6 Forest Management 



Frequently forest destruction promises better dividends than forest 

 maintenance. In such cases a forest working plan resolves itself into a 

 plan covering the various operations commonly known as destructive 

 lumbering. The soil may be cleared because it is thought to be valua- 

 ble as farm soil, pasture soil, orchard soil; or the land may be aban- 

 doned after lumbering as worthless when the owner believes that the 

 taxes due on the cleared land (taken together with the expenses of pro- 

 tecting a second growth expectable on the cleared land) form a new 

 investment of an unpromising nature. 



Forests cannot be well developed where the development of the 

 whole country is in arrears. Here the owner is compelled to adopt a 

 policy of waiting waiting for that general development of the country 

 which is sure permanently to improve the value of stumpage. In such 

 cases a working plan resolves itself into a plan for forest protection 

 (against squatters, fires, etc.) 



In the prairies and also in the East, the land owner is frequently 

 inclined on a small scale, usually to improve the condition of his 

 property sylviculturally, making investments for afforestation, clean- 

 ing, weeding, etc. In such cases a forest working plan resolves itself, 

 essentially, into a plan covering various sylvicultural operations (con- 

 structive forestry). 



In Germany and France, at the time being, conservative forestry 

 produces invariably financial results superior to those of de-forestation 

 and of abandonment of cut over woodland. In these countries cut over 

 woodland unfit for the plow (known as absolute forest land), has a 

 value usually exceeding $10 per acre. 



Modern European foresters are in the habit of identifying the term 

 "management" with the term "conservative management" of forests; 

 and all European forest working plans provide for conservative work- 

 ing of the forest. 



CHAPTER I THE IDEAL FOREST 



In an ideal forest continuously supplying certain mills or certain 

 markets with an equal annual amount of timber or wood there should 

 be at hand: 



A normal gradation of the age classes (fl II); 



A normal growing stock (fl III); 



A normal increment (1j IV). 



No forest ever has been, is, or ever will be "ideal." The ideal forest de- 

 serves attention only in theory. Its theory deals with volumes instead 

 of dealing with values. 



PARAGRAPH II. 



NORMAL GRADATION OF AGE CLASSES. 



A normal gradation of age classes is literally at hand in the forest 

 when there are found as many age classes as the rotation comprises 



