FOREST ECONOMICS. 245 



marketing are best met. Under such conditions, too, a 

 certain amount of experienced help can be expected to 

 become located conveniently near, as they will have 

 steady work, while if the products are harvested at irregu- 

 lar intervals new help must be engaged at each harvest, 

 which is extremely undesirable. 



In Considering the Returns from the Forest, the 

 following terms should be clearly understood: (1) Normal 

 growing stock, (2) normal income, (3) capital stock, and 

 (4) actual income. These are defined in the following 

 paragraphs : 



Normal Growing Stock. Since the annual valuable 

 increase of wood is in proportion to the amount of leaf 

 surface on trees of the right kind, size, and form, it follows 

 that there must always be a certain number of trees of a 

 certain size in order to obtain normal annual growth. 

 This material represents invested capital, and the highest 

 annual income is dependent upon having a normal grow- 

 ing stock upon the land. As a matter of fact, this is an 

 ideal thing, and is seldom, if ever, exactly attained. The 

 amount of normal growing stock which there will be 

 upon one acre will depend upon the species, its age and 

 conditions, and must be determined in the working plan 

 of the forest tract after a careful study of its conditions. 



The Normal Income is the crop of wood that a given 

 tract of forest will produce per year under normal condi- 

 tions. This will, of course, vary with the species and 

 conditions. It may be harvested by selecting only the 

 large trees from all over the area, or by cutting clean 

 over a certain portion of it, as shown in chapter X. It 

 is very plain that, if the increase per year is a given amount, 

 it may be harvested by either method without infringing 

 on the normal growing stock of the whole area. For 

 some conditions the selection method is preferred, while 

 for others, such as for even stands of Spruce, which are 



