40 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF NEW JERSEY. 



tion from fire. He shows that pine forest 100 to 200 years old, 

 or say 150 years average age, yields an average of 6,631 board 

 feet per acre, which, if of yellow pine, may be estimated to be 

 worth, as standing timber, $20 per acre. Second-growth seed- 

 lings, 80 years old, yield 7,500 board feet, worth about the same 

 amount per acre, the timber being of smaller average size, and 

 second growth from 40 to 60 years old yields about 23 cords per 

 acre. The yearly increment of value may therefore be calcu- 

 lated at 25 cents per acre when the forest is protected from 

 fire. When it is not protected at all, the increment is so small 

 that we may neglect it. If, as suggested by Mr. Pinchot's 

 figures, merely efficient protection from fire will give a return 

 of 25 cents per acre annually for the half of the pine forest 

 which now suffers most severely from fires, or 600,000 acres, it 

 means an aggregate annual return of $150,000. It would there- 

 fore seem certain that Mr. Gilford's suggestions as to fire lanes 

 and some well-considered plan of fire wardens would be worth 

 while, if we consider only the direct money-return from 

 the timber. 



While the aggregate return is sufficiently attractive and 

 promising, however, the stand-point of the owner, say of 100 

 acres of pine forest, is necessarily different. We can, at best, 

 only hold out to him a possible annual increment of $25 to his 

 holdings, which can scarcely be convertible into cash by him, 

 and may not be realized by the next generation even, while he 

 is confronted with an absolutely certain annual outlay of $3 or 

 $4 for the cost of protection, in addition to any other taxes to 

 which the property may be subject. The apathy of the present 

 owner of the forest is therefore not unnatural, although we per- 

 sonally believe that if some efficient system of protection can be 

 put into operation the forest will soon profit by an advance in 

 value greater than that due to the wood alone. 



There are other strong reasons for protecting the pine forest, 

 which, while they may not appeal strongly to the individual 

 forest owner, certainly do appeal to the people of the State at 

 large. If by successive fires the forest cover should be destroyed, 

 this sandy district will become a terribly forbidding waste of 

 shifting sand, blown hither and thither by the varying winds. 

 Something of this kind ma.y be seen already in many old clear- 



