive capacity must vary. The soil-rent idea can apply only in highly developed, densely populated countries, where the closest use of soils is imperative. Agriculture is not, as a rule, attempted on soils which do not promise a satisfactory return or soil rent, while the forest, finally, is relegated to the agriculturally useless soils which would bring no rent by other use. On account of the diffi- culty of transportation of forest products, location is of more moment than the natural fertility of the soil. While this limitation may be overcome by the building of roads and rail- NOTES. 465 roads, this is often not possible or financially practicable. Hence, areas distant from market may contain large supplies of timber of no value on account of their inaccessibility, and no fine finance calculation is practicable. Under such conditions, when not even crude exploitation pays, forest management upon financial basis is surely excluded. Such properties in- capable of earning a rent must by necessity be looked upon differently from those near markets. While on the latter it may be possible to institute a sustained yield management, the former may only be carefully exploited without too much waste and some attention to aftergrowth. NOTES. 1.0 CHAPTER. IX, P. 251. Taxation based on Productivity.—In Germany no attempt is made to induce private owners to conservative forest management by reduction of taxes. Forest property is taxed like all other property upon its properly ascertained value, which, however, varies in different states. There is a soil tax (erundsteuer), an income tax, and a property tax. The soil tax is determined upon the premise of a sustained yield management and the basis of productive capacity under such management — “ not to be gauged according to accidental expenditures or improvements or neglects, but according to a natural management under usual and generally practised dili- gence.’ The yield is determined upon the basis of the usually applied rotation with the species and kind of management. But it is the yield which caz be secured under these circum- stances, not the yield which is actually secured, upon which the tax is based, so that the good manager who can secure a yield higher than the ordinary one is benefited, the poor manager who allows his forest to deteriorate is punished. Moreover, since, as we have seen, wood prices and net yields improve, the older tax valuations favor the owner. Since the forest owner not only possesses the soil, but in a regulated forest management also the accumulated growing 2H 466 APPENDIX. stock (see p. 201) which represents usually 75 to 85 per cent of the total forest value, he is by so much richer than the farmer on similar soil, drawing interest not only on the soil value but also on this accumulated wood property. In Bavaria only the soil rent furnishes the basis for taxation, so that the largest source of income, the wood stock, is untaxed; other states recognize this principle, hence the forest pays more tax than the farm on soil of the same value and size. Formerly this was not done, and the forest owner was the favored tax- payer. In Prussia and Hesse the intention is to tax the soil rent only, but by peculiar method of calculation really a larger amount is taxed. In Saxony and some other states a most just, elastic, pro- gressive income tax for intermittent forest management is in vogue, whichis collected only when the owner receives an in- come, and remains unpaid in years without an income from the forest. No regard is here paid as to what part of the forest property is responsible for the income, in other words, the separation of wood stock and soil is not considered. In Prussia, on the other hand, the income from a decimation of the wood stock is not considered as liable to tax, because it is merely a change in form of capital. Of the whole forest value in Germany ie i is charge- able to soil, soil values for forest purposes met exten $200 and mostly not $100 per acre (see p. 126). In general terms the tax value of all the German forests figured at 3 per cent with a net income of $63,000,000 assum- ing results equal to state forests, represents $2,100,000,000 ($700,000,000 for state forests, $350,000,000 for corporations, $1,050,000,000 for private forests), or $60 per acre — one-third the value figured on p. 50. (The Saxon state forests, which produce the highest net income, are figured as between $115 and $233.) Allowing 4 for the soil, the wood capital repre- sents $50 per acre, or the total $1,750,000,000. Allowing a similar division of earnings, namely, } to be credited to soil and 8 to stock of wood, the soil rent at 3 per cent figures NOTES. 467 30 cents per acre, varying (in 1895) between 17.2 cents in Prussia and 72.2 cents in Saxony. The forest soil in Prussia in the tax lists is assessed upon the basis of a net yield varying from 18.3 cents to $1.25, average 49.5 cents per acre, while the farm soils are taxed upon the basis of a net yield of 81 to 396 cents, or 182.5 in the average. . P. 263. Forest Fire Insurance. — The Gladbacher Fire In- surance Company in Germany insures forest properties ac- cording to age, species, and local danger. The fire insurance value of young stands is calculated by a discount with a 5 per cent interest rate on the final harvest value; for mature stands the actual present value is supposed to persist for 10 years. The premiums based for each 1000 mark insurance value are in the average, for broad-leaved forests, : ’ - 0.05 mark; for mixed conifer and broad-leaved forest, 1.20 mark; for conifers pure, . 4 ; : . 2 marks. The minimum rate is 0.45 mark, the maximum 4 marks per 1000 mark value. NOTES TO CHAPTER X. There should have been mentioned in the text, as of par- ticular interest to us, what position our neighbor Canada has taken with regard to her forestry interests. Like the United States Canada possesses two forest regions, the eastern and the western, divided by a forestless prairie and plains country. The northern climate reduces both in the east and the west the species composing the forest; but on the whole, the type of forest found at the boundary of the United States continues for a considerable distance into Can- ada, until with the decimation of species and decrease in de- velopment, the more or less open woodlands of the northern forest type are reached, where spruce, aspen, and birch of inferior quality and no commercial, although of local value, 468 APPENDIX. similar to our interior Alaskan forest, in open stand and groves of greater or less extent, are scattered across the continent. With only a small population, somewhat over 5 millions, on an immense area, 3,654,000 square miles, the availability of large parts of which are still unknown and only 75 millions of acres occupied, Canada has drawn on her immense forest resource mainly for export to Great Britain and the United States and a few other wood consumers, but the two first- mentioned countries dividing the bulk in nearly equal shares. The amount of exports is, however, not as large as we would be led to believe from the frequent references to Canada’s position as an exporter of wood, for the values of forest and mill products seem not to exceed $30,000,000, to which about 3 millions more of wood manufactures is to be added, the range of exports for the last ten years having been from $25,000,000 to $35,000,000, which is reduced by about $3,500,000 of imports. This represents a per capita export of about 140 cubic feet. It would appear that the United States exports on the whole more forest product than Canada, against whom she maintains a suicidal wood tariff. The great value of Canadian forests was early recognized, and even during the French régime reservations were made to protect the supply of oak suitable for shipbuilding, and in 1763, when the English took possession, a more organized system was established to accomplish the same object; a cer- tain area being set aside in each township, where cutting was prohibited except by the contractors for the many yards. Again, in 1775, the home government ordered the setting aside of large tracts of pine-bearing land. Under this system the navy yard contractors had practically a monopoly, and the colonial government received no revenue from its forests. In 1826 in Upper Canada a measure was passed permitting any one to cut timber on the ungranted lands by the payment of a fixed scale of rate to the Crown, and it is interesting to note that already there was an attempt made to perpetuate the NOTES. 469 forest by doubling the rate on all trees cut which would not square more than eight inches. By the Crown Timber Act in 1849 the granting licenses for one year only was permitted, with the provision that at the end of the year the government could make any desired change in the regulations. At first only a ground rent of 62 cents per square mile, or double that if unworked, was charged, but as competition for the limits began, the system of auctioning them was introduced, and till this time this system has persisted with a few modifications. In this way the government still owns the land and has a right at any time to refuse to renew licenses. At present there is a division of authority in the forest administration between the Dominion and the Provincial governments. The Dominion administration is under the Department of Interior, and controls the land north of Que- bec and Ontario, including Labrador on the east and extend- ing west to British Columbia and Alaska. The Dominion also owns a strip of land in British Columbia along the Canadian Pacific Railway, 40 miles wide and 500 miles long, which is heavily forested. This Dominion forestry branch has been established only four years, but already it has a fairly efficient system of fire rangers, and has commenced a great work of forest tree plant- ing on the plains. This movement was really started by the Experimental Farms under Dr. William Saunders in 1889, and since that time to 1901, 14 millions of young forest trees and cuttings and 8.5 tons of seed, chiefly box-elder and green ash, have been distributed among the settlers. This work is taken up by the Interior Department more extensively. Most of the forest now being exploited comes under the jurisdiction of the Provincial governments, except in Manitoba and the territories, where the country is new and forest land scarce. In Prince Edward Island the forests are almost en- tirely under private owners, and not much has been done in the way of forestry. In the other provinces the forests are perhaps the most valuable form of public wealth. In all, 470 APPENDIX. a system of licensing timber limits with some minor variations in price and regulations is in vogue, and in that way the timber lands themselves are still largely owned by the govern- ment. The main problem before the administrations is the fire problem, and all have made some attempts at protection, but still large areas are burned over annually, except in On- tario, where the ranger system has been very effective, and in 1go1 the loss from fire was slight. During Igor this pro- tection, one-half paid by the limit holders, cost only $30,000, an insignificant sum when compared with the losses from fire in former years. Already over 7,000,000 acres have been set aside by the Dominion or Provincial governments as forest reservations, and it is expected that in the near future this will be greatly increased. Under the Federal Government some ten reserves, containing 3,000,000 acres, have been established in Manitoba and the Northwest Territories on wooded mountain ranges and in the foothills of the Rockies. Ontario has four reserves, viz., Lake Temagami of 1,400,000 acres, Algonquin Park of 1,109,000 acres, an 80,000-acre tract in Addington and Frontenac counties, and 45,000 acres in Sibly County, north of Lake Superior. In Quebec, the Laurentide Park contains 1,634,000 acres, and in the last legislature in New Brunswick a bill was passed authorizing the setting apart of a large forest reserve on the Crown lands. What is greatly to be commended in the forestry adminis- tration in Canada is, that the state retains the ownership of the land and can at any time set aside any portion desired, and that from the sale of the limits, ground rents, and royalties on timber cut, a revenue is procured, which in Ontario, at least, relieves the people from any direct tax for state pur- poses. If, under the present wasteful system of forest ex- ploitation, such a revenue is procured, it may confidently be expected that a much larger amount will be realized when the reservations are increased, as is expected, and the forests are piaced under scientific management. At present most of the NOTES. 