382 Forestry Quarterly. 



thrifty young stands which would have reached maturity at that 

 time if cutting had taken place at the present time. These losses 

 are directly proportionate to the amount which we cut less than 

 the sustained annual yield. It is for the benefit, rather than to 

 the detriment of the Forest that cutting take place to the limit of 

 the Forest at once. 



(3) Financial Considerations. It follows that if the above 

 deductions are true concerning volume production, the financial 

 returns from the Forest in the immediate future will not be de- 

 creased in any sense by cutting on a sustained annual yield basis 

 now. Since just as much volume can be removed in the im- 

 mediate future if we cut now as can be if we do not, just as 

 much timber will be available for sale at such increased prices as 

 we may obtain then, as will be available if no cutting or only a 

 little cutting takes place in the meantime. Likewise the distant 

 future would be benefited financially by cutting at the present 

 time. 



When, therefore, we hear the policy of withholding greatly 

 over mature stands from cutting advocated by foresters, when 

 the National Forests of the Pacific Slope bear this class of stands 

 almost exclusively, it proves only that these men lack faith in 

 their own profession, and look upon these mature stands as one 

 would look upon a mine whose resources would be exhausted 

 whenever they are utilized, and would therefore naturally be 

 utilized immediately, or withheld for utilization for several years, 

 according to the owner's idea of which would yield the greatest 

 returns. This is exactly the standpoint of the lumberman, but 

 it is surprising that it should also be the standpoint of any techni- 

 cal forester. Forestry is practical and businesslike, and Ameri- 

 can foresters will make an irretrievable error, which will meet 

 certain condemnation in the future, if they disregard absolutely 

 the principles of forestry, which have been proven by a century or 

 more of European experience. I beheve it would be very difficult 

 to find authority in any European forest practice which would 

 indicate holding the cut below a sustained annual yield basis in 

 any area under forest management where nearly all the stands of 

 timber on the area are so decadent as those on the Pacific Slope, 

 many of which have decreased by thousands of feet to the acre 

 below the volume which thrifty Douglas fir stands in the region 

 contain. 



