CHAPTER VI 



MAKING MONEY OUT OF FOKESTBY 



MOST owners of forest land demand that their prop- 

 erty shall yield a high revenue and consequently 

 they desire their trees to grow as fast as possible. 

 This recalls the story of a hustling Yankee who was 

 traveling in the piney woods of the South. One 

 day he came across his first razor-back hog and was 

 astonished at its thinness and the speed with which it 

 could run. On asking a local resident why he didn't 

 pen his hogs up and shorten the fattening time, the 

 native replied, "Whut's time to a hawg?" It makes 

 no difference to a tree how long it takes to grow to saw 

 log size, but it makes a great deal of difference to the 

 owner. ,. 



The timber put on our markets today for the most 

 part took Mother Nature from two hundred and fifty 

 to three hundred years to produce, and it is extremely 

 unlikely that future generations will ever see trees of 

 that size outside of occasional parks. The forester aims 

 to produce trees in as short time as possible and by 

 thinning the forest in youth and thus diminishing com- 

 petition for light, food and moisture he forces the growth 

 into selected trees. Naturally, this provides better tim- 

 ber in far shorter time, to the increased profits of the 

 owner. ' , , 



Increasing the Growth. By making thinnings at 

 the proper time sprout chestnut will yield railroad 

 ties in thirty-five years, whereas if left untouched 



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