47I reservations, except the Lake Temagami, consist of young trees, and it has not been decided what course will be taken to harvest the crop. Forestry associations exist in the provinces of Quebec, British Columbia, and also a Dominion association, founded in 1898, which is largely composed of lumbermen, making its future work more hopeful. NOTES, TO. (CHAPTER XI. In addition to the statistics contained in Chapter II and the notes to that chapter the following additional data may be of interest. The writer must caution readers again that such statistics are not to be conceived as mathematically correct enumerations. Even census statistics may not be considered more than approximations, and contain elements of judgment and estimate. To make them practically useful the informa- tion they contain must be used with discretion ; the information must be completed by estimate, z.e. by “logical inferences from data and relations reported.” While the enumerations should be reported by the enumerator exactly, the statistician is justified in rounding off figures, for he is interested merely in relationships which are more clearly brought out by such rounding off. 3 FOREST AREA OF THE UNITED STATES BY STATES. The subjoined table gives an estimate of the areas eich either bear commercially valuable forest or are capable of producing such without effort of man in our generation. This table is based upon a similar table prepared by the writer in 1893, corrected upon the basis of the farm area reported by the twelfth census. The geographical arrangement and sub-additions have been made with a view of bringing out the relative commercial and economic value of the forest areas. 472 APPENDIX. Area. Per cent. : : Brush, pik 5 mprove forest,; Prob- pen Geert, d land in Se eer and ably ai coun- : farms. * | waste | forest. ‘| try. Baber! REELS fais le: 2 ieee Thousand |Thousand acres. acres. UNITED STATES | 1,900,800 | _ 414,793 22 78 26 Maine . . +. 19,132 2,386 12 88 64 New Hampshire. 59783 1,076 19 8x 62 Vermonte: 5 G1)“ 5,846 2,126 36 64 42 Massachusetts . 5,155 1,292 25 75 29 Rhode Island. . 694 187 27 73 40 Connecticut . . 3,100 1,064 34 66 29 New England states . . 39,710 8,131 20 80 52 New York. . . 30,376 15,599 5I 49 30 Pennsylvania. . 28,790 13,209 46 54 24 New Jersey .. 4,671 1,977 42 58 41 Delaware .. . 1,254 754 60 40 24 Maryland ... 6,310 3,516 56 44 32 Middle Atlantic States 4's 71,401 35,055 49 51 28 Virginia. . . .| 25,680 10,094 39 61 48 North Carolina . 31,089 8,327 27 73 54 South Carolina . 19,308 5,775 30 70 45 Georgia.: 5 6-~ 38,647 10,615 27 73_| 5° Southern Atlan- tic states . . 114,724 34,811 30 7o 49 Atiantic Coast| _ 225,835 |__77:997 |____35 | 65 | 43 aaa 2c? ass anrice 345713 rene 4 96 58 Alabama. . . 32,986 8,654 26 74 53 Mississippi. . . 29,658 7,594 26 74 44 Louisiana .. . 29,069 4,666 16 84 45 Gulf states . . 126,426 22,425 18 82 50 REXAS it. ce eens 167,808 19,576 12 88 23 Michigan . . . 36,755 11,799 32 68 50 Wisconsin. . . 34.848 11,246 32 68 47 Minnesota. . . 50,691 18,442 36 64 36 Northern lum- bering states 122 294 41,487_ 34 66 Se Ohi .o.55 eh sia 26,086 19,244 74 26 16 Indiana’). 9.6, J 22,982 16,680 73 27 15 Dihimois set eh 35,840 27,699 77 23 10 Northern agri- cultural states 84,008 63,623 75 25 13 LAKE STATES . 207,202 | 105,110 51 49 31 West Virginia. . 15,772 5,498 35 65 52 Kentucky . .. 25,600 13,741 54 46 43 Tennessee .°. . 26,720 10,245 38 62 55 Arkansas . . . 33,949 6,953 21 79 60 Missouri... 43,990 22,900 52 48 36 Central states . 146,031 59,337 41 59 48 NOTES. 473 Table continued. Area. Per cent. I d forest’| Prob mprove orest,| Prob- Open ee ore land in a igs and | abl pened coun- - farms. * | waste| forest. | “97° | try. land. Thousand | Thousand : acres. acres COV Ants nine ties 35,504 29,897 84 16 13 North Dakota. . 45,308 9,644 21 79 I South Dakota. . 49,696 11,285 23 77 2 Webraska. 2. s 42,998 18,432 43 57 3 Kansas . . . .| - 52,288 25,040 48 52 7 Oklahoma. . . 24,960 5,511 22 78 Prairie states . 250,754 99-809 40 60 4 INTERIOR STATES| 396,785 | _159,146 40 60 20 Montana .. . 92,998 1,730 2 98 18 20 60 Wyoming... 62,448 792 I 99 12 16 71 Colorado. . . 66,332 2,273 3 97 16 21 60 New Mexico . . 78,374 326 0.4 99 21 72 Eastern Rocky Mountain region| 300,154 5.127 2 98 13 20 65 Idaho... . . 535645 1,413 ae 97 20 | 40 37 evdds . «i ss 705233 572 0.8 | 99.2 9 go jl or 52,601 1,032 2 98 16 27 55 AAZOM At.) lets 72,268 254 0.3 99-7 14 12 74 Western Rocky Mountain region} _ 249,047 3,271 1.3 98.7 8 22 69 Rocky Movun- TAIN REGION . 549,201 8,398 1.5 98.5 be) 21 67.5 California . . . 99,827 11,958 12 88 18 27 43 Jo 60,518 3,328 5 95 35 28 32 Washington .. 42,703 3.465 8 g2 52 20 20 Pacific coast. 203,048 18,751 9 gt 30 27 34 Norte. — The authority for the area of improved farm land is furnished by the census of 1900. The areas of forest, brush, and waste lands were ascertained by subtracting the area of cultivated land from the total land areas of the several states, and are placed as per cent of the total areas in column 4. The part of these supposed to be forest is estimated on information obtained by various agencies. For the western section of the country the further subdivision into forest, brush, and open country is based partly on statistics gathered by Colonel Ensign and published in Bulletin 2 of the Division of Forestry, and partly on the map published in the report of the Forestry Division for 1892. These figures would indicate that, in round numbers, less than 415 million acres are turned into farm lands, about two- thirds of which was hewn out of the forest; that the pro- ductive area of forest growth, by no means all virgin, falls 474 APPENDIX. somewhat below 500 million acres; that nearly 450 million acres are open country which is presumably incapable of pro- ducing any valuable forest growth on account of climatic defi- ciencies, leaving a balance of over 500 million acres as waste and brush land, of which at least three-fifths have been made so by the combined efforts of axe and fire. The territorial distribution of the forest area may be broadly defined as follows : — (1) The Atlantic forest, covering mountains and valleys in the east, reaching westward to the Mississippi River and beyond to the Indian Territory and south into Texas, an area of about 1,361,330 square miles, mostly of mixed growth, hardwoods and conifers, with here and there large areas of coniferous growth alone—a vast and continuous forest. (2) The mountain forest of the west, or Pacific forest, cov- ering the higher elevations below timber line of the Rocky Mountains, Sierra Nevada, and Coast Range, which may be estimated at 181,015 square miles, almost exclusively of coniferous growth, of enormous development on the northern Pacific coast, more or less scattered in the interior and to the south. . . (3) The prairies, plains, lower elevations, and valleys of the west, with a scattered tree growth, on which, whether from climatic, geologic, or other causes, forest growth is con- fined mostly to the river bottoms or other favorable situations, an area of about 1,427,655 square miles, of which 276,965 square miles may be considered under forest cover of decidu- ous species east of the Rockies and of coniferous and deciduous species in the west of this divide. The maps to be found in the reports of the Forestry Di- vision, United States Department of Agriculture, for 1893, and in the oft-cited H. R. Doc. 181, give an idea of the rela- tive location of these forest areas and their economic value. Volume XI. Part 3 of the Twelfth Census contains not only a very detailed and full elaboration of the statistics of the NOTES. 475 lumber industry, but also a map showing the distribution of that industry over the country by values produced per square mile. This shows the most intense concentration of this manufacture in the northern section of Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota; in the middle west of New York and Penn- sylvania, in Maine and New Hampshire, and, on the Pacific coast,in Washington and on a small territory in Oregon along the Columbia River, while the centres of intensive pro- duction in the Southern states are more widely scattered with reference to shipping ports along the coast and Missis- sippi River. STATISTICS OF WOOD CONSUMPTION. The eleventh volume of the Twelfth Census, containing re- ports on “ Selected Industries,” reaches the writer in time to give the following brief résumé of the lumber interests. The census of Igoo for the first time seems to have secured tolerably full although still incomplete statistics of the lumber industry of the United States, which show that the estimate of _ the writer of 40 billion feet B.M. (see pp. 40 and 349) annual consumption is as near the truth as it can possibly be stated, including all material requiring log and bolt size, for the saw- mill product alone is placed by the census at 35 billion feet, precisely the amount which the writer deduced from the re- ported sawmill capacity in 1898.1 The allowance of 5 billion feet for staves and headings, railroad ties, round and hewn timber used locally, telegraph poles, etc., is, indeed, hardly sufficient. Since, however, in the census statistics there are undoubtedly duplications, we may perhaps still adhere, for all purposes of economic discussions, to our round figure of 40 billion as representing fairly our present annual consump- tion. The summary of the census (1900), mixing up sawmills, planing mills, and timber camps, stands as follows : — 1H. R. Doc. 181, 55th Cong., 3d sess., p. 119. 476 APPENDIX. Number of establishments (reporting or exist- ing?) . : ; ° : : 2 33,035 Capital invested . . : , - $611,611,524 Salaried officials, 12,530 ‘ . ‘ : 11,260,608 Wage earners, 283,260 ; : - - 104,640,591 Miscellaneous expenses . . : : 17,731,519 Cost of materials used ‘ 4 - 317,923,548 Value of products, total ; : 566,832,984 Saw mill. . : $422,812,061 Planing mill . : 107,622,519 Timber camps. : 36,398,404 Quantity of sawed lumber, M ft., B.M. . : 35,084,166 The Chief Statistician of Manufactures, commenting on these statistics, which show an increase in lumber product of 30 per cent over that reported by the eleventh census, writes : — “The consumption of wood in the industries is increasing at a much more rapid rate than the population, in spite of the fact that in many articles metals are substituted for wood. While the timber is being used more and more economically and the waste is being diminished year by year, still the rate of destruction of the forests is yearly increasing.” The figure of $318,000,000 represents the cost of the logs and other raw materials at the various mills which produced the 35 million feet of lumber and whatever other products were produced in the mills. Discrepancies between the re- ported output of the logging camps (26 billion feet), and that of the sawmills, amounting to over 36 per cent (!), are explained by the compiler as due to failure of small concerns reporting on the former and to increase in the scale at the mill. The sawmills alone seem to have produced from logs, bolts, and cords of wood valued at $135,000,000 a product valued at $423,000,000. In addition to the 35 million feet of ‘umber valued at $390,000,000,! representing 92 per cent 1Jn another table this is reported as $385,298,304. Altogether the tabulations do not always agree, NOTES. 477 of the whole, the following materials were produced at the mills : — OUTPUT OF FACTORIES USING WooD PRODUCTS. Value. Material. Quantity. Million dollars. Shingles, M . : ° ° : 12,102,007 18.9 Hoops, M . . ° . , 441,327 2:7 Staves, M : . ‘ 2 1,664,792 13.7 Headings, M . : : 124,089 4:3 Bobbin and spool ey M ft. : 40,037 c Furniture stock, M ft. . ; ; 105,305 1.9 Agricultural implement stock, M ft. 33250 6 Carriage and wagon stock, M ft. . 