204 ECONOMICS OF FORESTRY 



is largely composed of old age classes, or that 

 immature timber be cut prematurely, if young 

 age classes predominate, in either case a finan- 

 cial loss. Indeed, the greatest practical difficulty 

 which confronts the forest regulator is found in 

 gauging the sacrifices which the present must 

 make for the sake of the future. 



To overcome the difficulty of unequal felling 

 budgets in part, the so-called " allotment methods " 

 were invented, which try to distribute the felling 

 areas so as to equalize the budget, the area allot- 

 ment providing for equality of felling areas, the 

 volume allotment for equality of volume, and the 

 combined allotment securing both, the main stress 

 of these methods being laid on the establishment 

 of normal age classes, from which finally the nor- 

 mal stock results. The simplest form of these 

 methods, which is now in practice in Saxony and 

 elsewhere, determines the felling budget only for 

 the next decade in such a manner that the future 

 will find a sufficient amount of stock on hand to 

 secure an approximately sustained felling budget, 

 determined from decade to decade. 



The most logical, although practically not always 

 readily applicable, methods of budget regulation, 

 which lay main stress on the existence of normal 

 stock in proper amount, are the so-called normal 

 stock or formula methods. These compare the 

 actual stock (5 a ) with the normal stock (S n } which 

 should be on hand, and determine the period (<?) 



