FORESTS AS OBJECTS OF INDUSTRY. 19 



profitable nature, as such higher returns represent the 



income of a much larger capital. It will be shown in 



Volume III. under what conditions forestry yields a 



higher interest on the invested capital than agriculture. 



If such is the case, the land may be called ahsolnte forest 



la)t(L Generally speaking, good land yields a higher 



percentage under agriculture and inferior land under 



forestry. 



Apart from the pui-ely financial aspect, there are other 



considerations which influence the investment, or otherwise, 



of capital in forestry. Of these, the following may be 



mentioned : — 



(1.) Newly created forests do not give a return until after 

 the lapse of a considerable number of years, so that private 

 proprietors frequently cannot afford planting even surplus 

 lands. 



(2.) As a rule, forests do not require to be artificially 

 manured, because trees take from the soil much smaller 

 quantities of mineral substances than field crops. According 

 to Ebermayer,* an average forest crop, wood and leaves, 

 requires annually about 54 per cent, of the mineral substances 

 necessary for an average field crop. Of that quantity, 46 per 

 cent, are stored in the leaves, and 8 per cent, in the wood. 

 It follows that, if the leaves are left in the forest, a crop of 

 trees takes from the soil only one-twelfth the quantity of 

 mineral substances which a field crop takes in each year ; in 

 other words, almost any soil can produce timber trees without 

 being artificially manured, especially as the annual fall of 

 leaves and mosses growing in the shade of the trees produce 

 a thick layer of mould, or humus, which secures excellent 

 physical conditions in the soil, rendering artificial working 

 unnecessary. As a natural consequence, the better classes of 

 soil are generally allotted to agriculture and the inferior to 

 forestry. 



(3.) The weather, natural phenomena, animals and man 



* •' Physiologische t'hcmio der I'flanzeii,"' first volume. 



c 2 



