PURPOSES IN FORESTRY 

 By Philip T. Cooudge; 



For correct planning, analysis of purposes is useful. Such analysis 

 indicates that no serious disagreement exists at present as to the pro- 

 priety of measures in forestry for purposes of recreation, for soil and 

 water protection, or for military requirements. Expenditures for such 

 purposes are proper if the projects promise to yield the most efifective 

 results possible, if the results anticipated are commensurate with the 

 costs, and if the projects are clearly understood and approved by the 

 public. The problem of timber for military requirements, a very large 

 order under modern conditions, would receive valuable publicity if it 

 could be worked out in detail co-operatively by the Government de- 

 partments concerned. 



To accomplish the above mentioned purposes, for which ordinary 

 profits on wood production are not required, purchases of land for 

 public ownership are useful, and governments have the undoubted 

 authority to enforce restrictions on private lands, making due com- 

 pensation to private owners if necessary in fairness. Regulations to 

 prevent creation of serious fire hazards, dangerous to the property of 

 others, may not involve compensation to private owners. On the other 

 hand, present methods of cutting, which merely postpone the time of 

 maturity of timber crops, do not necessarily constitute forest devasta- 

 tion, or any sort of irreparable injury to public interests. 



As to the production of timber for ordinary commercial use, the 

 theories generally advanced by those opposed to the radical changes 

 proposed are essentially correct, because they are based upon un- 

 changeable economic laws. Timber production for commercial use 

 involves broad consideration of the employment of capital and labor 

 generally. Effort in unprofitable projects, whether public or private, 

 for ordinary industrial production is of no value either to the present 

 generation or the next. The next generation will not find timber of 

 "inestimable" value for commercial purposes — it will find it of exactly 

 that value that it is willing to pay for. It will not be pleased to meet 

 bills for timber growing, unless it can realize on that timber profitably. 

 And for the present generation, future supplies of timber are worth 



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