458 Forestry Quarterly. 



cut as opportunity offers to sell at reasonable rates so long as 

 there are preserved the conditions which make a sustained yield 

 management eventually possible. 



It is a pity that the National Forest Reservation Commission 

 has recently turned down the acquisition of the Biltmore tract 

 which had been offered for purchase to the Government undej 

 the Weeks' law. While the long term timber contract now in 

 force on the property and the desirability of investing the com- 

 paratively limited appropriation in sections that are more in 

 need of protection were influencing factors, very probably the 

 fear of public criticism about paying a high price to a rich man 

 played an important role in the final decision. Be that as it 

 may, the Commission was ready to recognize the exceptional 

 value which fire protection and road development had given Mr. 

 Vanderbilt's land, although they were afraid that the public 

 might not be able to see it, too. 



The experience with the Vanderbilt tract leads one to wonder 

 whether forestry in this country, even in places where the markets 

 are good and there is favorable fire and tax sentiment, is attrac- 

 tive enough to private enterprise, although we thoroughly be- 

 lieve that in the long run a fairly wooded tract could be made to 

 pay if handled for sustained wood yields and the by-products such 

 as waterpower, game privileges, etc. 



Although there was strenuous effort made to make the Bilt- 

 more forestry enterprise appear profitable from the start, this 

 could be accomplished only by clever bookkeeping, namely by 

 charging to other accounts in part expenditures, which would be 

 required for forest management. It would be difficult to know 

 how much of the large expenditures for road-building on park 

 account should be charged to forest account; how much of the 

 wages of game keepers are chargeable to forest ranger account, 

 etc. 



The trouble is that forest management for sustained yield re- 

 quires invariably outlays in the present, which return interest only 

 in a distant future. The sooner this is realized in this country 

 the better. We have interesting experience, even in Germany, 

 which tends to show that private forestry even there is much more 

 poorly conducted and pays more poorly than the forest manage- 



