Forest Finance and Management 145 



maintaining" the forest, reckoned as we have just 

 shown. This time can be predicted in advance 

 with considerable accuracy by the help of the yield 

 tables, of which we have spoken above. 



The time when the cut is made in practice is not 

 always the exact year so ascertained in advance. 

 It may happen, to take but one of many con- 

 tingencies, that a year before the time set for the 

 final harvest the market price of the particular 

 kind of lumber produced in our forest is exception- 

 ally high ; then it would evidently be the part of 

 prudence to take advantage of this accident, and 

 possibly by the increased price realize more than 

 would be represented by the wood increase of a 

 single year. Or the reverse may happen ; prices 

 may be unusually low in the year when ordinarily 

 the final harvest must come. Then we had better 

 wait awhile till prices rise again. 



The slight modification brought about in the 

 time of the final harvest is not the only way in 

 which market price becomes a factor in determin- 

 ing the system according to which a forest is man- 

 aged. It may, among other things, affect the 

 choice of the species to be raised on your land. It 

 may happen that, from a purely silvicultural stand- 

 point, your land is best adapted to one kind of 

 tree. But you choose deliberately to raise another 

 kind, because you foresee that it will find a readier 

 and better market than the first. The difficulty of 

 forecasting the market price is naturally very great, 

 on account of the long periods of time with which 