82,686 1.8 Pickets and paling, M_. ° ° 35,804 on Laths, M : . ; 2,523,998 4.7 All other sawed products. : : 19.6 The mill product outside the lumber value was therefore round $70,000,000. These, as well as the following products of timber camps, exhibit the great variety of wood materials, all of smaller value, yet aggregating considerable quantities. While these represent reported amounts from regular mills and camps, an unknown quantity is furnished from irregular sources, — farmers and jobbers. Altogether it is certain that census figures must remain considerably below the actual truth, owing to the difficulty of reaching all the information. The independent timber camps added to the 3383 million feet of logs cut for sale, valued at $20,600,000, the following products, aggregating about $15,000,000 : — 478 APPENDIX. Value. Material. Quantities. Thousand dollars. Logs for export, M ft. . . : 85,306 580 Hewed timber, M ft. : ° : 39,759 348 Basket stock, M ft. . : ‘ 7,443 28 Cooperage stock, cords . ‘ : 82,546 347 Excelsior stock, cords. ; : 12,670 49 Fence posts, No. . : “ ; 8,715,661 606 Hop poles, No. : Sata ‘| 19205. 3o0 12 Handle stock, cords ; : : 6,423 42 Hemlock bark, cords ‘ ‘ : 473,222 | 1,945 Oak bark, cords ‘ ; ; - 39,844 229 Piles, No. - ; ° ° : 396,629 759 Paving stock, cords . . . 554 2 Railway ties. : : ° : 22,591,894 | 6,299 Shingles, rived, M . : : : 41,433 78 Mast and spars, No. = - - 2,580 29 Ship knees, No. ‘ : : ; 1,601 5 Telegraph poles, No. : . : 937,963 | 1,394 Wheel stock, cords . f : ; 9,317 46 Charcoal, bush. : é : : 6,796,334 459 All other products . 3 : 5 1,666 ooo The distribution of the sawed product as reported by regions shows as follows : — Adding } for Million feet B.M.} non-enumerated materials. New England, N. Atlantic states 55530 6.3 Central states . : ; . 2,420 2.8 Lake states . . : : P 8,760 Io. Southern states 2 j : 14,500 16.6 Pacific states. ai eee : 2,900 73 Rocky Mountain states. . 560 64 Miscellaneous . t : ‘ 400 .46 NOTES. ‘479 If we compare this distribution with that given on p. 350 for the census year 1890, allowing for the non-enumerated materials at the same proportion in all districts, it would appear that the cut in the first group of states has probably slightly increased, but that the cut in the Central and Lake states has very materially decreased, unquestionably owing to decrease in supplies ; while the Southern states have increased their output to meet this deficiency, and the increase in the Western states is but slight. Although regionally the white pine district is now in its total production outstripped by the Southern states, yet the three states of Wisconsin, Michigan, and Minnesota are still by far the three largest lumber-pro- ducers, in the order named, with Pennsylvania a close fourth, these four states furnishing nearly one-quarter of the value and one-third of the product. The white pine product of the three Lake states has been reduced nearly 4o per cent since 1890, the year of maximum production. At that time it was 8.6 bil- lion feet (not including shingles) ; gradually decreasing, it has fallen now (1901) to 5.4 billion. The American Lumberman, which furnishes these data most acceptably, formerly ridiculing the idea of waning sup- plies, comments on this decline significantly : — ““We may say that if former methods of collecting statistics had been followed there would have been a heavier decline. That is to say, the report for I901 is more nearly complete than that for any previous year. It means simply that the timber is disappearing, that the still increasing wants of the country must be and are supplied to an increasing extent from other sources. In that decline we see the chief stimulus to the growth of the lumber industry in the South and on the Pacific coast.” And further accentuating the change of stand- ards, which made earlier estimates of standing timber wrong: “But what a change in quality! If all the remaining white pine could be manufactured into lumber and put on the mar- ket at once, it is doubtful if there would be as much good lum- ber, to say nothing about uppers, as there was in 1882 alone.” 480 APPENDIX. And referring to the low condition of stocks in the yards: “The reason of this decrease in stocks seems to be that the demand can no longer be satisfied by drawing stocks down, but that the demand must in a measure remain unsatisfied or be supplied with other woods.” With due allowance for differences in manner of collating statistics, failures in securing information, and differences of values in money and price, the following figures of the vari- ous censuses may be used at least to show the tendencies of increase in the lumber output, giving the per cent of increase over each previous decade. 1850. 1860. 1870. 1880. 1890. 1900. Number of establishments, thousands . < « ipa th) 20.7 25.8 25.7 22.6 33 Per cent increase . ‘ 10 25 0.5 12 46 Capital, million dollars SS orhied 74.5 143.5 181.2 557.9 G6z3.6 Per cent increase . : 80 93 26 208 ro Laborers, thousands . a 6&8 75.8 150 148 312. 283 Percent increase... 36 98 pF rit 9 Cost of materials, million dollars F : : 2 as 44.6 103.3 146 242.6 317.9 Percentincrease. . 57 132 41 66 3t Value of products, million dollars = = - «~ \Goig 96.7. 210.2 233.3 438 566.8 Percentincrease . . 60 117 11 88 29 Population, millions . . 23.2 31.4 38.6 50.2 62.6 76.3 Percentincrease . . 36 23 30 25 22 From this it would appear that while the population in the 50 years grew by 228 per cent, its lumber bill during the same period grew by 840 per cent, or from $2.60 per capita to $7.43, an increase similar to that of the European nations as noted on p. 453 ef seq. : Exports of wood, its manufactures, and other forest products have also increased lately at a rapid rate, namely, as follows : — Million dollars. 1894 ‘ ; ° . : ‘ 5 age 1895 ° . . : ° : , See q 1896 ; . ‘ ; ; ; <.) -Bag NOTES. 481 Million dollars. I 897. e e es s . . e 39-6 1898 : ° . : : : Paiste 1899 ° ; ° . ° ° ov ADE 7790: ; : ; ; : -. 50.6 While imports have remained nearly stationary and usually below $20,000,000 in value; of the exports less than 25 per cent are manufactured articles. The census compiler furnishes the following table, attempt- ing to show the change in proportions of the total lumber product furnished by geographical divisions from census year to census year : — Ree |e oe) ee ener 54-5 6.4 13.8 3-9 POOR eei. a Ss 36.2 13.6 16.5 6.2 (a Rae 36.8 24.4 9-4 3-6 0 ee 24.8 33-4 11.9 3.5 Rep Se es 18.4 36.3 15-9 7.3 a eres 16.0 27-4 25.2 9.6 These figures represent only the reported mill cut with all the uncertainties accruing from differences in their collation, but bring out sufficiently clearly the change in supplies, namely, the steady decrease in the northeastern states, the beginning decline in the Lake states, the increase in the southern output, and the slower increase in the Pacific states, mainly for home consumption, hence in relation to increase of population. The different species are reported to have participated in the total cut as follows, arranged according to the relative position in the supply, verifying the writer’s estimate, that three-fourths of our consumption is of coniferous wood, the pines alone furnishing 50 per cent of all lumber cut : — 482 APPENDIX. : Value. Million feet, B.M. Toe Conifers. Southern Pine Sdde, apegics) 9580 80,726 White Pine: .—. 7483 94,980 Hemlock . wip te 1860 17,832 Spruce (and Balsam 2) Se 1448 16,323 Cypmess, 65x pari 496 6,604 Norway Pine. 5.) e..22s5kt ee. 259 3,022 Res. ioc eds Sek Tene 115 1,283 Tamarack . . Sterne 9 104 EASTERN SECTION —— 21,250 Red (Douglas) Fir . 1736 15,050 Hemlock 1560 16,305 Yellow Pine (western) . 1000 9,235 Redwood a hike 360 3,646 Cedar 118 1,260 Sugar Pine. 54 659 Tamarack . : 42 338 WESTERN SECTION 2 Bee 4,870 : All others . | 33 1,114 Ota (os Seta 2 oer reaete 26,153 268,481 Hardwoods (broad-leaved). | Oak (various species) . . . 4438 61,174 Poplar (Tulieys i. 2. ee I1I5 15,646 Mamie) 1) < tee un a ered 633 7,495 Polina 2h 54 cs gaan 456 5,240 Cottonwood “.. s. 42< sats 415 4,304 Hasswowtl- 2%. aie, we ek ae 308 33955 Gum Siac te pee ee 285 2,748 Aish oo ats By ey Se at ata 269 4,264 Chestngt O.-a5" Car 52 ea meinee ca 207 2,764 Bich 260 0 4 ce: ote eh nae re ane 133 1,658 TLIGROEY any ees hee arneR ae 97 1,815 Black Walout 3s "\.s7eay ia. Os 39 1,412 SV CAMAIE 2. ioCs nal atu rettew Pe 30 328 all GEES “8 eee sera eer eas 208 4,015 c* teers 8,633 Totals uci 0 eae sae 34,786 116,817 NOTES. 483 These figures do not, however, fully reveal the relative position of the different species in the wood supply; for the spruce, for instance, the consumption of sizeable material for wood pulp, with not less than 1000 million feet, will have to be added, and for other species from the same source some 300 million; the cut on farms, which is placed at nearly $120,000,000 in value, in part log or bolt size material, and not brought to mills, will have to be considered probably mainly in the hardwood cut. On the whole, the distribution given on p- 350 remains relatively correct. It is especially interesting to note the large amount of hemlock reported as cut on the Pacific coast (see p. 361). Statements are also made in the census report of the prob- able stand of uncut timber of the various species, without, however, giving the basis for such estimates, or rather guesses. These figures are as follows : — Billion Feet, B.M. no sanding, | One Southern Pine. : : : : 300 46.5 White Pine . ; . ° ° 50 16.4 Hemlock : . : : : 100 6.8 Spruce (Eastern) . ° > : 50 8.6 oo ES RS epee oe a 65 6.6 Red Fir . ‘ “ . ‘ . 300 23.8 Western Pine . : ° ° ; 125 24.6 Redwood : 8 : : ‘ 75 14.3 Sugar Pine. ° ° 25 3-9 Hardwood poeta oak) : : ? 30. These guesses would indicate a stock on hand of merchant- able coniferous wood of not less than rioo billion feet, of which round one-half is credited to the Eastern states. The 484 APPENDIX. writer does not see any reason for accepting these guesses as better than his own, or to change his general deduction, that with a present cut of probably over 24 billion feet (including pulp wood), which is increasing 30 per cent in every decade, the Eastern supplies will be cut out sooner than they can be replaced by recuperative measures. That only 14 per cent of this valuable property is reported as owned by lumbermen is rather surprising. The total amount of all species thus held is stated as 215,550 million feet, “probably somewhat more than one-tenth the amount now standing in the country!” In other words, the rough estimate of the writer recorded on p. 52 is accepted by the census compiler, Mr. Gannett, as within reasonable truth, and we would then have not fifty years’ supply in sight. We had hoped the census would prove this sad foreboding unfounded! The following tabulation, based probably on more sub- stantial data than the estimate of standing timber, is of inter- est in showing the relative productiveness and value of timber lands in the various sections of the country. It reports the acreage, contents, and value (capital invested) of the forest holdings of the 8888 lumber firms reporting such. Average : stand of Secs Capital. Acres owned. | merchantable aoe. Thousand Thousands timber dollars. é corugie: Feet, B.M. Eastern group. : 40,700 4,500 4,700 Lake group . : : 75,185 6,694. 4,900 Central group. : 17,527 3,244 4,700 Southern group . ° 54,037 12,414 5,000 Pacific group. . : 23,785 3,188 24,500 Miscellaneous group . 39755 2,182 2,500 United States. : 214,989 32,222 6,700 : NOTES. 485 These figures accord closely enough with the writer’s concep- tion, which was used in making the computation of the standing timber recorded on p. 52 upon the basis of the area stated on pp- 472-473- = The compiler comments as follows: “The average stand of timber per acre, being that of selected tracts owned by lumbermen, is, of course, higher than the average of the coun- try or state, and in the case of several of the states where the average stand has been obtained, it is known to be much higher. Thus in Minnesota the average stand is about one- half that here given, or about 2000 feet peracre. The same is the case in Oregon and Washington, where the large stands | here given (24,500) must be divided by 2 to obtain the average stand of the state. The southern pine has an average stand, according to the best information,! of not far from 3000 feet per acre, a little lower perhaps in the east and somewhat higher in the west.” With such reductions we can accept Mr. Gannett’s forest area of 700 million acres and find the condition of supplies even worse than the writer has presented it in Chap. XI. The average investment for stumpage would, from the above tabulation for the better lands, be $1 per M feet or $6.70 per acre; but it is well known that these figures are understate- ments as to the true stumpage value, and the tables recording the stumpage values for different states and different species show this to be the case. Here the stumpage value per M feet is given as $2.18, which, with an average stand of 6700 per acre, makes the stumpage value per acre $14.60. That even these recorded stumpage values remain below the actual truth, at least in certain instances, may be judged from the statement that the stumpage for white.pine ranges in the states in which it is of importance between $3.50 and $4 per M, when in actual sales double the higher figure has been 1 See Dr. Charles Mohr, ‘“ The Timber Pines of the Southern United States.” 