612 JOURNAI. OF FORESTRY 



sel for the National Lumber Manufacturers' Association, and the 

 American Lumberman say with regard to the grave responsibility and 

 important work which will devolve on him in determining the various 

 elements entering into the cost of production of lumber. Lumbermen 

 are inclined to look upon timber as an exhaustible resource, such as iron 

 ore. Their financial theory, therefore, is that of the finance of mining 

 and not that of dealing with a renewable resource. The continuous 

 forest production, which sooner or later is bound to come to our 

 private forest lands, will necessitate a revision of the entire theory of 

 forest finance and place a different valuation on the investment in 

 mature timber, rate of interest, and depreciation rates, both in timber 

 capital and in investments in mills and equipment. The decisions of 

 the Bureau of Internal Revenue can hasten or delay the coming of the 

 time when the handling of our timber properties must be based on 

 sound financial principles. The country and the profession of forestry 

 will, therefore, await anxiously the interpretation which Major Mason 

 will put upon the various factors determining timber values and rev- 

 enues. 



Capt. Eldredge, of the 20th Engineers, is spending several weeks on 

 the forest which he left as Forest Supervisor when he joined the Army 

 early in the war. He has now received his appointment as Assistant Dis- 

 trict Forester, and will soon go with his family to take up his work in 

 Washington. Capt. Eldredge's presence on the forest at this time is 

 being taken full advantage of by Supervisor L. L. Bishop, it being 

 his first opportunity to learn direct all the plans and hopes the Captain 

 had had for the Florida when he was its Supervisor. Capt. Eldredge 

 spent seventeen months in the Landes, France, and there came most 

 intimately in touch with the French turpentining industry. His obser- 

 vations are proving of the greatest benefit in planning for the future of 

 the Florida Forest. It is expected that he will be in Florida until 

 about the end of May. 



We learn from the report of the Forestry Sub-Committee of the 

 Reconstruction Committee of the United Kingdom that, aside from the 

 land fit for agriculture, there are between 4 and 5 million acres fit 

 only for the growing of timber, and that, if only half this area was 

 afforested, in 40 to 50 years the country would be practically inde- 

 pendent in the matter of timber. The committee recommends that 

 forestry be made a State industry, on account of the long-time element. 

 It is proposed to afforest 1,770,000 acres. With 80 as the average 



