190] 



AMERICAN FORESTRY ASSOCIATION. 





no interest, and thereafter worries about 

 his investments in lines which are foreign 

 to him. How much better it would be 

 for him to place his investments in the 

 business which he is familiar, where he is 

 assured of their safety and in which profits 

 are at least as large as they are in safe se- 

 curities of other sorts. 



" What the capitalist, as such, wants, is 

 an investment that is safe, permanent and 

 yields a certain income, even though it 

 may be small. Where can such an in- 

 vestment more surely be found than in 

 timber handled on the basis of scientific 

 forestry ? The active lumberman looks 

 askance at such an investment because its 

 rate of interest is so low as compared 

 with the profits to which he has been 

 accustomed; but he should remember that 

 the profits on the average lumber business 

 are as a matter of fact small, the apparent 

 profits being largely due or transformable 

 into the increase in value of timber lands. 



" A timber investment is as safe as any 

 real estate investment, except for the 

 danger of fire and thievery. The fire 

 hazard is practically non-existent in yel- 

 low pine, cypress, redwood, and some 

 other woods, and the operations of timber 

 thieves can be limited or entirely pre- 

 vented at the expenditure of very little 

 money for protection. It is a permanent 



investment because, operated under meth- 

 ods of forestry it will perpetually produce 



a crop, and it will yield a certain return 

 because, operated in that way, the annual 

 crop, at present and prospective lumber 

 values, will, while maintaining the prin- 

 cipal investment, pay a small interest on it. 

 "There is this to be said in regard to 

 many lumbermen, that their timber hold- 

 ings are too small to serve as the basis 

 an operation of this sort. Where this is 

 the case they can well afford to become 

 parties to some consolidation of inter 

 which will make an aggregate large enough 

 to be handled in this perpetual way. 

 Such consolidations are likely to he num- 

 erous in the future, and if we were to gi\ e 

 advice to our readers in such circumstances 

 it would be, not to sell outright their tim- 

 ber holdings and then have to seek else- 

 where for investment, but to become parties 

 to the consolidation and thus have their 

 investment in things with which they are 

 entirely familiar. The lumberman can 

 thus continue to be a lumberman, a timber 

 owner can thus continue to have his in- 

 vestments in that kind of property, and yet 

 be relieved from the active management, 

 if he so desires, and feel that he has an in- 

 vestment safer and in the long run more 

 profitable than any other that can he pre- 

 sented to him." 



FORESTS AND RESERVOIRS.* 



By F. H. Newell, 



Hydrographer, U. S. Geological Survey. 



THE full development of the resources 

 of the United States, especially of 

 the arid West, rests upon a com- 

 plete utilization of the water for irrigation, 

 power, and municipal, as well as domestic 

 supply. 



* Extract of a paper read at the summer meet- 

 ing of American Forestry Association, Denver 

 Col., August 27-29. 



Furthermore, the conservation of the 

 waters, and the protection from pollution. 

 both natural ami artificial, rests largely 

 upon the proper treatment of the forests 

 at the headwaters of the streams. Then- 

 can be no question as to the beneficial in- 

 fluence of these forests, although the extent 

 of this influence may he. and still is o\m\\ 

 to investigation and discussion. The 

 ests, with the accumulation ni vegetation 