486 APPENDIX. - paid, and this year millions of feet stumpage have been sold at more than $8 per M ft. Spruce stumpage is given as ranging between $2 and $3, when actual sales in New York were made at more than the latter price. The range of average stumpage varies from 80 cents in Washington to $4.95 in Iowa, while saw logs are valued from $4.02 in Nevada to $12.16 in Iowa, or $6.28 for the country, the cost of logging being therefore $3.90 per M in the average and may go up as high as $7. At present, with increase in labor and provisions, this cost is increased considerably. The average stumpage values per M feet B.M. of different species based upon the statements of forest-owning lumber- men figure out as follows : — Conifers Average. Maximum. White Pine . 5 4 . $3.66 $4.00 Norway Pine . - : “2.88 Hemlock ‘ ° ; ¢ 2256 3.00 Spruce 1 . ; . ae 3-00 Sugar Pine. : . re Cedar... : 4 3 rs Bags 2.00 Yellow Pine?. , : Pee & 1.60 Cypress . : ; : e455 Redwood ; : - 5566 Tamarack, |. : = ». Be Red (Douglas) Fir F ar 1.06 Hardwood Black Walnut : ‘ - §:¢0 Elm : : : ; = aio White Oak® . : ‘ Re 5-38 1 Spruce stumpage in New York is now not less than $4. 2 Mixes southern and western yellow pine; the former alone appears to average $1.20, its maximum $1.60 in Virginia, an exceedingly low figure for good pine property, which is now often sold at more than double this figure. 8 Includes probably all commercial oaks. NOTES. 487 Hardwood — continued Average. Maximum, Ash ; ; : , Mae Vie Poplar (Tulip) : : oe 1 3.00 Chestnut ‘ ; : ee Bag Maple .. oP nae : 32-00 Red Gum : ‘ : E.G Basswood . : : ie 2. Cottonwood . : ; A458 The lumber industry is stated to be the fourth among the great manufacturing industries of the country in value of prod- ucts, being exceeded by the iron and steel, the textile, and the meat industry. But this does not state the relative value of forest products, including the large amount of fuel wood and other materials of home consumption not going through the mills, and the valuable by-products. If all these unenumerated forest products are counted in, the forest resource as a producer of values is unquestionably second only to agriculture. P. 342. Reservation of Mountain Forests in connection with Irrigation. — In the western country, as Mr. Newell states,} “the forests of the arid region not only mark the greatest rainfall but also indicate the locality from which come the principal streams. The headwaters of nearly all of our rivers which give value to the lands are within the forested regions.” Hence the close connection between the extensive irrigation plans and forest management. NOTES TO CHAPTER XII. P. 371. Fears of Wood Famine.— The fear of a wood famine troubled the minds not only of our ancestors in this country but still more so in the countries of Europe a hundred years ago, before railroad transportation and navigation had 1“ Trrigation in the United States, " by F. H. Newell. 7. Y. Crowell ‘& Co., 1902. 488 APPENDIX. been developed to their modern proportions, making us inde- pendent of local supplies. This is most strikingly exhibited by the following list of titles taken from the catalogue of the library of the well-known German forest academy at Tharandt, which show that in Ger- many one hundred years ago forest conditions must have been somewhat similar to ours, or worse, and remedies, quack and otherwise, were being discussed as freely as with us. Collection of economic information, how to promote wood- growth, introduce better economy in the case of wood, and prevent scarcity of wood supplies by applying buiid- ing timber more usefully, 1762. On the general deficiency of wood supplies and on the means how to meet it, 1765. Proposition, how to meet the general decrease of wood sup- plies most quickly and surely, if not entirely at least for the greater part, 1788. Prize essay on the question: How is the rapidly coming wood famine to be avoided and a proper reforestation of waste lands to be secured, 1794. Answer to the question: How the scarcity of wood can be overcome, 1795. Open thoughts on scarcity of wood, especially of fire wood, in Schleswig-Holstein and how to help it, 1798. On wood famine, 1799. Something on deficiency of wood supplies, with propositions how to cure it, 1799. The Catalpa (!)1 a sure means of avoiding the wood famine, 1800. On some of the causes of wood scarcity which have not yet been recognized and appreciated, 1800. Forestry, or instructions how the deficiency in wood supply may be met, and their increase promoted, 18o1. 1This has been pointed out with similar hopes in this country. See Bulletin No. 37, Bureau of Forestry, giving a full description of characteristics of plantations of the Hardy Catalpa. NOTES. 489 Contributions to the avoidance of a wood famine, 1801. Open thoughts on scarcity, prices, economy, in the use of wood, and on silviculture, 1802. Something on the general scarcity of wood in the Austrian states, 1805. Investigations on the value of wood and the importance of the economic use of wood, 1806. Wood famine and the state forests, 1840. On deforestation and increase of wood prices, with remarks on the propositions which are made for the conservation of forests, 1843. Short instructions for the increase and economic use of wood, 1845. The cause of increased wood prices and the importance of the care and preservation of forests as the only means to reduce them, 1846. P. 409. Federal Forest Reservations. — There are at present writing (October, 1902) 54 forest reservations, created under the act of March 3, 1891, embracing over 60 million acres, namely : — Acres, State or territory. Name of reserve. Thou- sands. Alaska. . . | Afognak Forest and Fish Culture . ; 404 The Alexander Archipelago 4,506 Arizona. . . | Grand Cafion . 1,852 San Francisco Mountain . 1,975 Black Mesa 3 : - | 4,659 Prescott . : ‘ : 424 Santa Rita. : ; 387 Santa Catalina . , : 156 Mount Graham . : Fa Bes Chiricahua . : : ; 170 California . ‘ . | San Gabriel ; ‘ ; 556 Sierra é ° . | 4,096 San Bernardino . : : 737 - Trabuco Cafion . : : 110 490 State or territory. California . Colorado . . Idaho and Montana . Idaho and Washington Montana Nebraska . Bs New Mexico Oklahoma . Oregon South Dakota and Wyoming Utah. : Washington Wyoming . APPENDIX. Name of reserve. Stanislaus . San Jacinto Pine Mountain and Zaca Lake ¢ Lake Tahoe Santa Ynez ‘ White River Pike’s Peak Plum Creek South Platte Battlement Mesa San Isabel. Bitterroot . Priest River Flathead Lewis and Clarke Gallatin Little Belt Mountaine. Madison . ; - Absaroka . Dismal River Niobrara Pecos River Gila River . Lincoln Wichita Bull Run : Cascade Range . Ashland Black Hills Uintah Fish Lake . Payson Washington Mt. Rainier Yellowstone Big Horn . Teton , Crow Creek | Medicine Bow BIBLIOGRAPHY A very full bibliography bearing upon the subject-matter of this volume, mainly of German literature, but with a few references to French, English, and other languages, is to be found in Dr. ADAM SCHWAPPACH’S Forstfolitik, Jagd- u Fischeretpolittk, which appeared in 1894 as the roth volume of the Hand- und Lehrbuch der Staatswissenschaften, edited by KuUNO FRANKENSTEIN. The volume itself is probably the best and most complete work on the subject, written, to be sure, from German points of view and including the fish and- game interests. This bibliography divides the subject, outside of the last two phases, into 16 sub-heads with over 600 titles (644 with repetitions), viz. : — I. Encyclopedic hand-books, or histories of forestry, forest politics and forest law, and writings of general, theoretical, and methodological contents . . . . IIg titles II. Collective works, reports, annuals, — hae Benes 1S a6, = III. Forest law and fluent iesisintign a diierent piates 2) ge) *e IV. History and dewsesuna ine ‘tele ‘avaduitee trations in different states and parts of Sc a ere ae ; ah men oF V. Conditions of “iecuibeaaes economic seaiee cance, material and immaterial benefits of tmedlbrest: 3-2. Jeo S VI. State forests and state forest adsiiaistrations 4a.; “ VII. Education, experimentation, and associa- tion— The organs of forest politics . . 29 « 4gt APPENDIX. and associations for forest management . 5 . Forest laborerscs: 5 24 tos See ee « Protective forests)... 14 . Supervision of private and poianlinial ferent MQHAGEMENE. | oo seo aha athe et ae . Means of transportation in forestry . . . Io titles . Tarif on woo 22% Ste est Se ee . Forest servitudes (rights of aera eee ee ee . Partition and collocation of forest property “ 6“ XV. Police protection of forests . . . . . . 16 ® XVI... Forest statistics...) .)06 0:35, %. oe pee The scope of Dr. Schwappach’s treatment of the part en- titled Forest Politics, will appear from a statement of the headings : — I. Conditions of production in forestry . 28 pages II. The significance of forests in the national economy . . kee ‘Ul. Forest policies (F orstaiechanenieass ee Laon! 00 ON Aw HW N . The state forest. . Forestry education. . Forestry experimentation. . Forest statistics. . Forestry associations. . Transportation of wood. . Tariffs on wood. . Servitudes. . Division and amalgamation of forest properties. . Insurance of forest laborers. “ 14 IV. Forest police «sess 36 uae pak ee fo Nn = . Protective forests. . Supervision of private forestry. Supervision of corporate forests. - Police protection. BIBLIOGRAPHY. 493 In the catalogue of the Library of the Royal Saxon Forest Academy at Tharandt, published in 1900 and containing a list of over 23,000 volumes, the subdivision entitled Forest Admin- stration, Forest Politics, and Forest Statistics alone contains 731 titles. In the “ Handworterbuch der Staatswissenschaften,” edited by Conrad, Elster, Lexis, and Loening (Jena, Ig00, Gustav Fisher), an excellent article on Forsten by M. Endres treats the subject on 64 large 8vo pages very comprehensively and somewhat in the manner of the present volume, in three chapters, namely, I, Significance, Extent, and History of Forests; II, Forest Management; III, Forest Politics. A selected bibliography accompanies each chapter; the last chapter more particularly referring to our subject contains only 63 titles and the entire bibliography about 160 titles. The writer is indebted for much statistical information to this article. In the “ Handbuch der Forstwissenschaft,” edited by Dr. Tuisko Lorey (Tiibingen, 1887, 3 vols. large 8vo), one of the best encyclopedic works for the professional forester, J. Lehr, the author of the very complete chapter on Forest Politics, contents himself with a bibliography of 24 titles. These four lists lay naturally all or special stress on German publications. The French literature contains only few comprehensive treatises on the subject, but a large amount of ephemeral or magazine writings, especially on the reboisement of the mountain forests, climatic influences, the duty of the state, etc. The best journal of reference is “ Revue des eaux et foréts.” The best work on the extensive reboisement operations of the French government is that of Demontzey. The English literature shows a considerable dearth of literature on all forestry subjects, except with reference to the forests of India, the /zdian Forester being now the only English forestry journal since the Journal of Forestry was abandoned seventeen years ago. 494 APPENDIX. In the following list of books only a few standard works of general interest and works of reference are given, which cover the subject sufficiently for the general reader. The student is referred for fuller lists to the above-cited sources. The list of American reference books has been made as full as possible. GERMAN. Arndt, E. Die Privatforstwirthschaft in Preussen. Berlin, 1889. Arnold, v. Russlands Wald. Berlin, 1893. Bedo, A. Die wirthschaftliche u. commerzielle Beschreibung der Walder des Ungarischen Staates. Budapest, 1885. Bernhardt, A. Die Waldwirthschaft und der Waldschutz mit besonderer Riicksicht auf die Waldschutzgesetzgebung in Preussen. Berlin, 1869. Bernhardt, A. Geschichte des Waldeigenthums, der Wald- wirthschaft u. Forstwissenschaft in Deutschland. 