256 PRINCIPLES OF AMERICAN FORESTRY. 



rents out at 50 cents per acre, and on which 10 cents taxes 



are annually due, is worth = 800 cents per acre. 



0.05 



A forest which yields, on the average, annually 200 

 feet, board measure, per acre, worth 30 cents these 200 

 feet are obtained by shaving off always the oldest and 

 largest trees and on which 5 cents taxes are annually 



gQ g 



due, is worth =500 cents per acre. 



O.uo 



In other words, at an extra expense of 30 cents in our 

 logging operations, and by leaving 1,000 feet, board meas- 

 ure, of thrifty timber on the ground in the first campaign, 

 we have formed a forest wortn $5.00 per acre, and on these 

 $5.00 we shall annually make 25 cents revenue. Such 

 must be the outcome as sure as the sun will shine and as 

 sure as the rain will fall, for sunshine and rainfall to 

 repeat it are the components of timber production. Men 

 need not move a finger. Nature does not require any 

 help. 



FOREST FIRES. 



Nature requires something else, and requires it badly: 

 Protection from destruction by fires. In most sections 

 of the United States the forestry problem is identical 

 with the forest fire problem. As long as a second growth 

 is exposed to fires of annihilating fierceness, there is no 

 use of talking about forestry, there is no sense of leaving 

 a stick of merchantable timber on the ground during the 

 lumbering campaign. As the State does not protect our 

 young forests from fire, we have to do it ourselves. The 

 expense for protection will considerably curtail our future 

 returns and the value of our forest. Supposing that 

 protection costs us 10 cents per acre per annum, our forest 



30-5-10 

 is worth only = 300 cents per acre. 



