188 OUR USE OF THE LAND 



ceed the growth for that period. Hence, there is always a con' 

 stant amount of timber on the ground. This remainder is called 

 forest capital. Capital may be thought of as a reservoir of 

 water. It is fed by a never-f ailing spring (the annual growth) , 

 and loses at its outlet (the annual cut) the same amount as 

 received from the spring. Thus the level of water in the reser 

 voir remains constant. 



In practice a forest under sustained yield management may 

 be made up of a single large stand of trees of all ages from 

 seedlings to mature veterans, or of many small even-aged stands 

 ranging from newly reproduced stands to middle-aged and old 

 stands. In either case there is such an even distribution of ages 

 from young to old that the proper regulation of cutting pro 

 vides continuous production year after year without depletion. 



There are a great many theories about sustained yield, and 

 more than one way to achieve it. It is difficult to get people to 

 agree what is the best method, but practically all foresters and 

 a good many lumbermen agree that sustained yield is the only 

 form of forest management which is suitable for American 

 forestry. In practically all European countries, the forest users 

 have hundreds of years ago gone through a period of waste 

 similar to that of the United States. Today, sustained yield 

 or at least conservative cutting, is enforced by law in most 

 European forests. 



Not only is sustained yield management better for forests 

 but it is also better for the lumbermen in the long run. Most 

 studies which have been made of sustained yield cutting indicate 

 that there is a higher rate of profit from such management than 

 from any other. Certainly, from the point of view of the Amer 

 ican people as a whole, it is more profitable to have forests cut 

 on a continuous production basis than to have them clear-cut 

 and burned, then restocked artificially at great cost. Clear-cut 

 forests mean stranded populations, eroded soil, destroyed water- 



