28 



PARAGRAPH XL 



LABOR REQUIRED IN CONSERVATIVE 



FORESTRY. 



On the whole, conservative forestry requires, in Germany, 

 one-tenth only of the labor required, acre for acre, for farm land. 



Fortunately forest labor fits in well with agricultural work, being 

 performed usually during winter, at a time at which agricultural 

 labor is unemployed. 



In addition, many craftsmen like masons, carpenters and rail- 

 road hands are thrown out of employment during the winter 

 months. 



In many sections, the winter-cutting of trees is the rule; the 

 loggers taking advantage of snow and ice, and of the spring 

 freshets thereafter. Further, logs cut in winter are less apt to 

 be damaged by fungi and insects than logs cut in summer. 



According to Prussian statistics, there are employed in the 

 Prussian state forests, on evety 1,000 acres conservatively managed, 

 22 workmen working on 145 working-days on an average per 

 annum. 



The process of manufacture which agricultural products under- 

 go: e.g. threshing and milling, is of a simple or of a somewhat 

 uniform nature. It is different in the case of forestry; here 

 quantities of different kinds of wood goods are being produced : 

 and the industries depending on the forests exhibit more varied 

 features than do the industries which refine agricultural products. 



The cost of American labor employed in the woods is higher 

 per hour than the cost of European labor. 



It is an indisputable fact, however, that the effect of labor 

 (= work done) in the woods, on the whole, is no more expensive 

 in America than it is in Germany. 



In Germany, as well as in America, ceteris paribus, the cutting, 

 per cord of wood, costs from 75 cents to $1.25 (in the state 

 forests of Germany, as much as $1.31 per cord). In Germany 



