134 ECONOMICS OF FORESTRY. 



be reduced to a minimum of permanent injury, 

 and the more easily the larger the property under 

 one management. 



All things in the production of which nature 

 plays the important part have the tendency to rise 

 in price, while those relying principally on labor 

 and capital sink. That the price of wood is bound 

 to rise is not only a matter of simple philosophy as 

 long as forest area decreases and demand for wood 

 increases, but also of history wherever natural 

 resources have been reduced to the necessity of 

 management. (See further on regarding rise in 

 prices.) The financial results of German forest 

 administrations are certainly most assuring as to 

 the profitableness of a systematic forest manage- 

 ment pursued during the last one hundred years, 

 through all the changes of economic conditions 

 which have characterized that century. 



Evidences of the increasing profitableness of 

 these administrations are given in the statistics 

 contained in the Appendix. The increased yields 

 and incomes there recorded do not, however, tell 

 the entire story, for they do not show the additional 

 improvement in the condition and earning power 

 of the properties. 



Taking, for instance, the Saxon forest property 

 of only 430,000 acres, we find that, although the 

 cut of wood had increased from 23,500 cubic feet 

 in 1850 to 37,400 cubic feet in 1893, an increase 

 of 60 per cent, the timber wood per cent (wood of 



