228 FOREST VALUATION 



the investment in buildings, fences, machinery and live stock. 

 Agriculture requires large continuous outlays per acre, and in 

 return must produce adequate income to compensate the farmer. 

 If the soil is unsuited to agriculture, this outlay, which is as 

 necessary on poor soil as on good, is inadequately rewarded, 

 and the farmer impoverished. 



Trees grow best on good agricultural soils and produce their 

 greatest values in such situations. But timber crops do not 

 provide as stable a source of livelihood as agriculture. The 

 revenue from sales of timber is realized only after the lapse of 

 the long period of growth. Mature stands may be sold or held 

 at will and the income varied largely at the discretion of the 

 owner as long as there are trees of suitable size for cutting. 



Over long periods, even at best, the net annual revenue from 

 forest property is much lower than from agricultural crops. 

 Relatively, forestry may be far the more profitable business. 

 The expenses per acre are correspondingly lower than in agri- 

 culture. While not giving a solid basis for continuous liveli- 

 hood except in the business of lumbering, which requires large 

 areas of land, forestry on the other hand does not require con- 

 stant time and attention. Timber if given protection from fire 

 will grow without cultivation. It therefore forms an ideal in- 

 vestment for surplus income, but a poor basis for an individual 

 living. 



The economic advantage of forestry over agriculture becomes 

 evident only on poor agricultural soils. Trees of fair quality 

 will still grow on soils utterly unfit for farming, and owing to the 

 small expense attandent on this crop, will yield profitable returns 

 on such soils. 



233. Non-agricultural Soils. Since food and livelihood and 

 permanent homes are more important to mankind than fuel 

 and timber, soils which will repay the farmer should be devoted 

 to farm crops. But the attempt to cultivate soils essentially 

 non-agricultural leads to very serious results both for the indi- 

 vidual and for society. Soils are non-agricultural when they 

 cannot continue year after year, with proper care, to produce 

 paying crops. Non-agricultural soils, when cultivated, either 



