200 Forestry Quarterly. 



suitable for agriculture must be planted, if at all, by the State 

 and National Governments. It is a work which cannot be con- 

 sidered by the present generation of business men as a profitable 

 enterprise or investment, simply because in most species of timber 

 the returns to be expected are inadequate and wholly problem- 

 atical. The length of time required to plant and mature a crop 

 of trees is too great to interest Americans. The State lives on 

 while individuals perish. The State can borrow money at 2 per 

 cent., while the individual must pay 5 or 6 per cent., and while the 

 individual must pay taxes in some form or other, the State is 

 exempt. The actual planting of trees, therefore, is for the 

 benefit of future generations, and must be done by the State. 



Conservative logging, as lumbermen understand it, means the 

 cutting of virgin timber so that the forest may perpetuate itself. 

 This may involve the cutting of trees of certain species by 

 diameter limit, the leaving of seed trees, leaving stands of young 

 trees where under certain conditions their increase in size will 

 be an element worth reckoning; also the protection of water- 

 sheds, the cutting of timber for the creation of fire lines, ascer- 

 taining the rate of growth of different species in different locali- 

 ties, knowledge of the exact relation between the forest growth 

 and timber consumption, etc., all of which will have to be worked 

 out by the technical forester. These conditions vary in every 

 locality and with every kind of timber and with the changing con- 

 ditions of the lumber market. 



In consulting the forester about conservation methods of log- 

 ging, lumbermen find that the cost will be very greatly enhanced 

 over present costs, and they are confronted with the question 

 of what kind of a tax they can pay and still leave a reasonable 

 margin for the investment and risk. Scientific forestry must 

 present some inducement as a business investment or it never 

 will be undertaken. It is useless to expect men to look at it in 

 any other light. It is evident that there will have to be a radical 

 change in the present methods of taxation, and here again the 

 public must be educated by the forester. He alone can show 

 the people that there can be no real progress toward conserva- 

 tion so long as the present system of taxation remains in vogue. 

 It is the most important question before the lumbermen to-day 

 and will some day be one of the most important before the 

 nation. While many thinking people recognize the truth of this 



