Forests and Forestry 139 



sometimes reach considerable height and diameter, 

 although they never attain the dimensions of the 

 original trees. One of the advantages of coppice 

 woods is the short periods within which successive 

 crops can be taken. Where merely fire-wood is 

 desired, coppice is profitable. Where oak bark 

 is produced for tanning, it is the usual form of 

 culture. 



The treatment of a given tract of forest is rarely 

 determined by purely silvicultural reasons. This 

 would be the case if simply that form of treatment 

 and those species of trees were adopted which, un- 

 der the particular conditions of soil and topography, 

 would produce the most and best timber. But as 

 the ultimate end of forestry is not the production 

 of fine trees, but the gaining of a profit, other con- 

 siderations must modify the policy of the forester. 

 These considerations are especially those of trans- 

 portation and of market price. Without going 

 into details, we will in the following chapter 

 briefly treat of these and a few allied matters. In 

 doing so our principal aim will be, as it has been 

 in this chapter, to make it clear that the whole sub- 

 ject of forestry is simply a question of business, of 

 dollars and cents to the owner and of economic 

 advantage to the community. 