3 vols. Berlin, 1872-3. A standard work. Dankelman, B. Die deutschen Nutzholzzdlle. Eine Wald- schutzschrift. Berlin, 1883. Ebermayer. Die physikalischen Einwirkungen des Waldes auf Luft, etc. Aschaffenburg, 1873. The first attempt of a scientific discussion of forest influences on the basis of extensive experimental data. v. Fischbach, C. Lehrbuch der Forstwissenschaft. Berlin, 1886. The best brief treatment of the technicalities. Hagen-Donner. Die forstlichen Verhaltnisse Preussens. 2 vols. 3d ed. Berlin, 1894. An excellent, complete statistical and economic account of the Prussian forest administration. Henko, K. H. Beitrage zur Statistik der Forsten des euro- paischen Russlands. Petersburg, 1888. Translated by Guse. Berlin, 1889. Lehr, J. Beitrage zur Statistik der Preise, besonders des Geldes und Holzes. Frankfurt, 1885. BIBLIOGRAPHY. 495 Lehr, J. Die deutschen Holzzélle und deren Erhodhung. Frankfurt, 1883. Economic arguments for retention and abolition of tariff on wood imports by two good authori- ties. v. Loffelholz-Colberg, F. Chrestomatie: Die Bedeutung und Wichtigkeit des Waldes, etc. Leipzig, 1872. Interest- ing compilation of references and quotations from authors of all countries Brera the question of forest in- fluences. Lorentz Liburnau. Wald, Klima und Wasser. Miinchen, 1878. The best popular discussion of forest influences by the most prominent scientific investigator of the subject. Lorey, T. Edztor. Handbuch der Forstwissenschaft, 3 vols. Tubingen, 1887. The best encyclopedic professional handbook. Mayr, H. Die Waldungen von Nordamerika. Miinchen, 1894. A good compilation, upon the basis of personal visits, on forest flora and forest conditions of the United States. Rentzsch. Der Wald im Haushalte der Natur und der Volks- wirthschaft. Leipzig, 1862. Schindler. Die Forste Oesterreichs. Schwappach, A. Handbuch der Forst- und Jagdgeschichte Deutschlands. Berlin, 1883 and 1892. Schwappach, A. Forstpolitik, Jagd- und Fischereipolitik. Leipzig, 1894. v. Seckendorff. Die forstlichen Verhaltnisse Frankreichs. Leipzig, 1880. v. Seckendorff. Uber die wirthschaftliche Bedeutung der Wildbachverbauung und Aufforstung der Gebirge. Wien, 1883. Weber, R. Der Wald im Haushalte der Natur und des Menschen. Berlin, 1875. Woeickof. Die Klimen der Erde. Jena, 1887. Brings many data on the influence of forests on climate. 496 APPENDIX. Allgemeine Forst u. Jagdzeitung (since 1825). Frankfurt a. M. Zeitschrift fiir Forst- und Jagdwesen. Berlin. Since 1869. The two oldest and best German forestry journals. Beitrage zur Forststatistik des deutschen Reichs. Berlin, 1884. FRENCH. Annuaire des eaux et foréts. Paris. (For statistical informa- tion.) P. de Boixo. Les foréts et le reboisement dans les Pyrénées orientales. Paris, 1894. J. Clavé. Etudes sur I’économie forestigre. Paris, 1862. M. Demontzey. Reboisement et Gazonnement des montagnes. 2ded. Paris, 1882. C. Grandjean. Les landes et les dunes de Gascogne. Paris, 1896. A. Maury. Les foréts dela Gaule. Paris, 1867. A. Noél. Etudes forestiéres. Note sur la statistique forestiére. Paris, 1884. Puton et Guyot. Code forestier. Paris, 1900. Revue des eaux et foréts. Paris. (The forestry journal of France.) ITALIAN. Bertagnoli. I Boschi e la nostra Politica forestale. Bologna, 1889. Statistica forestale. Firenze, 1870. ENGLISH. John Croumbie Brown. 16 volumes on forests and forestry conditions in various countries. Edinburgh and London, 1875-1887. B. H. Baden-Powell. Forest law. London, 1894. B. Ribbentrop. Forestry in British India. Calcutta, 1900. BIBLIOGRAPHY. 407 Wm. Schlich. Manual of Forestry. 5 vols. 2d ed. Lon- don, 1896. Vol. I contains chapters on the direct and indirect utility of forests, the state in relation to forestry, and forestry in Britain and India. Journal of Forestry and Estates Management. 11 vols. Lon- don, 1877-1885. AMERICAN. No single book treats of the subject of economics of forestry professionally, but the journal literature, proceedings of asso- ciations, and official reports are discussing many phases of it. Among these should first of all be mentioned the various Government Reports : — Reports of the U. S. Department of Agriculture, Govern- ment Printing Office, Washington, D.C. The first comprehensive discussion, containing a large amount of information on the conditions then prevailing and the prospects, are two long articles, namely, one published in the report for 1860, — “The forests and trees of northern America as connected with climate and agriculture,” by J. G. Cooper, and the other, published in 1865, — “ American forests, their destruction and preservation,” by Rev. Frederic Starr. The following is a complete reference list to forestry sub- _jects in the reports of the Department of Agriculture from the years 1860 to 1886: — Forest acreage in farms by states, 1875, 247. and farm areas by states, 1884, 490. area of United States by states, 1885, 186. cultivation, general remarks, 1851, 53. on the Great Plains, article, 1872, 316. 2K 498 APPENDIX. Forest, culture, circular asking information, 1858, 75. experiment, 1875, 336. historical review, 1870, 226. laws for encouragement, 1870, 234. profits, 1870, 232. destruction in the northwest, notes, 1872, 443. fires, remarks, 1883, 457. products, distribution of exports, 1872, 59. extent and value, 1883, 450. resources, Brewer’s analysis, 1875, 352. schools, general remarks, 1883, 459. trees, culture and management, 1864, 43; 1872, 161. evergreen, in northern New England, report on causes of destruction, 1883, 138; 1884, 374; 1885, 319. methods of planting, 1864, 45; 1870, 228. of United States, Centennial collection, 1875, 151. sowing seeds and raising young plants, 1878, 203. transplanting, remarks, 1878, 204. report, 1850, 455. warnings from history, 1865, 225. Forests, American, destruction and preservation, 1865, 210. evils of past destruction, 1865, 210. and timber, statistical information, 1868, 447. as connected with climate and agriculture, remarks, 1860, 416. climatic influence, 1883, 453; 1885, 196; 1886, 152. distribution in United States, 1885, 188. increase or decrease, general remarks, 1885, 190. influence on health, 1860, 443. soil, 1860, 441. streams and droughts, 1885, 192. notes on rapid destruction, 1884, 154. of United States by states, notes and statistics, 1875, 249 ff. Forestry, experiment stations, remarks, 1883, 158. historical sketch of Arbor Day, 1886, 181. BIBLIOGRAPHY. 499 Forestry, in schools, remarks, 1883, 458. investigation, outline of system, 1887, 614. progress, article, 1880, 653. list of publications, 1886, 226. literature, remarks, 1886, 183. of the Western states and territories, article, 1878, 515. state encouragement, 1875, 334. statistics, article, 1875, 244. by states, 1884, 137. In the reports after the year 1886 to 1893 the following articles, mostly prepared by the writer, bear on the subject of this volume : — Report for 1886 — Forestry problems of the United States. General principles of forestry. List of ninety most important timber trees of the United States. ‘ Report for 1887. (Special, not printed in report of Depart- ment of Agriculture) — Trade notes and tariff on lumber — mill capacity of United States. Systematic plan of forestry work. Conditions of forestry interests in the states. Report for 1888 — Forest influences. Cultural and trade notes. Report for 1889 — Seedling distribution. Timber-culture acts. Influence of forests on water supplies. Report for 1890 — Wood pulp industry. Forestry education. Artificial rainfall. 500 APPENDIX. Report for 1891 — Forest planting experiments in Nebraska. Southern lumber pines. Forest reservations and their management. Report for 1892 — Forest conditions of the United States and the forestry movement. Forest fire legislation. The naval store industry. Report for 1893 — Consumption and supply of forest products in the United States. German forest management. In the Year-book of the Department, published since 1894, the following articles appear : — Year-book for 1894 — Forestry for farmers. Year-book for 1895 — The relation of forest to farm. Tree planting on western plains. Year-book for 1896 — Tree planting in waste places on farms. The uses of wood. Year-book ‘for 1897 — The work of the Division of Forestry in relation to the farmer. Year-book for 1898 — Notes on some forest problems. Year-book for 1899 — Progress of forestry in the United States. Practice of forestry by private owners. Year-book for 1900 — ; Forest extension in middle west. Practical forestry in southern Appalachians. List of forestry associations. BIBLIOGRAPHY. 501 List of schools of forestry. Progress in forestry. Year-book for 1g01 — Timber resources of Nebraska. Grazing in forest reserves. Progress in forestry. Besides these annual publications the following separate Reports on Forestry have been published by the Department, containing a large amount of information on various forestry subjects. Vol. I. Report upon Forestry, prepared under the direction of the Commissioner of Agriculture, in pursuance of an act of Congress approved August 15, 1876. By Franklin B. Hough. Pp. 650. Index. 1878. Vol. II. Report upon Forestry, prepared under the direc- tion of the Commissioner of Agriculture, in pursuance of an - act of Congress approved August 15, 1876. By Franklin B. Hough. Pp. 618. Index. 1880. Vol. III. Report upon Forestry, prepared under the direc- tion of the Commissioner of Agriculture, in pursuance of an act of Congress approved August 15, 1876. By Franklin B. Hough. Pp. 318. Index. 1882. Vol. IV. Report upon Forestry, prepared by N. H. Eggle- ston. Pp. 421. Index. I map. 1884. The following Bulletins of the Division of Forestry, De- partment of Agriculture, refer more or less directly to the sub- ject of this volume. No. 1. Report on the Relation of Railroads to Forest Supplies and Forestry, together with appendices on the struc- ture of some timber ties, the behavior, and the cause of their decay in the roadbed, on wood preservation, on metal ties, and on the use of spark arresters. Pp. 149. Pls. 7, figs. 7. 1887. No. 2. Report on the Forest Conditions of the Rocky Mountains, with a map showing the location of forest areas on the Rocky Mountain range, and other papers. Pp. 252. Map I, diagr. 1. 1888. 502 APPENDIX. No. 5. What is Forestry? By B. E. Fernow, Chief of Division of Forestry. Pp. 52. 1891. - No. 7. Forest Influences. Pp. 197. Figs. 63. 1893. 1. Introduction and summary of conclusions, by B. E. Fernow. 2. Review of forest meteorological observations, a study preliminary to the discussion of the relations of forest to climate, by M. W. Harring- ton. 3. Relation of forests to water supplies, by B. E. Fernow. 4. Notes on the sanitary significance of forests, by B. E. Fernow. Appendices: 1. Determination of the true amount of precipitation, and its bearing on theories of forest influences, by Cleveland Abbe. 2. Analysis of rain- fall with relation to surface conditions, by George E. Curtis. No. 9. Report on the Use of Metal Railroad Ties, and on Preservation Processes and Metal Tie-plates for Wooden Ties. By E. E. Russell Tratman, A. M., Am. Soc. C. E. (supple- mentary to Report on the Substitution of Metal for Wood in Railroad Ties, 1890). Prepared under the direction of B. E. Fernow, Chief of Division of Forestry. Pp. 363. Pls. 5. 1894. No. 13. The Timber Pines of the Southern United States. By Chas. Mohr, Ph.D. Together with a Discussion of the Structure of their Wood, by Filibert Roth. Prepared under the direction of B. E. Fernow, Chief of Division of Forestry. Pp. 160. Pls. 27, figs. 18. 1896. No. 16. Forestry Conditions and Interests of Wisconsin. By Filibert Roth. With a Discussion of Objects and Meth- ods of ascertaining Forest Statistics, etc. By B. E. Fernow. Pp. 76. 1898. No. 21. Systematic Plant Introduction. By David A. Fairchild. Pp. 24. 1808. No. 22. The White Pine. By V. M. Spalding and B. E. Fernow. Pp. 185. 1899. No. 25. Notes on Forest Conditions of Puerto Rico. By Robert T. Hill. - Pp. 46. 1899: No. 26. Practical Forestry in the Adirondacks. By Henry S. Graves. Pp. 85. 1899. No. 34. A History of the Lumber Industry in the State of New York. By William F. Fox. 1902. BIBLIOGRAPHY. 503 Miscellaneous Publications prepared by Agents of the De- partment of Agriculture. — Catalogue of the forest trees of the United States which usually attain a height of 16 feet or more, with notes and brief descriptions of the more important species. Pp. 38. 