REQUIREMENTS FOR THE BEST SERVICE. 11 



portion to the interest it yields on the money invested 

 in it. Thus, an acre of sprout land may be worth only 

 $5, while the investment in adjoining land stocked with 

 old trees may be $50 an acre. This is the view which 

 controls the management of State forests in Germany. 

 Lumbermen also regard timberland as an investment, 

 but usually they take no care except for the yield at 

 the moment. They disregard the future yield alto- 

 gether, and in consequence the forest loses its capital 

 value, or may even be totally destroyed. Well managed 

 forests, on the other hand, are made to yield their 

 service always without endangering the future yield, 

 and usually to its great advantage. Like the plant of a 

 successful manufacturer, a forest should increase in 

 productiveness and value year by year. 



Under various circumstances, then, a forest may yield 

 its best return in protection, in wood, grass, or other 

 forest products, in money, or in interest on the capital 

 it represents. But whichever of these ways of using 

 the forest may be chosen in any given case, the funda- 

 mental idea in forestry is that of perpetuation by wise 

 use; that is, of making the forest yield the best service 

 possible at the present in such a way that its useful- 

 ness in the future will not be diminished, but rather 

 increased. 



FOUR REQUIREMENTS FOR THE BEST SERVICE. 



A forest well managed under the methods of practi- 

 cal forestry will yield a return in one of the ways just 

 mentioned. There are, however, four things a forest 

 must have before it can be in condition to render the 

 best service. 



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