WILL PLANTING FORESTS BECOME PROFITABLE? 129 



Present prices for forest products should be no criterion 

 for the future. It would be fair to insist that they will in- 

 crease in years to come just as they have in the past, but 

 that may be set aside as having no particular significance 

 as to future prices unless resting upon conditions which 

 must exist in the future ; and there will inevitably be con- 

 ditions which cannot be ignored. When the forests of this 

 country become exhausted, even to the state that European 

 forests now are in, the price of forest products will then de- 

 pend upon the cost of production the cost of growing 

 trees just the same as for any other product of the soil. 

 If any one grows wheat, corn, cotton, hay, or any other 

 farm crop, the consumer must pay the cost of production, 

 plus a profit, and it cannot be otherwise here when the virgin 

 forests which cost nothing to grow are exhausted. 



Logically the cost of growing trees for lumber should 

 govern present prices, now that virgin forests are nearly ex- 

 tinct, but as the forests of the past cost nothing to produce 

 them, no additional price has been added to the cost of manu- 

 facture, other than a small amount which has been denomin- 

 ated stumpage, and the profit which the manufacturer and 

 dealer have been able to secure. The superabundance of 

 forests has prevented much increase of cost, but when they 

 are gone, the cost of production will assuredly control. 

 And that period will certainly be reached by the time new 

 forests can be grown. Therefore, it is no unreasonable 

 conclusion that a forest planted now or in the future will 

 be a profitable financial enterprise. They are profitable in 

 Europe under less favorable conditions than will surely 

 exist here in seventy-five years from now. The price there 

 is now, to a certain extent, controlled by importations 

 from other countries. When such importations cease, as 

 they will in time, the price in Europe must advance ; and 

 so it will here when the present forests are exhausted. 

 After that the ruling price must be the cost of production 

 with profit added. 



