FUTURE OF FORESTRY 171 



money compel the owner to pay about ten per cent of 

 his selling price. This method permits the owner to 

 pay when he is best able to do so. With just tax laws 

 and increased fire protection the raising of timber will 

 be both safe and profitable. 



Forestry Today. During the early years the practice 

 of forestry was confused by many with the park and 

 playground idea. Many hardheaded business men 

 thought forestry foolish because they had been told 

 that the forester's motto was, "Woodman, spare that 

 tree." The last few years have cleared up the real 

 meaning, and as soon as it was known that forestry 

 meant using the forest in a practical way and har- 

 vesting crops of timber from non-agricultural lands, 

 much more interest and support was received. For- 

 estry is essentially practical and while every forester 

 loves the woods for their beauty and grandeur, and 

 appreciates the indirect influences in harboring game 

 and serving to refresh and rebuild the weary, never- 

 theless he believes that these ends may be obtained 

 without locking up the wood land. Such is the case 

 abroad, for the Black Forest attracts thousands of 

 tourists each year ; the shooting it furnishes is unexcelled 

 in any part of Germany and yet profitable crops of 

 timber are cut each year from the mountain slopes. 



The present situation regarding forestry in the United 

 States is that out of a total of 1,900,000,000 acres within 

 our boundaries, about 545,000,000 acres are covered 

 with forest. This area contains approximately 2,500,- 

 000,000,000 board feet of lumber of which about 40,000,- 

 000,000 board feet is used as saw timber each year and 

 for all purposes about 23,000,000,000 cubic feet is cut. 

 In case it might seem that the supply of timber now on 

 hand is so large that we could never see the last of it, 



