Cost of Forestry in different Countries. 



•53 



adequate fire protection. In Europe, 

 on the other liaud, the danger from 

 fire is very Kmiill in inoHt plaees. 

 larf?ely because of a deiiKe popula- 

 tion, an enlij^htened public seiiti- 

 inent, and an organization of tlu* 

 forests which is tlie result of many 

 years' work. 



. Again, the market conditions af- 

 fect the kind of forestry which can 

 be practiced. With constant gotxl 

 markets, as in Kurope. it i)ayH to 

 use more intensive methods of for- 

 estry than wiiere only certain class- 

 es of timber can be sold. For this 

 reason the (lernuins can afford to 

 spend on cultural operations pro- 

 port ioiuilly larger sums than the 

 Americans. In the same way the 

 total expenses of forestry in a coun- 

 try are intlueneed by the methods of 

 timber sales. If timber is sold on 

 the stump tiie outlay is less than if 

 the government does its own 

 logging. The last system involves a 

 large annual expense for logging 

 which does not appear in the budget 

 of a country which sells its timber 

 standing. 



These facts must be borne in mind 

 in, the study of the forest budgets 

 of Germany, France, India and the 

 United States, which are discussed 

 in the following pages. 



A comparison of expenses in these 

 difl'erent countries shows some as- 

 tonishing differences. Prussia, with 

 its forest of a little over 7,000,000 

 acres, spends each year about $14.- 

 000,000; India, witli about 1)5,000.- 

 000 acres (including only reserved 

 and protected forests), spends only 

 about $4,000,000. The United States, 

 with about 168,000.000 acres of na- 

 tional forests, spends only about $J^- 

 400,000. If these data are express- 

 ed in terms of the amount per acre, 

 it is seen that the expenditure by 

 Prussia is over $1.00 per acre as 

 against that of the United States of 

 about 2 cents per acre. In this con- 

 nection it nuist be borne in mind. 



however, that PruKsia did not ex- 

 pend Ko large a nuui on forestry at 

 the beginning of its work of organ- 

 ization. With the development of 

 forestry and the increasejl demand 

 for timber and the reKulting high 

 prices, it has been profitable to use 

 more and more intensive methods 

 and invest greater sums each year 

 in forest cultivation. This is well 

 illustrated in Prussia, which in 1849 

 spent for regularly recurring ex- 

 I)enses about .t2,0(K),000 each year, 

 compared with $12,500,000 at the 

 present time. 



In other words, the expense of 

 administration increases with the de- 

 velopment of forestry. This is pos- 

 sible only when there are increased 

 returns as a result of the increased 

 initial expenses. This principle is 

 illustrated in Prussia, where the net 

 income has increased from less than 

 $7,000,000 in 1848 to about $14,000,- 

 000 at the present time. 



To carry out further the compar- 

 ison of expenditures in the differ- 

 ent countries, Prussia spends for sal- 

 aries, including both administrative 

 and executive forces, 52 cents per 

 acre; France, 38 cents; India, a 

 little over 2 cents; and the United 

 States, a trifle over 1 cent. The 

 average area in charge of a super- 

 vising forester in Prussia is about 

 10,000 acres; in the United States it 

 is over 1 000,000 acres. While our 

 western forests will not require a 

 division into so large a number of 

 administrative units as those of 

 Prussia the contrast is nevertheless 

 exceedingly instructive. 



Although the Prussian forests are 

 already thoroughly organized, nev- 

 ertheless the work of constructing 

 ,and extending roads (and bridges, 

 dams, etc., is being pushed each year 

 with an expense of over $500,000, 

 and that is about the sum which is 

 now being expended on all kinds of 

 construction work in our national 

 forests. In other words, for coo- 



