LAISSEZ FAIRE VS. FORESIGHT IN FOREST MANAGEMENT. 305 



treatment of the subject see Roth.^'^ The writer has also given partial 

 treatment in a preceding article." 



However, with all his idealism, the true forester strives always 

 to keep his knowledge workable. It is desirable, then, to point out 

 here that such care of an existing forest as will make it as valuable 

 50 years hence as today (a thing which can be done, though returns 

 are taken annually from the forest) gives in a real financial sense its 

 reward today. Why? Because all future values may be discounted 

 to present value. If the United States Government should issue this 

 year 3 per cent bonds running for 50 years they would unquestionably 

 sell at par at once. This would happen not only because 3 per cent 

 interest is to be returned this year and next and the year after, or, 

 for that matter, for 50 years, but also because the principal is to be 

 paid at the end of 50 years. Equally, forest values, which are assured 

 to any forest owner 50 years hence, have their real value to him 

 today, though not so easily recognized as in the case of the bond 

 issue, partly because they are not so easily determinable. There is, 

 however, plenty of reliable American data to show absolutely that 

 these forest values will in many regions give a real return above the 

 expense. Moreover, as Professor Roth has shown,^- there are few 

 businesses in which the future results can be predicted as accurately 

 as in forestry. No matter what the future values may be, however, 

 the writer does not believe that forestry beginning on a bare tract 

 is practicable in any large and efifective way for either private owner, 

 State, or nation. The expenses are too great and the wait for returns 

 too long. Should the State of Washington spend $100,000 per annum 

 (an extravagant sum in a State which, for protecting its existing 

 forests, spends annually $37,500) in planting up deforested areas, it 

 could even at the start plant up no more than 10,000 acres annually. 

 This annual planted area would have to be diminished continually in 

 order to leave available sufficient sums to protect and administer 

 areas already planted. In less than 50 years the entire sum would be 

 needed for administration, because little or no return from this planting 

 would be available before that time. Iput ignoring this necessary 



" Roth F. Forest Regulation, Ann Arbor, 1914, and Forest Valuation, Ann Arbor, 

 1916, especially p. 82 and following. 



" Kirkland, Burt P. Need of Working Plans on National Forests and the 

 PoHcies Which Should be Embodied in Them. Proceedings Soc. American Foresters, 

 Vol. X, No. 4. 



1= Roth, F. Forest Valuation, Ann Arbor, 1916, p. 22 and following. 



