SHALL WE CAPITALIZE OUR FORESTS? 



By B. a. Chandler 



Assistant Professor of Forest Utilisation, Cornell University 



Our forests should be raised on the investment basis — that is, they 

 should be capitalized. This was the contention of the writer in an 

 article entitled "A National Forest and Lumber Policy/' published in 

 the American Lumberman of July 5, 1919. Subsequent discussion and 

 study has made him feel more strongly than before the fundamental 

 soundness and importance of his contention. 



In the former article the writer took the position that it will cost 

 money to grow forests ; that this expense must be considered either 

 an investment or a replacement ; that if the private owner is to be 

 compelled to practice forestry he must be allowed to do so on the 

 replacement basis ; that equitable application of the replacement method, 

 although ideal ethically, will be nearly impossible; and that a workable 

 plan can be developed if both the Government and the private owner 

 grow their forests on the investment basis. 



The discussion which has taken place since Col. Graves first called 

 the attention of the public to the necessity of working out a National 

 forest policy for private holdings, shows that there are certain funda- 

 mental questions which must first be decided before a definite policy 

 can be formulated. Among these are the following: 



Shall we hold to the old principle that the private owner shall have 

 the right to the ownership and management of his property or com- 

 pensation for the same when it is necessary that its management be 

 controlled for the public good? 



Is this generation under obligation to hand on tO' future generations 

 a forest which is as free from the accumulation of capital expenses 

 as the one it inherited? 



Is the future forest to be grown chiefly by the Government, or is 

 private capital to be encouraged or forced into the business ? 



These questions will be discussed later in connection with the 

 different ways of financing the growing of forests. 



There are several ways of carrying out the principle of replacement 

 which also result in investments. Some readers may have failed to 

 get the writer's meaning from his former article because the term 

 "replacement" connoted to them something different than the meaning 



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