28 PRACTICAL FORESTRY IN 



including reasonable profit by those engaged in the several 

 stages of the process. That it will include the growing of 

 new timber on a sound, profitable basis is proved by the his- 

 tory of other countries which have undergone the same regu- 

 lation. This, after all, is the strongest argument with which 

 to answer the skeptic who, on premises and judgment of his 

 own, doubts the above conclusions. We need not claim greater 

 prophetic ability, but have only to make the undeniable asser- 

 tion that hindsight is better than foresight. Nothing demon- 

 strates economic laws so irrefutably as experience. 



Less than 29 per cent of the land area of the United States 

 is occupied by forests today, including swamps, burns and 

 much land which will be devoted to agriculture. Germany, 

 where great economy of material is practiced, where wooden 

 buildings are far fewer, where, indeed, the per capita con- 

 sumption is only a seventh of ours, keeps 26 per cent of her 

 land area under the most expensive forest management and 

 finds the profit constantly increasing. She is increasing 

 her production and importing heavily from countries where 

 .lumber is cheap, like the United States, yet the net returns 

 per acre from the forests of Baden rose from $2.38 in 1880 

 to $5.08 in 1902. This was due largely, of course, to improve- 

 ment of management. In France lands which only fifty years 

 ago could not be sold for $4 an acre now bring an annual 

 revenue of $3. In 1903 the town forest of Winterthur, 

 Switzerland, brought net receipts of $11.69 an acre. These 

 are fair examples in countries where the influence tending 

 toward less use of wood have been working for a very long 

 time. They show such influences do not result in refusal to 

 pay the cost of growing all the wood that can be grown. Wood 

 consumption in European countries is increasing at a rate of 

 from I 1 /;, to 2 per cent a year. In other words, the con- 

 sumers are actually willing to pav for more wood than they 

 have found necessary, and arc warranting the growers in 

 adopting still more expensive methods to increase the output. 

 Nor has forest growing, proved to be possible only by the State 

 or Government. In Germany 46.5 per cent of the forest area 



