Plan to Meet Needs for Wood and Timber. 311 



advocates of any one special form of treatment and practices an 

 eclectic system. 



Natural regeneration, as the name implies, relies to the largest 

 extent on Nature to produce the crop, the seeds from the existing 

 trees are expected to seed the area to be regenerated, and as the 

 old crop is removed, the new crop takes its place — conservative 

 logging with more consideration of the needs of the young crop- 

 In artificial reforestation, the seeds are gathered and sown by 

 hand or machine, or else, preferably, trees are grown in the 

 nursery and planted out by the use of various tools. As a rule 

 in the former method the old crop is more or less gradually 

 removed; in the latter method, as a rule the old crop is cut clear, 

 and possibly the ground prepared for the new crop. 



There are two points of view from which every forestry 

 practice must be tested, namely the biological one and the 

 financial one; does the method produce satisfactory material 

 result and at the same time keep the factors of production, espe- 

 cially the soil, in good condition? And, on the other hand, is it 

 as cheap as a satisfactory financial result makes it necessary? 



In farm practice, each year's, or a few years' crops, give 

 answer to both questions, but in forestry unfortunately the 

 result is seen only after a very long series of years, and hence 

 the possibility of such an unending controversy between natural 

 regenerators and planters. 



This long-time element makes, for instance, all finance calcu- 

 lations speculations in futures, without very certain data. 



What prices will rule 60 to 100 years hence? What interest 

 rate is proper to charge or expect on the invested capital for 

 such a long time investment ? Indeed, will not industrial develop- 

 ment perhaps have eradicated the use of wood, or at least of wood 

 of the kind we have set out to grow? This latter question has 

 m the last century been a serious one for the beech forests of 

 Germany. Originally fostered and increased to meet the need of 

 fuel wood, the development of the use of coal made them unprofit- 

 able; then having revived as furnishers of tie timber with the 

 railroad development, the metal tie threatened to displace them, 

 and but for the fact of a broad national policy under which both 

 forests and railroads are managed by the German Government, 

 the metal tie would have killed the beech forest industry. 



