FACTORS OF AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTION 135 



be effective, must be carried out on a considerable scale. This 

 seems to call naturally for state and government enterprise. 

 Since governments do not need to count on a natural death, they 

 need not be deterred by the long period of waiting involved in 

 forestry. A half century, or even a century, is not too long for 

 a government to wait for returns, provided they are desirable. 



On this point we need not be deterred by any absurd notions 

 as to the propriety of a government undertaking work of this 

 kind. There are people who believe 'that private enterprise is, 

 per se, better than public, and others who believe that public 

 enterprise is, per se, superior to private. Both views are equally 

 irrational and equally based upon blind prejudice. The simple 

 truth of the matter is that some enterprises are carried out very 

 much more effectively under private initiative and management 

 than under public, and there are others which are carried out 

 very much more effectively under public initiative and manage- 

 ment, while there are still others which thrive about equally well 

 under either, it being impossible to show conclusively which 

 is the better. The reforesting of rocky and semimountainous 

 lands seems to succeed better under public than private man- 

 agement, though there are many excellently managed private 

 forests. At any rate, wherever private management does not 

 show a disposition to enter upon the work of reforesting these 

 waste lands, it is obviously better that the state should do it 

 than that it should not be done at all and the land be thus 

 allowed to lie idle. 



To be sure, even while these lands are apparently lying idle 

 the forest is frequently reasserting itself and taking possession 

 of them. Sometimes this results in the growth of valuable tim- 

 ber, and sometimes in the growth of inferior kinds of trees, 

 the ' weeds " of the forest growth. A little intelligent direction 

 at the proper time would save the land from these "weeds" and 

 give it over to valuable timber. 



