544 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



Pi. 85" per hectare, and received a net 

 revenue of P2.3O per hectare. In 1897, 

 the same government spent P6-9O per 

 hectare, and received a net annual rev- 

 enue of P6.30 per hectare. This is not 

 an isolated case, but is true for the 

 forests of other European states. Care- 

 ful observation during a long period 

 of years has established the fact that 

 there is a minimum expenditure per 

 hectare for maintenance of forests : any- 

 thing under this minimum means lack 

 of proper care and a deterioration of 

 the property ; and anything in excess, 

 up to a certain point, means improve- 

 ment of the property, and an increase 

 of revenue." 1 



With sixty per cent of the revenue 

 from the sale of forest products, and 

 with the constant increase of the amount 

 this would yield, as would be the case, 

 the Bureau of Forestry would have all 

 the revenue needed for conserving and 

 improving the productivity of public 

 forests. For the first five years, how- 

 ever, the bureau should be allowed all 

 the revenues from the sale of forest 

 products, to provide for the heavy ex- 



pense of organizing and making work- 

 ing plans for the different forests 

 throughout the islands, and for the 

 technical and practical training up of 

 Filipino foresters. 



In India the cost of administration of 

 the area under forest management is 

 slightly more than fifty per cent of the 

 gross revenue derived from the sale of 

 forest products from the same. The 

 net revenue there is 39 centavos 3 per 

 hectare. With an equally intensive sys- 

 tem of forest management for Philip- 

 pine forests, a like net revenue could, 

 after a short period of years, be ex- 

 pected. Assuming that twenty per cent 

 of the land area of the archipelago, or 

 6,000,000 hectares, should be put under 

 forest management similar to Indian 

 practice, the total yearly net revenue 

 therefrom to the insular government 

 would be P2,34O,ooo. This is not con- 

 sidering the value of these forests for 

 protection of watersheds and for a con- 

 tinuous supply of cheap lumber for the 

 people of the Philippines, secured by 

 forest management. 



2 These figures are in terms of Philippine 3 The small coin of the Philippines, one 



Island currency. P indicates peso, which has one-hundredth of the peso, or one-half cent 



a value of 50 to 55 cents, United States of our money, 

 standard. 



