IX 
YIELD TABLES 
THE material given in the tables in this and the pre- 
ceding chapters has been prepared for the purpose of 
predicting future crops of timber after cutting to a 
given limit on lands yielding a known amount of Spruce. 
It is of great importance to the land owner to know 
how soon he can return to a certain tract of land after 
cutting and obtain the same yield as at first, and to 
what minimum diameter it will be most profitable in 
the long run to cut. There can be no doubt that the 
best immediate returns are obtained by cutting down 
to five inches. Forest management is out of the ques- 
tion for the lumberman who wishes to make all the 
money possible out of his property at once and without 
regard to its value in the future, for it rests on the 
premise that forest land is so much productive capital 
and that its productive capacity should not be impaired. 
It is easy to show that, if the Spruce is cut down to five 
inches, so long atime must elapse before there will be 
merchantable Spruce on the area again that it will not 
pay to hold the land for the next crop. In such a 
case there would be no timber worth cutting even for 
pulp in less than fifty to seventy-five years. Interest 
charges, taxes, and the cost of production cannot be 
75 
