504 JOURN-AL OF FORESTRY 



forests whose going they so hauntingly mourn, and the country would 

 be getting back a great weahh that may be essential in some future 

 national emergency. 



A great part of our Eastern forests have been denuded by their 

 owners cutting fuel and posts which they have sold for an amount 

 equal to just a fair wage. The standing timber was in such cases 

 valued merely as an opportunity to work for a fair wage when they had 

 nothing else to do under circumstances which were agreeable for the 

 reason they were not subordinate to someone else. Would they not 

 be equally industrious in working under equally agreeable circumstances 

 if they could get equal wages for restoring the forests? And especially 

 if in place of having useless land they would be laying up for the next 

 generation or two the excess value of the matured crop over the ac- 

 cumulated amount of the mortgage thereon. 



With those men being independent while doing the work, the only 

 thing they would have to follow as a guide would be the necessity of 

 doing the w^ork carefully enough to pass the test of the Government 

 forester's inspection. If they did not own any land the lumber or 

 pulp company or other owner of wild land could give them a permit 

 to set out the trees while giving the Government a mortgage on the 

 tract that was set out. The owner of the land would get the benefit 

 of the low rate of interest procurable by the Government and would 

 have all the profits in excess of the principal and compound interest 

 on the mortgage. But of course it would be preferable to have all 

 or some portion of the bonds interest-bearing if the Government would 

 only do so. 



The advantages of getting our forests restored this way over the 

 other ways proposed are worth mentioning. The other ways that have 

 been most discussed are (1) for the Government to buy the land and 

 set out the trees, (2) for the private owners to set out the trees, and 

 (3) for the private owners to reforest as far as they can be encouraged 

 to do so and for the Government, Federal or State, to do the rest. 

 The first method would involve the Government raising large sums 

 either by taxes or borrowing. Also the funds would have to be Karge 

 enough to purchase the land. The cost of the land plus the compound 

 interest would be an amount the financing of which w^ould be entirely 

 unnecessary under the plan proposed in this paper. 



