FACTORS OF FOREST PRODUCTION. 117 



mate which brings the labor earnings for our 500,- 

 000,000 acres of forest, that are being exploited but 

 not managed, to not less than $600,000,000, or per- 

 haps one laborer for each 250 acres, as a lowest fig- 

 ure. The 360,000,000 acres of improved farm land 

 reported in the census of 1890 occupied only one 

 man for every 43 acres and the total crop translated 

 into weight remains considerably below 200,000,000 

 tons, including meat, milk, butter, cheese, etc. It 

 is well-nigh impossible to get even approxima- 

 tions to the number of laborers employed in con- 

 version of these foodstuffs, but the likelihood is 

 that all together not more labor earnings can be 

 credited to one acre of farm land than to the acre 

 of forest land. This disparity is probably explained 

 by the lack of intensity in farming, and the proba- 

 bility that much of the farm land does not really 

 participate in the crop, lying idle. 



If there exists, then, great difference regarding 

 the amount and character of the labor element in 

 agricultural and forest production, the use of the 

 element of nature shows no less difference in the 

 two industries. 



Not only is the element of nature relatively 

 much more prominent in forest production, but the 

 single factors, soil and climate, have different sig- 

 nificance. For a crop which must withstand the 

 rigors of winter and the variable conditions of all 

 seasons, not for one, but for many years, and which 

 by its character forbids the expedients of cultiva- 



