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AMERICAN FORESTRY 



protection against fire is necessary in 

 order to carry on forest management. 

 So in any other business protection of 

 the property is a first essential; it is 

 merely a general, not a specific, meas- 

 ure, belonging to any one business. 



Of course, it is wisdom to base log- 

 ging operations on systematic plans 

 based on accurate information, as in any 

 other business. This also is merely a 

 general prerequisite of scientific, i. e., 

 rational management not specific to 

 forestry except in the method of ascer- 

 tainment. It is, to be sure, also an in- 

 cident to forest management, but not an 

 essential. Lumbermen have done similar 

 things without any thought or knowl- 

 edge of forestry, in a cruder manner, 

 and may now find that the foresters do 

 it better and cheaper than the old 

 cruisers, hence may be inclined to em- 

 ploy foresters. 



Lumbermen that will make plans to 

 protect their property will map and plan 

 the operations on their holdings sys- 

 tematically, they will adopt measures 

 to reduce waste in the logging, to utilize 

 more closely, etc., merely because they 

 find that it pays in the [^resent. The 

 cutting to a diameter limit, which is ad- 

 vocated as a forestry measure, is also 

 commendable to the lumberman only 

 when he has figured out that his present 

 business of exploiting the forest pays 

 better if he delays for some years the 

 cutting of smaller sizes until they have 

 increased in diameter and value ; it is a 

 short time financial calculation that in- 

 duces him which has not necessarily 

 anything to do with forestry. Even 

 the "holding for future crop" will, we 

 suspect, be found in most cases to re- 

 duce itself to the same position, namely, 

 a waiting for increase in size and value 

 of the present immature crop which 

 Nature had provided. 



Finally, we must declare, that leaving 

 mature timber standing is no more for- 

 estry than storing and keeping locked 

 up goods in trade ! 



Some of my professional friends will 

 take issue with these declarations, since 

 all these measures are incidents or may 

 be turned into useful adjuncts to for- 

 estry management. Ikit I take the posi- 

 tion that from the broad standpoint of 



political economy the idea of forestry 

 involves an attitude of the owner to- 

 wards his property, which either makes 

 these measures a part of a forestry pro- 

 gram or excludes them from such desig- 

 nation. 



The forest can be looked upon either 

 as a mine, the stored material of pre- 

 ceding ages, which the lumberman ex- 

 ploits, or else it may be conceived as a 

 crop, which the forester harvests and 

 reproduces. Reproduction is the key- 

 note of forestry ; it denotes the difl:"er- 

 ence between the exploiter, the con- 

 verter of material into serviceable form, 

 and the forester, the crop producer. 



How many of the timberland owners, 

 even those who adopt the measures 

 enumerated above for improving their 

 business conduct, look at their property 

 as a means for continuous crop produc- 

 tion, for sustained yield? I do not 

 mean the strict economic sustained 

 yield, but the silviculturally sustained 

 yield, i. e., the deliberate, intentional 

 devotion of the soil to the production 

 of wood crops. I venture to assert that 

 there are as yet not as many as can be 

 counted on the fingers of two hands who 

 would aftirm that they had deliberately 

 started into the business of wood pro- 

 duction — which is forestry ! 



Even those, who have started plant- 

 ing their waste places — and we are glad 

 to see their number growing rapidly — 

 will be found often dubious as to their 

 purpose. 



At an}- rate, we come back to the 

 original statement that attempts on the 

 part of corporations and individuals to 

 start in the forestry business are so 

 sporadic and few that it is worth while 

 to inquire for the cause of the failure to 

 follow our advice. 



There is one simple answer, the one 

 condition by which forest croj)i)ing dif- 

 fers from all other business : the time 

 element and the many uncertainties 

 which that involves ! 



It takes (j() to TOO years and more to 

 grow saw timber from the seed — as a 

 rule, varying with locality and species, 

 1 inch in 5 to 10 years in diameter may 

 be secured on the average ; the sower 

 rarely is the reaper. During all this 

 time there is the fire risk, and the risk 



