i26 North American Forests and Forestry 



growing on it, markets it as quickly as he can, 

 and then disposes of the land, so that he may buy 

 new tracts to repeat the same operation, or put his 

 money into some other business, then this will be 

 the best method of forestry in that particular case. 

 If, on the other hand, the owner thinks that, for any 

 reason whatsoever, he will be best off if he conduct 

 lumbering in such a way that he can cut successive 

 crops of timber from the same land, then he would 

 be a poor business man if he did not adopt forestry 

 methods calculated to accomplish that end. The 

 former of these conditions is the one in which most 

 lumbermen in this country find themselves at pre- 

 sent. As long as the value of the land, aside from 

 that of the merchantable timber growing on it, is 

 very low, and as long as plenty of original timber 

 is still in the market, waiting to be cut, a lumber- 

 man who would attempt to incur the additional ex- 

 pense of shaping his cutting with a view towards 

 the best manner of timber reproduction would be 

 unable to compete with other lumbermen who do 

 not care for the permanency of their industry. It 

 follows that, generally speaking, the lumbermen are 

 not the reckless destroyers of forests they are often 

 considered, but are merely doing what the nature 

 of their business compels them to do ; and they will 

 continue to do so until the conditions have changed, 

 either by the action of economic laws, or by the 

 effect of governmental action. 



Supposing that in any given case it is economical 

 to treat a timber tract so as to insure its perma- 



