Forests and Forestry 125 



advantage may be. I now have in mind the case of 

 private ownership, for where forest lands are owned 

 by the public, certain considerations come into play 

 which must modify the conclusions. Clearly a man 

 may have a diversity of objects in view when he 

 becomes the owner of woodland. The most numer- 

 ous class of forest owners in this country are farm- 

 ers who keep a portion of their homestead under 

 timber. Forests of this kind are rarely over a 

 hundred acres in extent, and usually much smaller. 

 Their obvious use is supplementary to agriculture. 

 They supply fire-wood and fencing material, pastur- 

 age to the farm cattle ; occasionally some logs are 

 sold to produce an incidental cash revenue. In 

 such cases the dominant principle of treatment 

 should be to maintain the forest permanently in as 

 good condition as possible for the use it is put to, 

 with as little outlay of money and labor as will ac- 

 complish that end. Ordinarily it would not pay 

 to manage it with a view to large or continuous 

 pecuniary returns. 



On the other hand, a person may own large tracts 

 of timber-land from which he may desire a revenue. 

 The land represents a large amount of invested 

 capital, and good business principles demand that 

 the investment should yield a reasonable interest. 

 In such cases a variety of different systems of 

 treatment would be indicated, according to the 

 circumstances of each case. If the proprietor finds 

 that his capital will be most productive if he takes 

 from the land the greatest possible amount of timber 



