THE UTILITY OF FORESTS.* 



The effects of forests may be looked at from the point of view of the owner 

 or from that of the State. The owner considers, in the first place, the benefits 

 which he personally derives from his forests ; the State appreciates the effects 

 which they have upon the country and the nation as a whole. 



The important direct effects of forests are due to the produce which they 

 yield, the capital which they represent and the work which they provide. 



Wood is used as timber in construction, ship-building, machinery, agricul- 

 ture, for tools, furniture, etc., and as fuel for domestic and industrial firing. The 

 quantity of wood required in a country depends on various considerations. In 

 modern times iron and other materials have, to a considerable extent, replaced 

 timber, while coal, lignite and peat compete with firewood ; nevertheless, wood 

 is still indispensable and likely to remain so. The more general introduction of 

 substitutes for firewood has, however, drawn increased attention to the produc- 

 tion of timber in preference to firewood. For instance, of the total produce of 

 the Saxon State Forests, only 35 per cent, were classified for timber in 1850, but 

 the proportion has risen to 75 percent, in 1880. At the same time, new demands 

 for the consumption of wood have sprung up, such as the preparation of wood- 

 pulp for the manufacture of paper. It is estimated that the annual consumption 

 of wood in this industry in Germany alone amounts to upwards of 40,000,000 

 cubic feet. 



FORESTS AS OBJECTS OF INDUSTRY. 



The capital employed in forestry consists principally of the soil and the 

 growing stock of wood. When the working is of an intermittent nature, the 

 amount of capital fluctuates from time to time ; when the working is so arranged 

 that an equal annual return is secured, the capital remains of the same amount, 

 and consists of the soil plus the permanently present growing stock. 



The soil is called the fixed, the growing stock the movable or shifting capi- 

 tal of forestry. The proportion of the one to the other depends chiefly on the 

 method of treatment. In forests treated as coppice woods the fixed may be 

 greater than the movable capital ; but in high forests where the object is to pro- 

 duce timber of some size, the shifting capital is generally of considerably greater 

 value than the soil. An example will illustrate this : Assuming that an area of 

 one hundred acres is treated as a Scotch pine timber forest, under a rotation of 

 one hundred years, with the object of obtaining an annually equal return ; in that 

 case one acre must be stocked with one year old seedlings, another with two year's 

 old seedlings, another with three years' old trees, and so on to the last acre which 

 would be stocked with trees one hundred years old. Every year the oldest wood 

 one hundred years old is cut over and the area at once restocked. Immediately 

 after the cutting ninety -nine acres remain stocked with trees ranging in age from 



* A Manual of Forestry : By William Schlich, Ph.D., Principal Professor of Forestry at the Royal 

 Indian Engineering College, Cooper's Hill, England. Dr. Schlich spent upwards of twenty years in the 

 Forest Department of the Government of India, and succeeded Sir Dietrich Brandis as Inspector-General. 

 On his return from India he was appointed Professor of Forestry at Cooper's Hjll College. 



