WILL PLANTING FORESTS BECOME PROFITABLE ? 127 



If we cannot, at present prices, afford to engage in tree- 

 planting, we are naturally led to inquire whether we can 

 reasonably anticipate that any one or all the important 

 features mentioned will be changed in the future. While a 

 positive and definite answer to this query would be more or 

 less conjectural, there are certain things which, when well 

 understood, will lead to such a comprehension of the case 

 as will greatly aid in forming a reasonably accurate opinion ; 

 and it will be well to consider them seriously, for, unless it 

 can be shown that the cost of production will not be greater 

 than now, and that prices for forest products will be in- 

 creased by the time they can be grown, there need be no 

 expectation that tree-planting will be undertaken as a finan- 

 cial proposition. If the future cost of forest products will 

 be the same, or greater, and the price for these be the 

 same, or less, than now, the only one, except the state, who 

 will be likely to engage in tree-planting is the farmer who, 

 in the near future, must begin to grow his fuel, posts, and 

 other necessary wood for his farm. 



In reckoning the future cost of forest products it will be 

 safe to assume that interest on the money invested will not 

 be greater more likely less than now, that the rate of 

 taxation will be substantially the same, and that the only 

 probable difference in cost will be that for labor. Of this 

 latter feature we can judge only from the experience of 

 other countries, which is that the denser the population 

 the lower is the rate of wages for common laborers. From 

 this fact it will be safe to conclude that for the next fifty 

 to seventy-five years the rate of wages in this country will 

 be little if any higher than now, and possibly lower. There- 

 fore, all things considered, it may be reasonably concluded 

 that the cost of forest products fifty to seventy-five years 

 hence will be substantially the same as at present. 



It remains, then, to determine, as far as possible, whether 

 the price of forest products will, in the future, be less, or 

 the same, or more than now. Two important features are 

 always connected with and in fact control the price of 



