36 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTUKAL SOCIETY. 



expectation value of the woods only coincide in one particular 

 case, and that is just when they are ready for the axe. Thus, 

 supposing the age classes to be normal and the rotation one of 

 eighty years, only one-eightieth of the woods could be sold at 

 their silvicultural value, and it is, of course, the silvicultural 

 value and not the value to the wood merchant which is put 

 upon the growing stock. Thus we come to see that in forestry 

 the growing stock capital and the land capital can only be 

 separated in theory and not in practice. There are in addition 

 many very important national economic reasons why this 

 unconvertible capital, even with its low rate of interest, should 

 not in any way be interfered with. The very existence of 

 Saxony without her forests and her wood-utilizing industries is 

 unthinkable. 



This brings us to the vexed question of what is the correct 

 amount of growing stock capital to invest in forest land in 

 order to obtain the most desirable results. It is, perhaps, not 

 so much a matter of the actual amount of capital which should 

 be locked up in woods in order to produce the best financial 

 returns, as this is capable of being worked out by calculation, 

 but rather what is the object of forestry. Is forest land to be 

 regarded, for example, as a mine which requires a certain 

 amount of capital to develop it, and in which no more capital is 

 invested than is consistent with its most economic development ? 

 or is it to be regarded as some auriferous reef the last ounce of 

 which is to be exploited regardless of the capital outlay entailed ? 

 This comparison represents roughly the difference in the 

 fundamental idea as to what is the object of forestry as under- 

 stood by the Saxon and Prussian States respectively. The 

 Saxon forester looks upon his forest land as a commercial 

 concern and argues how is it possible to get the greatest return 

 from the land together with a reasonable interest on the money 

 it will require for its proper development, i.e. the growing stock 

 capital. He wishes, in fact, to discover exactly what capital 

 per acre is required to give the highest rate of interest on the 

 combined capital of land and stock, and takes every means in 

 his power consistent with good silviculture to reduce the stock 

 capital (the land capital being fixed) in order that the rate of 

 interest may reach a maximum. In other words, he manages 

 his woods upon a strictly commercial basis. In Prussia, how- 

 ever, the State woods are regarded less as a business concern. 



