FRENCH FIR MANAGEMENT IN THE VOSGES 537 



cellent results. It is frankly to be recommended to owners who do not 

 have to manage their forests from the viewpoint of the highest net 

 revenue. It is easy to apply and results in a fixed revenue during a 

 rotation; but it appears questionable for owners who desire (in their 

 fir stands) an investment which must yield a rate approximately equal 

 to real estate and having the same advantages of security: three per 

 cent, for example. This method can be criticized as absolutely lacking 

 in data on the total volume which the normally constituted forest must 

 contain. It is, to be sure, said that the normal condition exists when 

 the volume of the large is to the volume of the average wood as 5 is to 3. 

 This is an insufficient assertion, for under it a hectare which contained 

 one large tree of 5 cubic meters and ahother average tree of 3 cubic 

 meters would be normally constituted. A conception of total volume 

 is thus absolutely essential, and especially for the private owners it is 

 felt that a knowledge of the yield rate is equally indispensable. It is 

 desirable for a private owner to know what rate the capital invested in 

 forest property could or should return — this property, principal and in- 

 terest, being for him a commercial enterprise. Some authorities dissent 

 (from this viewpoint) : they say the forest only yields i per cent ; others 

 say 2 per cent ; others 3 per cent ; others even more, . . . this rate, 

 (often) remaining unknown, depends on a number of factors. . . . 

 Many foresters think that private owners have no object in growing 

 fir more than .4 meter (16 inches) in diameter; others advise going 

 up to .6 meter and more. On what are these figures based? What 

 often happens during the life (history) of a privately owned fir stand 

 from a variety of treatment, from cuttings, from immoderate fellings 

 following mere thinnings that have been too conservative? How often 

 could be cited (forest) property too conservatively administered, full 

 of fine trees and splendid stands, where, fearing to overcut, they have 

 not cut enough ? What happens ? This owner only secures but a mini- 

 mum revenue ; the growing stock accumulates until some fine day he 

 dies or is pressed for money ; a lumberman turns up, offers what ap- 

 pears (in relation to past returns) to be a high price for the property 

 and buys it. This purchaser, without regard for forest esthetics and 

 unwilling to allow his capital to be idle, cuts clear, or almost everything, 

 and generally realizes very high profits. Quite often one sees forests 

 more or less frequently logged destructively or even cut clear. While 

 this may make fortunes for speculators, it is the end of our (private) 

 forests. Why should this occur with fir stands which yield almost as 

 good returns and are almost as safe as other forms of investment? 



Research on this subject and methods for maintaining (such stands) 

 form the object of this study. It is simply the development of pro- 



