[904 



FORESTRY AND IRRIGATION 



61 



jstry. There is the forestry which must 

 :onsider indirect returns. There are 

 :ases in which the management advised 

 'or a forest must give weight to the 

 alue of that forest as a conserver of 

 stream flow, and must not ignore its 

 :ffect upon winds, upon climate, or upon 

 he national economy. Such considera- 

 ions must often govern in the forestry 

 vhich is applied to public lands, since 

 he long-time owner may consider such 

 natters, and since the forest lands which 

 ire the property of the nation should be 

 landled for the greatest public good, 

 'ather than for the highest immediate 

 profit. For example, the best adminis- 

 rationof the 60, 000,000 acres of federal 

 orest reserves must be based upon such 

 L point of view. But these are not mat- 

 :ers which you are called upon to con- 

 dder in the management of your own 

 ands, nor is there, in my judgment, a 

 nore serious mistake than to expect that 

 private enterprise should or can be gov- 

 :rned by considerations of indirect re- 

 :urns. 



But there is another kind of forestry, 

 he kind which I wish to present to you, 

 vhich is purely a matter of business and 

 vhich makes no other claim upon your 

 ipproval or rejection. What we call 

 3ractical forestry, which is merely an- 

 other name for conservative lumber- 

 ng, differs from the lumbering \vhich 

 /ou do only in its point of view. Prac- 

 ical forestry does not ask you to expend 

 )ne cent unless there is reasonable prom- 

 se that you will get a profitable return 

 rom its investment. It does not require 

 sou to consider indirect returns, such as 

 [ have just mentioned must influence the 

 nanagement of the forests of the public 

 )wner. It simply presents to you upon 

 i business basis the results which you 

 nay expect from lumbering your lands, 

 vith a view, not to lumbering the same 

 irea once.but to lumbering it repeatedly, 

 [t simply enables you to take advantage 

 )f the fact that since trees have grown 

 )nce they will, under proper treatment, 

 ^row again. Practical forestry does not 

 nean that you will have to plant trees on 

 /our cut-over lands and wait until they 

 lave reached maturity in order to har- 

 dest them. That kind of forestry ap- 

 peals only to the long-time owner, to 



the state or to the nation, or to the pri- 

 vate land-owner in the treeless regions 

 of the West, who, in order to have trees 

 at all, must first plant them. But on 

 practically every piece of land which 

 you lumber there is left standing after 

 the logging a certain number of imma- 

 ture trees trees some of them slightly, 

 some of them far below the diameter of 

 the logged trees. If you log in such a 

 way that these immature trees are bro- 

 ken by the fall of those which are cut, 

 or if your cut-over lands are burned after 

 the logging, the possibility of a second 

 crop from them is so decreased as to be 

 of no practical moment. But if, on the 

 other hand, you lumber in such a way 

 that these young trees, which form the 

 basis of a future crop, are preserved both 

 in the lumbering and afterwards, the 

 second crop will in many cases become 

 a factor of no small financial importance 

 in your undertakings. 



Whether it will pay you to foster this 

 second crop, both in your cuttings and 

 afterwards, is the important question. 

 For example, the Bureau of Forestry 

 has found that in some cases the returns 

 from practical forestry will yield an in- 

 come of 6 and even a higher per cent 

 upon the capital invested. In other 

 cases the interest is lower, and in others 

 agam it entirely disappears. In other 

 words, forestry is not a panacea that 

 can be applied to lumbering under all 

 conditions and in every locality, but in 

 the vast majority of cases it will pay, 

 and pay well, to cut in such a way that 

 you may cut again. Just how well it 

 will pay, the Bureau of Forestry is ready 

 to determine, and will be glad to deter- 

 mine, in cooperation with any one of 

 you. It will give you, at a cost equal 

 only to the actual living and traveling 

 expenses of its agents engaged in the 

 work, a detailed plan for the manage- 

 ment of your tract, based upon a thor- 

 ough study on the ground. This study 

 will determine what is the present mer- 

 chantable stand of timber upon your 

 lands, what small trees remain as the 

 basis for a second crop after the first 

 crop of merchantable timber is cut, 

 how fast these small trees will grow 

 and they will grow much faster after 

 the old trees are removed and what 