1876. - Preliminary report on the forestry of the Mississippi Valley and tree planting on the Plains. By F. P. Baker and R. W. Pumas. Pp.45. 18983. Arbor Day, its history and observance. By N. H. Egles- ton. Pp. 80. Figs. 12. 1896. Miscellaneous Special Report No. 5. The proper value and management of government timber lands and the distribution of North American forest trees, being papers read at the United States Department of Agriculture, May 7 and 8, 1884. Pp. 47. “1884. Miscellaneous Report No. to. A descriptive catalogue of manufactures from native woods, as shown in the exhibit of the United States Department of Agriculture at the World’s Industrial and Cotton Exposition at New Orleans, La. By Charles Richards Dodge. Pp. 81. 1886. Forestry in the United States. By B. E. Fernow. Report of United States commissioners to the Universal Exposition of 1889 at Paris. Vol. V, pp. 747-777. Pls. 6. 1891. Statements before Congressional Committees and in answer to Senate Resolutions. — Public timber lands, report of E. A. Bowers relative to desirable legislation. Ex. Doc., No. 242, Fiftieth Congress, first session. Pp. 24. 1888. Statement on the relation of irrigation problems to forest conditions, by B. E. Fernow, before Special Senate Committee on Irrigation and Reclamation of Arid Lands. Fifty-first Congress, first session. Senate Report No. 928, Vol. 4, pp. 115-124. 1890. | Statements in Report No. 1002, Fifty-second Congress, first session. (To accompany S. 3235) “to provide for the estab- lishment, protection, and administration of public forest reser- vations, and for other purposes.” Pp. 12. 1892. 504 APPENDIX. Senate Document No. 172, Fifty-third Congress, second session. Letter from the Secretary of Agriculture . . . trans- mitting information in relation to investigations and experi- ments in the planting of native pine seed in the sand hills of the Northwest. Pp. 14. 8vo. 1894. Statements in House Report No. 1442, Fifty-third Con- gress, second session. Investigations and Tests of American Timbers... “Ppsi4. 2og4. Statements in House Report No. 497. Public Forest Reservations. Pp. 23. 1894. Statement of B. E. Fernow, Chief of Forestry Division, to the Committee on Agriculture, House of Representatives [in support of H. R. 8389 and H. R. 8390, providing for forestry schools], February 16, 1895. Pp. 4. Senate Document No. 40, Fifty-fifth Congress, first session, White Pine Timber Supplies. Statement prepared by the Chief of the Division. Letter of the Secretary of Agriculture. Pp.21./. 1897: Senate Document No. 105, Fifty-fifth Congress, first session. Report of a committee of the National Academy of Sciences on forest policy for the forested lands of the United States, Pp. 49. 1897. Report upon Forestry Investigation of the U. S. Department of Agriculture, 1877-1898, by B. E. Fernow. H. R. Doe. No. 181, 55th Congress, 3d session, 1899. 401 pp. 4to. Message from the President of the United States trans- mitting a report of the Secretary of Agriculture in relation to the forests, rivers, and mountains of the southern Appalachian region. Washington, D.C. Pp. 210. Igoz. Reports of the U. S. Geological Survey, Washington, D.C. — Sixteenth Report, 1894-1895, Part II, The public lands and their water supply. By F. H. Newell. Pp. 463-532. Nineteenth Report, 1898, part V, Forest Reserves. Twentieth Report, 1900, Part V, Forest Reserves, gives detailed report on a number of reserves, also articles on forest conditions and standing timber of Washington and forests of the United States by H. Gannett. BIBLIOGRAPHY. 505 Reports of the Commissioner of the General Land Office, Department of the Interior, Washington, D.C., give statistical and administrative information regarding the management of public timber lands and forest reserves, also Forest Reserve Manual for the information and use of forest officers, Igo2. Pp. go. Reports of Bureau of Statistics, Treasury Department, Washington, D.C., gives statistics of exports and imports, monthly, quarterly, and annually, prepares annually Statistical Abstract of the United States, and also issues in the Monthly Summary of Commerce and Finance valuable special reports, among which, Zke Lumber Trade of the United States, 1900, pp- 1081-1169. Reports of Department of State, Washington, D.C. — Con- sular Reports contain references to forestry, and forest condi- tions in foreign lands. Forestry in Europe, a special publication brings details of reports from the consuls of the United States, 1887, also Forest Culture in Sweden, by C. C. Andrews, 1872. Pp. 48. Census of 1860, 1870, 1880, 1890, I900, Washington, D.C., give statistics of lumber industry. As a result of the 9th Census an article on 7he Woodland and Forest Systems of the United States, with a map showing forest distribution, by Prof. F. W. Brewer, was published in the Statistical Atlas of the United States, 1874. Vol. IX of the roth Census (1880), pp. 612, is the first com- prehensive statement on forest conditions: Report on the forests of North America, by Chas. S. Sargent, 1884. Vol. IX, Part III, of the 12th Census (1900), “ Selected Industries,” contains an extensive compilation of the statistics of the lumber and other forest industries on 122 pages. Smithsonian Institute Report, 1869: Forests and their climatic influence, by A. C. Becquerel, translated from the French. Reports of State Commissions. — California State Board of Forestry, 3 reports, 1885-1890. 506 APPENDIX. Colorado Forest Commissioner, 3 reports, 1885-1390. Kansas State Horticultural Society reports on forestry since 1879. Maine Forest Commissioner, annual reports since 1891. Michigan Forestry Commission reports, 1887-1888, Ig00- Igol. Minnesota Chief Fire Warden, annual reports since 1895. New Jersey Geological Survey reports on forestry since 1880. New Hampshire Forestry Commission, annual reports since 1893. New York Forest Commission (now Forest, Fish, and Game Commission), annual reports since 1886; Forest Pre- serve Board since 1897. New York State College of Forestry, annual reports of the director since 1899. North Carolina Geological Survey, Bulletin 5, 6, and 7. Ohio State Forestry Bureau, five annual reports since 1886. Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture, Division of For-_ estry, annual reports since 1895. Canada. — Report of the forest wealth of Canada by the statistician of the Department of Agriculture, pp. 339. Ottawa, 1895. Report of the Chief Inspector of Timber and Forestry, annual since 1899. Ontario Bureau of Forestry, annual reports since 1891. Association Reports. — Proceedings of the American For- estry Association, 1883-1897, Vols. I-XII. American Economic Association, Vol. VI, No. 3, IoI pp. contains several papers on forestry subjects. Canadian Forestry Association, reports since Igoo. Journals. — The American Journal of Forestry, edited by F. B. Hough, 1 vol. 1882-1883. Garden and Forest, by C.S. Sargent, Vols. I-X. 1888-1897. The Forester (now Forestry and Irrigation), Vols. I-VII]I, 1895. (Originally published by John Gifford, then by the BIBLIOGRAPHY. 507 American Forestry Association, now by H. M. Suter.) Wash- ington, D.C. Forest Leaves, published by Pennsylvania Forestry Asso- ciation since 1892. Water and Forest, a quarterly, by California Water and Forest Association since 1900. Forestry Quarterly (the first professional journal), published by students and faculty of New York State College of For- estry. 1902. Books of Interest in Connection with the Subject. — George P. Marsh, The Earth as Modified by Man, Chapters on The Woods and the Waters. 1877. Popular Elementary Treatises (a few of the many).—E. Bruncken, North American Forests and Forestry. pp. 265. New York, Igoo. J. Gifford, Practical Forestry. pp. 284. New York, 1902. F. B. Hough, The Elements of Forestry. Cincinnati, 1882. F. Roth, First Book of Forestry. pp. 291. Boston, 1902. INDEX. ABBE, C., guoted, 432-433. Absolute forest soils, 122, 243. Acclimatization, 144, 460. Accretion, rate of, 108-109; laws of, 152-164; normal, 201-203, 206-208; maximum, 211-212, Adirondack Preserve, 86, 387, 390. Administration, forest. See Policy, forest. Afforesting, defined, 83. Africa, forestry in, 290. Age of timber trees, 41, 43, 107, 355; in relation to growth, 153- 154; Classification by, 128-129, 201-204; felling, 208-211, 226, Agriculture, 17-18 ; use of wood in, 24; compared with forestry, 32, 106, I10-126, 240-241, 243, 334, 456, 464. Air, temperature and humidity of, 69-70, 435-439; as food-provider, 120. Alaska, forests in, 333; reserva- tions in, 410. Alcohol, wood, 30, 190, 429. Algeria, deforestation of, 12. Allotment method of regulating fellings, 204. Almirante, Admiral, 59. Altitude, relation of, to species, 142. American Association for the Ad- vancement of Science, 377. American Forestry Association, 382-383, 400-405. American Lumberman, quoted, 479- 480, Ancus Martius, forest regulations of, gI. Animals, as forest destroyers, 55, 184-185. Apennines, deforestation of, 58-59. Arbor day, 92, 297, 379. Area, forest, statistics of, 35-36, 54, 430-431; necessary size of, 115- I16, 132-133, 451; in Germany, 316; in the U.S., 334-339, 471- 475- Aristotle, guoted, 58. Asia, Western, deforestation of, 12. Assessment of forest property, 250- 253- Associations, forestry, 241-242, 316, 370, 381-383, 391, 401, 471; sport- ing, 346. Atlantic forests, 331-332, 350-351, 474- Australia, forestry in, 289-290. Austria, wood production in, 47; experiments in, 64, 443; exploita- tion in, 257; forest policy of, 271, 294-295- BACILLI, 78, 447. Bacteria, 120. Baden, forest policy of, 322-323. Bamboo, 192, 282. Bark, use of, in tanning, 28, 86, 424. Bavaria, meteorological observa- tions in, 63; forest fires in, 137, I90%.-I91; insect pests in, 137, 185 .; forest policy of, 320-321; wood prices in, 457. Becquerel, 61, 63. Beluchistan, forests in, 286. Berea College, Kentucky, forestry instruction at, 238, 400. 509 510 Bibliography, 491-507. Biltmore, N.C., school at, 238, 399. Bitterroot Reserve, 360. Black Hills, 359. Bole, growth of, 90, 118-119, I50, 154-156, 180-181. Bookkeeping, in forestry, 226-227. Bosnia-Herzegovina, forest policy of, 294. Boston, park system of, 385. Botany, relation of, to forestry, I00- Iol. Bounties, 244-245, 248-249, 268, 378. Boussingault, 61. Brandis, Sir Dietrich, 279. Brazil, importation of wood by, 34. Brush wood, 155, 335- Budget, felling, 128, 201-222, 226, Buffon, guoted, 60. Building construction, use of wood in, 26-27. Bureau of Forestry, U.S. See United States Bureau of For- estry. Burma, forests of, 281; teak in, 285. Business, forestryasa, See Econo- my, forest. By-products, forest, 28-31, 424-425. CALIFORNIA, forests of, 361-363; forest legislation in, 397-398. Campagna Romana, 77-78. Canada, exportation of wood by, 37, 253, 258, 468; wood prices in, 458-459; forestry movement in, 467-471. Capacity of forests, 42-46. Cape Colony, forest policy of, 290. Capital invested in forestry, 125- 139, 230; in the U.S.,32-33, 373, 485; in Germany, 50. Carbohydrates, r19. Carbonic acid, in forests, 77. Carpenter, L. G., 447. Cascade Range, forests of, 333, 360- 362. INDEX. Cellulose, 25, 27, 421. Census reports, 376, 422, 471-480. Charcoal industry, 178, 190. Charlemagne, forest regulations of, 300. Chase, laws of the, 9, 82-83, 288, 302-304. Chemical changes in wood, 108. Chlorophyll, 147. Cicero, guoted, 58. Civilization, relation of, to forestry, 19, 21-31. Clearing system, 45, I7I-173. Cleveland, President, 403-404. Climatic conditions, relation of, to forestry, II-14, 17-18, 54-55, 59- 71, 90, IOI—-I02, 117-118, 141-146, 156, 229, 298-299, 439-444; in India, 280-281; in the U\S., 334, 368. Coal, exhaustion of, 8-9, 11; as fuel, 27, 421. Coast Range, forests of, 333, 361- 362. Code forestier, 217. Colbert, forest ordinance of, 60. Colleges of forestry, in the US., 238, 390-391, 399-400. Colorado, constitutional provisions of, 395; forest legislation in, 396- . 