THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST 19 



not adapted for permanent individual development. Forest 

 lands constitute the ideal class, not only because the state is 

 in the best position to keep up their usefulness to the com- 

 munity, but also because they will earn perpetual revenue far 

 greater than they could bring through taxation. They will 

 pay back the cost and interest, become increasingly valuable, 

 and still pay dividends. 



It is even more important that reforestation be secured on 

 private lands, because their area is greater than that owned 

 by state and government. With the encouragement which 

 could be given the owner without any undeserved concession, 

 conditions would warrant him in securing it. We have 

 reached that stage in our development. The exhaustion of 

 timber in the country at large, the increase of consumption, 

 and our peculiar natural advantages, have combined to prom- 

 ise adequate financial return. And the lumberman does not 

 want to go out of business unless he has to. 



OBSTACLES TO PRIVATE EFFORT 



To insure a second crop the lumberman has to lose more 

 or less money when he cuts the first. His methods must be 

 more expensive and he must forego present profits on trees he 

 leaves. If he plants, the outlay is considerable. But let us 

 suppose he is willing to do all this, not because he is a philan- 

 thropist but because he wants more trees to run his mill some 

 day. 



It is a comparatively simple matter to get his second crop 

 started. American forestry has solved this problem fairly 

 well. It is also easy to calculate in most cases, beginning 

 with the sale value of cut-over land, using safe estimate of 

 the next yield and the time required to mature it, and setting 

 a conservative future stumpage value, that growing timber 

 ought to be a profitable investment. If that were all, we 

 could leave the lumberman alone and count on him to per- 

 petuate our forests because it will pay him to do so. 



But the whole calculation, consequently the public's inter- 



