JOURNAL OF FORESTRY 



Vol. XVIII APRIL, 1920 No. 4 



The Society is not responsible, as a body, for the facts and opinions advanced 

 in the papers published by it. 



LIBRARY 



NEW YORK 



BUSINESS PHASES OF FOREST DEVASTATION jjotanicai. 

 By Frederick E. Olmsted Oakuen 



The provisions in the report of the Committee for Application of 

 Forestry which suggest that certain business phases of the kunber in- 

 dustry be put to rights resulted in controversy hardly less interesting 

 than that brought up by the recommendation for national rather than 

 State control. 



Opposition has resulted on the ground that foresters are not con- 

 cerned with problems such as that of the relation between employers 

 and employees, and that they should confine their efforts strictly to 

 those measures dealing with the use of land for the growing of trees ; 

 that if we enter the business field at all it would be necessary to include 

 such matters as the control of prices, capitalization, and other features ; 

 and that the business conditions recommended for control are not 

 necessarily involved in a plan to keep forest lands productive. 



SILVICULTURE A BUSINESS 



The Committee was loath to introduce any reference to business 

 problems into its program. It did so, after thorough-going discussion, 

 only because it felt forced to do so, and for the reasons which follow. 



Silviculture is a business, so interwoven with proljlems of labor, 



production, distribution, and costs as to be influenced profoundly by 



these factors from the very start. When the principles of forestry are 



applied in the woods, thus keeping cut-over lands productive, logged-off 



areas which in general have heretofore been charged ofif against deple- 



^ ^tion, should and will be regarded as assets. The lumber industry 



^~ should not and will not be classed as a "wasting" industry, as it is now 



y,^/ classed, for example, by the Bureau of Internal Revenue in connection 



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