397; irrigation in, 447. Columbus, Christopher, 60. Commissions, forestry, 384; in New York State, 387-388. Communal ownership, 269-273; in Germany, 264, 301-307, 310- Sit. Competition, destructive tendency of, 2, 8, 255-258, 359. Conditions, forest, defined, 85, 87- go. Conifers, value of, 34; in the U.S., 40-41, 348, 350-362, 481-484, 486; growth rate of, 108-109; transpi- ration of, 121; sprouting of, 177, 464. INDEX. Connecticut, forest legislation in, 394- Consumption of wood, in the U.S., 25, 51, 337-339, 475-480; statis- tics of, 36-41, 416-429. Cooper, J. G., 375. Co6peration in forestry, 263, 266, 268, 312, 380. Cooper’s Hill, England, forestry school at, 289. Coppice, 129-131, 451, 464. Cornell University, College of For- estry at, 238, 390-391, 399-400. Corporation forests, in Germany, 317; 322-323- : Cover, forest, value of, 68-76, 228, 265, 347, 444. Crop, forest, when ripe, 102, 106- I10; comparison of, with agricul- tural crop, 111-127; taxation of, 250-251. Crown, growth of, 147-150, 154- 155; importance of, 158; tem- perature of, 436. Crown Timber Act, 468. Culling, 44, 95, 127-128, 167-168, 173-174, 189, 195-196, 337, 343- 345) 357: Cuttings, improvement, 169-170. Cypress, Bald, 356. 177-179, 356, DEBRIS, 188-190. Deforestation, effects of, 12-13, 58- 63, 93-95, 265-267; in Italy, gr, 296; in Germany, 256, 313, 329; in. France, 276-277; in the U.S., 367-368. Dehra Dun, forestry school at, 289. Dendrology, t0o-I1or, Deserts, 12, 55, Deterioration of forests, 20, 45-46, £o0,0176, 229; in. the: U:S., 935; 479-480, 481. Diameter, growth in, 154; limit of, 511 in cutting, 196, 209-211, 217-221, 352-353- Disafforesting, defined, 83. Distillation of wood, 30. Distribution, of forests, 35, 331-337, 431, 474; of species, 141-149. Districting, forest, 222-226, Drainage, influence of forests on, 19-20, 72-75, 77-78, 444-447. Dunes, sand, in France, 77, 277; in Russia, 292; in the U.S., 368. Duties, protective, 245, 253-258. EBERMAYER, Dr. E., 63, 432. Economic questions, relative im- portance of, 7-8. Economy, of resources, 6-9, 415; forest, 96-97, I00, 102-103, 197— 227; in wood consumption, 339, 355+ Education, forestry, 236-244; in France, 277; in India, 289; in Russia, 293; in Germany, 315- 316; in Japan, 330; in the U.S., 390-391, 399-401. Egypt, forest policy of, 290. Eminent domain, 16, 269-273, 415- 416, England, royal forests in, 83; forest conditions in, 278. Erichthonios, legend of, 58. Erosion, relation of forests to, 12, 19, 75-76, 367, 445. Ethics, influence of forests on, 66. Eucalyptus, 77, 289-290. Europe, deforestation of, 12; pa- ternalism in, 245; forest policy in, 274-278, 291-329; forestry education in, 277, 293, 315-316. Evaporation, 70, 437-438, 444. Exeter, N.H., forest legislation of, 369. Exotics, 460. Experiment stations, 240-241; in Europe, 64, 316; in the U.S., 394-395» 397+ 512 Exploitation of forests, 2-3, 11-12, 19, 44-46, 90, 95, 127-128, 167- 168, 195, 199, 228-230, 329, 343- 345; effect of tariff on, 253-255, 258; in the U.S., 366-367, 371- 376; in Canada, 468-469. Exportation of wood, 37-40, 458- 459, 468, 480-481. Expropriation of forests for state purposes, 270-273. FAMINE, wood, in the U.S., 369- 371, 374-376; in Germany, 487- 489. Felling age, 208-211, 226. Felling budget, 128, 201-222, 226, Felling series, 223-226. Fertility of soil, improved by for- ests, I20. Finance, forest, 213-222, 452-459; in Germany, 324-328; in the U.S., 480-481. Fires, forest, 29, 133-134, 137, 168, 186-191, 229, 344, 360, 365-367; protection against, 191-196, 259- 263, 283-284, 398-399, 467, 469- 470. Fisheries, 9, II-I2. Floods, relation of forests to, 61, — 276-277, 318-319, 368, 445- 449. Floor, forest, 72-73, 76, 444-446. Florida, frost in, 70. Foliage in relation to wood pro- duction, 152, 155, 157, 179-180. - Forest, history of word, 81-84, 448- 450; functions of, 85-87, 228; normal, 128-129, 201-202. Forest Leaves, 383. Forest Wealth in Canada, 458. Forester, defined, 97-98, 448-449. forester, The, 383. Forestry, history of, 91-94; defined, 95-97, 449; classification of, 103- 105. Forestry Quarterly, 400. INDEX. Forests, classes of, 87, 271-272; state, in France, 275; in India, 280, 288; in Russia, 292; in Roumania, 294; in Bosnia-Her- zegovina, 294; in Austria, 295; in Italy, 296; in Germany, 306, 310; in the U.S., (federal) 340- 342, 401-411, (separate states) 342, 386-391, 395, 397-398; reve- nue from, 452-459. Formula method of regulating fell- ings, 204-205. Fox, W. T., quoted, 369. France, deforestation of, 12-13, 60- 62,70; state control of mines in, 16; sand-dunes in, 77, 277; for- est policy of, 270, 275-277; im- portation of wood by, 417. Franco-German war, effect of, on forestry, 329, 453. French Revolution, effect of, on forestry, 60-61, 93-94, 275, 306. Frost, 142; in Florida, 7o. Fuel, wood as, 22-23, 27, 274, 282, 420-421. Future interests, safeguarded by state, 5-I0, 15-16, 230-231. GAME, protection of, 9, 82-83. -Gannett, statistics compiled by, 339, 363, 483-485. Gauges, rain, 64, 432-434, 438-439. Geographical distribution, of spe- cies, 141-143; of forests, in the U.S., 331-333, 474-475: Geology, relation of, to forestry, ror. Germany, consumption of wood in, 27, 37-40, 418-419; forest policy in, 47-50, 9I-93, 300-329 ; forestry terminology in, 84; agriculture and forestry in, 112-114, 122, 450; forest revenues in, 132-135, 452- 456; spruce growth in, 160; methods of regulating fellings in, 173-174; rides in, 193, 222; dis- tricts in, 222; forestry schools in, INDEX. 237-238, 315, 488; tariff legisla- tion in, 256-258; classification of forests in, 306-307, 309, 313-314; paper pulp industry in, 423-424; acclimatization in, 460; wood production in, 462-464; taxation in, 465-467; wood famine in, 487-489. Gerwig, R., guoted, 72-73. Gironde, sand-dunes in the, 277. Gladbacher Fire Insurance Co., 467. Government. See State. Grazing in forests, 73, 92, 284-285. Great Britain, importation of wood by, 37, 416-417. Greece, sterility of, 59. Group method of reproduction, 174. Groves, consecrated, 57. . Growth of trees, 106-109, 146-156. HARDWOODS, 34; rate of growth of, 108-109; coppice reproduc- tion of, 177; in India, 282; in the U\S., 348-351, 356, 482-487. Harrison, President, 403. Harvest, time of, 106-110, 208-211, 217-219; cost of, 125-126. Harz Mountains, forestry school in the, 2375. Hemlock, use of, in tanning, 28, 424; in paper making, 423. Herodotus, guoted, 59. Herzegovina, See Bosnia-Herze- govina. Hesse, taxation in, 466. Hodges, L. B., 382. Homer, guoted, 57-58. Hough, F. B., 424, 432. Huckleberry industry, 30-31. Humboldt, A, von, guoted, 62. Humidity, 71, 142, 437-444. Hungary, forest policy of, 295; acclimatization in, 460. Hunting, 9, 82-83, 288, 302-304. Hygroscopic water, 121. 2L 513 IDAHO, forests of, 359-360. Importation of wood, 37-40; duty on, 253-258; by England, 278; by the U.S., 481. Improvement, internal, 267. Improvement cuttings, 169-170. Incendiarism, 262, 299. Income tax, in Germany, 465-467. India, forest administration in, 114- II5, 217, 278-289; forest fires in, 192-193. Indiana, forest legislation in, 246, 394- Industries, forest, 27-32, 421-429, 487. Insects, injury from, 133, 137, 146, 282; protection against, 184-185, 263. Insurance, forest fire, 263, 467. Intensive methods, 8, 13, 18, 46-47, II3-1I5, 452. Interest on forestry capital, 131- 139, 213-215; in Germany, 50. Internal improvement, 267. International Forestry Congress, 35> Investment, forestry as an, 50, I3I- 139, 213-215, 345-346. Irrigation, 75; in the West, U.S., 342, 447, 487. Italy, forest laws in, 58-59, 270, 296-297; deforestation of, 91. JAMAICA, 59. Japan, forest policy of, 329-330. Jentsch, Dr. F., 456. Journals, forestry, 316, 383, 400. Jungles, in India, 282-284. KANSAS, experiment stations in, 394-395: King, F. W., 440. Knots, 90, 107, 180. LABOR, required in forestry, 3, 50, III-I17, 274, 450-451. 514 Lake region, U.S., pine supply in, 350, 478-479. Land, as a resource, IO-II. Land-owners, lumbering methods of, 342, 345-346. Lapland, forest conditions in, 299. Latitude, relation of, to species, 141-142. Law, property, 4, 20; forest, in Italy, 58-59, 296-297; in Scot- land, 83 z.; inthe U.S., (federaZ) 247-248, 378-379, 401-411, (sepa- rate states) 246-247, 369-371, 377-378, 384-399; in France, 276- 277; in India, 288; in Russia, . 291-293; in Roumania, 294; in . Austria-Hungary, 295; in Swit- zerland, 297; in Sweden, 299; in Germany, 300-305, 312-323; in Japan, 330; fire, 259-263, 398- 399. Legislation, forest. See Law. Liburnau, Dr. L., 443. Light, importance of, 54, 147-158, 179-183. Lightning, fires caused by, 189- - 190 2. Literature, forestry, 316, 374-376, 488-489. Litter, 72-73, 120, 451-452; burning of, 188, 444. ‘ Loans, state, 268-269. Lockwood's Paper Trade Fournal, guoted, 421-422. Locomotives, fires caused by, 189- 190 2. Logging, expense of, 225. Lumberman, methods of, 44-46, 53, 167-169, 173, 195-196, 199. Luneburg Heath, 268. MCGEE, J W, quoted, 12. McRae bill, 403-405. Maine, forest legislation in, 377, 384. Malaria, effect of forests on, 77-79, 447. INDEX. Malthus, 6. Manufactures, use of wood in, 33, 426-429. Maple sugar, 29-30. Mark system, 91-92, 301-306, 310. Marseilles, agricultural society, quoted, 61. Marsh, G. P., guoted, 7, 376. Massachusetts, forest conditions in, 42, 178; forest legislation in, 385-386. Massachusetts Society for the Pro- motion of Agriculture, 370. “ Master schools,” in Germany, 237; at Biltmore, 238, 399. Mathematics in forestry, 65, To2- 103, 152-153. Mensuration, forest, 103, 152-153. Mercantile theory, 257. Mesopotamia, deforestation of, 59. Metal, substitution of, for wood, 23 ., 29; production of, in the US., 32. Meteorology, relation of, to for- estry, 63-71, IOL, 432-444. Michigan, wood production in, 372; forest legislation in, 392. Microbes in forests, 78, 447. Middle Ages, forests in the, 81-84, 300-305. Mill, J. S., 6. Mills, saw, waste in, 41, 419-420; influence of, on forestry, 345; in the U.S., 372-373, 475-477. Mines, exhaustion of, 8, 11; state control of, 16; timber used in, 23; revenue from, in the USS., 32. Minnesota, forestry association in, 242; forest legislation in, 242, 392-393, 398. Mirabeau, Marquis of, 60. Mississippi, effects of deforestation upon, 12. Mohr, C., guoted, 355, 485. Moisture, relation of, to forests, 55, 69-71, 142, 183, 437-447. INDEX. Monsoons, 280. Moss-cover, 72-73. Mountain districts, best use of, 18, 122; waste in, 28; waterflow in, 75-76, 80; forest districts in, 222, 487. Mushroom industry, 31. Mythology of forests, 57-58. NANCY, forestry school at, 63, - 277. : Napoleonic Wars, effect of, on German forestry, 306. National Academy of Sciences, USS., 404. Nature element in forestry, 117- 125. Naval store industry, 29, 356, 425. Nebraska, Arbor day in, 379. New Alexandria, forest institute at, 293. New England, coppice system in, 178. New Hampshire, forest legislation of, 370, 384-385. New South Wales, forest condi- tions in, 289. New York State, reservations in, 342; forest legislation in, 369, 386-391, 398; wood production in, 372. New York State College of For- estry, 238, 390-391, 399-400. Newell, F. H., guoted, 340, 342, 487. Noble, J. W., 402. Normal forest, 128-129, 201-202. Normal stock method of felling, 204-205. North America, forest conditions in, 331-334. North Dakota, forest commissioner of, 394. Norway, forests of, 298. Number of trees in astand, 181-182; diminution in, 150-151, 156, 158- - 159. 515 Nuremberg, forest-planting in, 92- 93- Nurse trees, 175, 177. OAK, use of, in tanning, 28, 424; in the U.S., 348-349; reserva- tions of, 370-371. Oettelt, method of ascertaining fell- ing budget, 217. Officials, forest, in Prussia, 113 2.; in India, 114, 287; payment of, 260; powers of, 262. Ohio, forestry bureau of, 394. Olive, cultivation of, in France, 12- ra 20; Orange groves, in Florida, 70. Orchard, distinguished from forest, 86. Oregon, woodland area of, 336 z.; timber supply of, 363. Ownership of forests, communal, 269-273; state, 269-271, 275-276, 280, 291-293, 295; in Germany, 264, 301-307, 310-311, 317-319, 321-323; in the U.S., 340-346. Oxygen, amount of, in forests, 77. PACIFIC forests, 331-333, 336, 340, 361-364, 474. Palestine, sterility of, 59, 63. Paper-pulp industry, 25, 27, 345, 421-424. Parks, public, 385. Paternalism, in the U.S., 232, 245- 249. Penn, William, 369. Pennsylvania, forest legislation in, 247, 369, 391; state ownership in, 342. Pennsylvania State Forestry Asso- ciation, 383. Periodicals, forestry, 316, 383, 400. Pettenkoffer, 447. Philippine Islands, forest policy in, 411. Pine, naval stores from, 29; value 516 INDEX. of, 40-41; exhaustion of, 234; in| Protection forests, 57, 171, 174, 234- the U.S., 347-362. Pioneering populations, 2, 53, 94- 95: Plant material, distribution of, 245, 248, 315, 469. Plantation, distinguished from for- est, 86. Plasmodia, 79. Plato, guoted, 58. Police, forest, 186,188, 191, 259-260. Policy, forest, methods of, 228-273; in Italy, 91, 296-207; in France, 275-277; in India, 278-289; in Australia, 289-290; in Africa, 290; in Russia, 291-294; in Bos- nia-Herzegovina, 294; in Rou- mania, 294; in Austria-Hungary, 294-295 ; in Switzerland, 297-298 ; in Sweden, 298-300; in Germany, 300-329; in Japan, 329-330; in the U.S., (federal) 376-379, 401- 411, (separate states) 369-374, 384-400. Pomerania, huckleberry industry in, 31. Prairies in the U.S., 332, 474. Precipitation, 69-70, 438-439, 441- 442. Price of wood, statistics of, 134-135, 138, 456-459; stumpage, 220, 420, 485-486. Priest Forest Reserve, 360. Private enterprise, waste caused by, I-4, 20, 44-46, 228-230, 233-234, 272-273, 313; limitation of, 13- 16; state control of, in Germany, 314-315; in the U.S., 342-346, 380-381. Products, forest, 28-33; statistics of, 123-125; in the US., 349- 350, 426-429. Property, individual, 3-4, 20, 264- 266; medizval ideas of, 262; expropriation of, 270-271. Protection (in politics). See Tariff. 