e 



132 ANNUAL REPORT OF 



neighborhood, become a prey of disappointment and demoralization. 

 Still, under existing laws, the government is not permitted, to with- 

 draw such land from private sale and to embark in forestry as a 

 business on its own account, industrial functions of government 

 not being considered democratic. 



THE VIRGIN FOREST. 



The primeval forest containing many thousand feet board measure 

 per acre is not at all the forester's ideal. Such a forest is unproduc- 

 tive; the annual formation of wood is exactly offset by the annual 

 deterioration and death of hyper-mature trees. Ths primeval for- 

 est is an idling capital, is economically objectionable. 



I have said elsewhere that sunshine, air and rain are the chief 

 factors of wood. The forester simply "bottles" those three ingre- 

 dients into tree-boles. As the same causes must have the same 

 effect, under otherwise equal conditions, a given amount of leafy 

 surface and root system, whether it belongs to young saplings, 

 middle-aged poles or old trees, must necessarily form an equal 

 amount of wood. Hence the young forest, containing only 1,000 

 feet board measure grows at a high rate of interest; the old although 

 sound forest grows at a rate of about i ^ per cent. As soon as a for- 

 est ceases to grow at a sufficient rate, it must be cut and replaced by 

 a new forest. Nature is ready to answer the task of regeneration. 

 Since thousands of years it has replaced one generation of the for- 

 est by another. There is no reason why it should stop work at 

 the threshold of the 2oth century, if men do not change the natural 

 conditions. 



THE IDEAL FOREST. 



The large majority of the trees in the ideal forest consist of 

 small specimens; for only those grow at a high rate of interest. 

 The oldest ones, towering over an abundant progeny of second 

 growth, are removed when they reach the minimum rate of growth 

 permissible, much for the benefit of the progeny, which after their 

 parents' death enjoy the unrestricted blessings of sunshine, rain 

 and air. 



In the ideal forest, some trees are 10, others 20, 30, 40, 50, and 

 so on, years old. Suppose the oldest ones, 100 years old, are now 

 removed. They will be replaced quickly by young seedlings fill- 

 ing the gap. The forester returning to that neighborhood after 

 10 years, finds a composition of the forest identical with the one 

 previously met with. Trees previously 90 years old are now 100 



