INTRODUCTION. 



then only will it yield the greatest pecuniary return. There 

 was, however, a time when it was considered incompatible 

 with good forestry to attempt to make a forest yield the best 

 financial results ; a forest was looked upon as a means of 

 satisfying, without any speculative motive, the direct and 

 indirect national requirements. But precisely because a 

 forest is an important national estate, and because the impor- 

 tance of any estate is recognized most fully and its protection 

 best secured when itself and its produce possess a considerable 

 sale-value, this way of regarding forests is generally erroneous. 

 The profit obtained from careful forest-management is small 

 when compared with that from other productive industries, 

 and apparently will not improve just yet, for substitutes used 

 in place of wood come more and more into use.* So much 

 the more, therefore, in the interests of both national economy 

 and forestry, should every forest-owner endeavour to increase 

 the pecuniary yield of his woodlands as much as possible, 

 provided that at the same time he works within the bounds 

 prescribed by good forest management. Forest utilization 

 therefore should always keep in view the possibility of a steady 

 improvement of the forest revenue, without prejudice to its 

 maintenance or future enhancement. 



The foregoing remarks lead us to define the science of Forest 

 Utilization as a systematic arrangement of the most appro- 

 priate methods of harvesting, converting and disposing 

 profitably of forest produce, in accordance with the results 

 of experience and study, due regard being paid to silvicul- 

 ture and to the best pecuniary returns. 



Wood is usually the chief product of forests, and at present 

 the aim of forest management is directed chiefly to its produc- 

 tion. Besides wood, there are other useful products, which 

 are derived either from the trees or the soil of forests, or con- 

 sist of the components of the latter. As most of them, 

 however, are, in general, relatively inferior in value to wood, 

 in id their production is bound up with the existence of 



* [For :i statement of the financial returns from forests, cf. Vol. I. of this 

 Maniml, :>rd e<L ]>. 2<>L'. There is. indeed, every prospect of in creased profits 

 from woodlands, now t h;it the demands for wood-pulp for papermakm^ !i;ive 

 become so enormous and the prices of timber imported into I'.ritaiu and 

 rising stendijy. Tr.] 