235, 267-268, 271-273, 347; in Germany, 318. Prussia, forest production in, 30- 31, 47-48; stations in, 64; forest officials in, 113%.; forest policy of, 122 2., 264, 270, 317-320; cost of soil in, 126; fires in, 133, 137, 190 2.-192, 262; wood prices in, 138, 456-458; state control of forests in, 308-309, 312; defores- tation in, 313; forestry schools in, 315; taxation in, 465-467. Public lands, U.S., 340-342, 403- 408. Public schools, forestry instruction in, 239, 388. Pulp, wood, 25, 27, 345, 421-424. RAILROADS, effect of, on exploita- tion, 2, 257, 278-279, 372, 374; state ownership of, 16; use of wood for, 23-24; danger of fire from, 189%.-I90, I94-195, 262; effect of, on wood prices, 458. Rain gauges, 64, 432-434, 438-439. Rainfall, 64-65; effect of forests on, 69-70, 438-439; in India, 281. Ramann, experiments of, 446. Reforestation, 166-167, 176, 248, 267-269; in Germany, 92, 300, 315, 320, 323; in France, 277; in Russia, 293-294; in Roumania, 294; in Austria-Hungary, 295; in Italy, 296-297 ; in Switzerland, 297; in Sweden, 300. Regeneration, natural, 167-173; under nurse trees, 175-177; by coppice, 177-179. Regulation, forest, 200, Rent, soil, 213-217, 251, 464-465. Reproduction, 165, 169, 175-179, 357: Reservations, forest, in India, 280, 288; in Russia, 292-293; in the U.S., 340-342, 360, 401-411, 489-_ INDEX. 490; in New York State, 342, 386-390; in Pennsylvania, 342, 391; in Michigan, 392; in Cali- fornia, 397-398; in Canada, 468- 47°. Resources, exploitation of, 1-4; economy of, 6-10, 415; classifi- cation of, Io. Revenue from forests) 28-33, 212- 217, 220-222, 452-459; in Ger- many, 48-50, 132-136, 325-329; in India, 115, 285-287; in the U.S., 422-430. Revolution (in forestry), IIo. Ribbentrop, quoted, 114, 279. Rides, fire, 193-194, 222. Roads, improvement of, 9; use of, in forestry, 172, 464-465. Rocky Mountain forests, 332-333, 358-360, 363. Roman law, of property, 4, 20, 235; on forests, 58. Rome, ancient, forestry in, 91. Root, development of, 153-154, 185-186. Rotation, 102, I10, 208-213. Rothrock, Dr., 391. Roumania, forest policy of, 294. Russia, forest policy of, 291-294; meteorology in, 442; forest rev- enue in, 455. SAGINAW Valley, lumber produc- tion in, 374. St. Petersburg, forest institute at, 293. Salary of foresters in India, 287. Sands, shifting, in France, 77, 277; in Russia, 292; in the U.S., 368. Sanitary influence of forests, 77-79. Saunders, Dr. W., 469. Sawing, waste in, 41, 419-420. Saxony, wood production in, 47-49, 134-135; felling budget in, 204; forest conditions in, 304, 314, 316, 517 318; forest revenue in, 328, 452- 450; income tax in, 466. Scholarships, in forestry, 239-240. Schools of forestry, at Nancy, 63, 277; in Germany, 237-238, 315, 488; in the U.S., 238-239, 390- 391, 399-400; at Cooper’s Hill, 289; at Dehra Dun, 289; in Russia, 293; in Austria, 295; at Vallombrosa, 297; at Ziirich, 298; in Japan, 330. Schubert, experiments of, 443. Schwappach, guoted, 48 7., 256, 491. Scotland, forest laws of, 83 z. Seed, character influencing distri- bution of species, 143, 145-146; reproduction by, 168-178. Selection system of clearing, 173- 174, 217. Seligenstadt, forests of, 92. Sequoia, long life of, 146; immu- nity of, from fire, 187; sprouting of, 464. Series, felling, 223-226. Servitudes, 303-304. Severance felling, 224. Seymour, H., 386. Shelter wood, 175, 177. Ships, use of wood in, 24. Sicily, deforestation of, 12, 59. Silviculture, 101, 165-196, 227. Site, 156, 158. Smith, Adam, 62, 93, 275, 307. Smith, Hoke, 404. Snow, in forests, 74, 439, 444. Socialism, 232, 266-267. Society for the Promotion of Agri- culture, 370, 380. Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests, 385. Soft woods, defined, 348. Soil, as a resource, 13, 17-18; va- rieties of, 56, 156; relation of, to waterflow, 74-76; fertility of, 119- 120, 183; absolute and relative, 122-123, 243-244; cost of, 126; 518 relation of, to species, 143; rent, 213-217, 251, 464-465; tax, 465- 407. Soudan, forestry in, 290. South, U.S., forests in, 353-356. South America, importation of wood by, 34. Species, distribution of, 141-149; in the U.S., 347-349, 481-483. Sponge theory, 72-73. Sport, influence of, 9, 346. Spruce, growth of, 160; use of, for paper pulp, 160, 423-424, 483. Stand, open and close, 89-90, 154- 156, 180-182; pure and mixed, 183; old and young, 201-203. Standard-coppice system, 179, 451. Starr, Rev. F., guoted, 375. State, relation of, to private enter- prise, 4-10, 14-20, 230-235; ad- ministration of forests by, 124, 131-132, 138-139, 198, 206; edu- cational function of, 236-244; promotive methods of, 244-258; police function of, 258-267; own- ership of forests by, 269-273, 275- 276, 280, 291-293, 295, 306, 310, 340-342, 386-391, 395, 397-398, 401-411. Statics, forestry, 214-222. Stations, forestry. See Experiment stations. Statistics, value of, 242-244, 471; of forest finance, 30-33, 125-127, 132-138, 220, 287, 325-328, 452- 459; of forest area, 35, 54, 334- 341, 430-431; of wood consump- tion, 36-41, 51, 337-339, 416-4290, 475-480; of wood production, 36-39, 47-52, 349-350, 480-483; of forest reservations, 489-490. Sterility, caused by deforestation, 59, 63. Steuben, Baron von, 382. Stock, normal, 129—13I, 201-205; taxation of, 251-253, 465-467. INDEX. Stock companies, 133. Strip method of reproduction, 174- 175, 190. Stumpage, defined, 220 #., value in the U.S., 485-486. Substitutes for wood, 26-29, 421. Subterraneous drainage, Ig-20, 72, 74-75» 444-447: Sugar, maple, 29-30. Sully, gwoted, 17, 60. Supply and demand, 233-234, 242- 243. Survey, forest, 206-207. Sustained yield, 199-222, 230, 259, 324, 465. Swamps, danger from, 78-79. Sweden, forest policy of, 298-300, Switzerland, stations in, 63-64; for- est policy of, 270, 297-298. Syrup, maple, 30. 343; Tanning, 28-29, 86, 424. Tariff on wood, 245, 253-258. Taungyas, 285. Taxation of woodlands, 245-253, 378, 465-467. Teak, 282, 285. Temperate zones, 40. Temperature, effect of forests on, 62-63, 66, 69, 434-437, 441-444; relation of, to growth, 141-142 147. Terminology, forest, 81-85, 448~ 450. Tharandt, forest academy at, 488, Thinnings, 179, 182, 193, 226. Thirty-years War, effect of, on forests, 93, 305-306. Ties, railroad, 23. Timber, as a resource, II-I2, 19; age of, 41, 43, 107, 355; size of, 217-221. Timber culture acts, 246-247, 378- 379, 403. Timber Trades Fournal, quoted, 298-299. INDEX. Time element, in forestry, to1—102, I06-I10, 127-132, 198-199, 205, 225, 230, 233-234, 241, 255-256, 346. Tokio University, forest depart- ment of, 330. Torrents. See Floods. Transpiration, 77, 121, 437-438. Transportation, relation of, to ex- ploitation, 2-3, 257, 278-279, 372, 374, 464-465 ; use of wood in, 24; expense of, 171-172; relation of, to wood prices, 458-459. Tree Planters’ Manual, 382. Tree weeds, 43-44, 98, 160, 168, 210, 347: Trusts, 133, 345. Tundras, 54-55, 142. Turnus, IIo. Twelve Tables, Laws of the, 58. UNITED STATES, waste in, 2-3, 45, 52-53; merchant marine of, 24 n.; consumption of wood in, 25, 51, 337-339, 420-423, 475-480; exportation of wood by, 34, 37, 480-481; timber supply of, 38, 52, 331-339, 483-485; forest termi- nology in, 84; rate of interest in, 136; paternalism in, 232, 245-249 ; exhaustion of forests in, 234, 353, 374-376, 479-480; education in, 230-239, 390-391, 399-400 ; forest legislation in, 246-253, 263, 369- 370, 377, 384-411; tariff legisla- tion in, 253, 258; forest area in, 334-339, 471-475; reservations in, 340-342, 360, 401-411, 489-490; wealth of, 429-430; forest labor in, 450; importation of wood by, 481; price of stumpage, 485-486. United States Bureau of Forestry, 217-219, 248-249, 377, 381, 401, 410. United States Chief Geographer, report of, 339, 363. 519 United States Department of Agri- culture, 125, 374-375, 381. United States Geological Survey, 336 7.-337, 341, 358, 360, 405, 409-411. United States Patent Office, 374-375. Universities, courses in forestry at, 237-238, 315, 330, 390-391, 399- 400, VALLOMBROSA, forestry school at, 297. Valuation, forest, 213-222. Value production, maximum, 212. Vanderbilt estate, Biltmore, 238, 399- Vermeule, 446. Vermont, forestry commission of, 386. Vessels, wooden, 24. Virgin forests, waste in, 42-44, 98- 99, 140-141; harvest in, 46, 127- 128; in the US., 339. Volume development, maximum, 2II-212. 155—164 ; WAGES of lumbermen, 50, 116-117, 450. Ward, L. F., guoted, 266-267, 415. Warder, J. A., 376, 382. Washington, forests of, 361, 363. Waste of materials, I-3, 28-29, 44- 46; in sawing, 41, 419-420; in virgin forests, 42-44, 98-99, 140- 141, ; Water, as a resource, II, I7-19; drinking, 79; in wood, 121. Waterflow, influence of forests on, 61, 71-76, 90, 266, 276-277, 318- 319, 342, 368. Waterways, state care of, 14-16. Wealth, 31; of the U.S., 429-430. Weeds, tree, 43-44, 98, 160, 168, 210, 347. Weight of forest product, 157, 460. West, U.S., settlement of, 21; for- 520 ests in, 332-333, 336, 339-342, 357— 364, 474-475; irrigation in, 342, 447, 487; forest legislation in, 377-378. oS oie West Virginia, forest legislation in, 394+ Wind, 185-186, 224, 263, 439-444; effect of, on rain gauges, 432-433. Wind-breaks, 13, 70-71, 224, 440- 441, 451. Wisconsin, deforestation of, 12; taxation of forests in, 252; wood- land area of, 336 2.-337 z.; wood production in, 372; forestry move- ment in, 377; forest legislation in, 393- Wollny, experiments of, 446. Wood, importance of, 21-26, 427; consumption of, 25, 36-41, 51, 337-339, 416-429, 475-480; pulp, BD 139 INDEX. 25, 27, 345, 421-424; substitutes for, 26-29, 421; growth of, ro6— 109; price of, 134-135, 138, 220, 420, 456-459, 485-487; produc- tion rate of, 159-164. Wood-lots, 116, 131, 198-199, 343, 380, 451. Woodland, defined, 84. Wiirtemberg, forest policy of, 317- 318, 321-322. YALE University, forestry school at, 238, 399. Yield, sustained, I99-222, 230, 259, 324, 465. Yield-tables, 159-164, 207-208, 218— 220, 461-463. ZURICH, forestry school at, 298; forest finance of, 324-326. ** Deserves the heartiest of welcomes and ought to be read by everybody from the President down. Nothing on the subject has been published for years so effective, clear, and popular.” — The Literary World. IRRIGATION By FREDERICK HAYNES NEWELL Chief Hydrographer, United States Geological Survey This book has had an extended and notable sale, being largely purchased by Congressmen, Senators, and others interested in the public welfare of this country. The book deals clearly and interest- ingly with a problem now before our lawmakers’ minds: How best to develop our vacant desert lands (two-fifths of our national terri- tory) and make them fit for the home-seeker. ‘« A candid statement of unvarnished facts.” — Forestry. ** Will be taken as authority.” — Dallas (Texas) Times-Herald. ‘* The first comprehensive work of a popular character concerning an industry greater than the largest industrial combination of modern times.” — Kansas City Star. *« Should have an important influence on the practice of irrigation, and also on legislation dealing with methods of land surveying and of water distribution.” — IsRAEL C. RuSSELL, Professor of Geology in the University of Michigan. ** A clear, simple, comprehensive, well-illustrated work by one who thoroughly understands all the conditions as they actually exist.” — E. C. Murpuy, Hydrog- rapher, U.S. G. S. ‘* Tf there is a man in the entire United States who is fully competent to write a work upon Irrigation, it is Professor Newell.” — W. M. Woo.pripcg, U. S. Commissioner, Industrial Agent G. N. Ry. With 156 Illustrations $2.00 net (By mail, $2.20) PeomAS Y, CROWELL '& €o. NEW YORK Vii Aedes ) Wetend # eh (edie Sree yn v/ \ “Al ll es kak LA pay ume na et ? . 6 fn 357 | BX crema SZ UTA