AMERICAN FOREST CONGRESS in 



tunity. The same question of present versus future 

 markets confronts the timber owner who is also a 

 manufacturer, modified somewhat by the inclination to 

 keep the mill in operation. It determines somewhat 

 the capacity of the mill to be built upon a given site 

 with a known amount of tributary timber, and after 

 it is built determines whether the output shall be 

 restricted or pushed to the limit according to the cur- 

 rent market demands. That is the point of view of 

 any other owner of pine timber or of any other sort 

 of timber that has tangible value. The tree represents 

 a definite asset to be converted at the earliest favorable 

 opportunity, and without reference to any possible 

 interest that posterity might have in its being per- 

 mitted to remain on the stump. 



The increase in value of all timber holdings within 

 recent years makes advocacy of forest preservation, 

 as far as merchantable timber is concerned, properly 

 a plea for so managing the forest as to get the greatest 

 amount of commercial product from it at the present 

 time without impairing any more than necessary its 

 productive capacity for the future. The holder of a 

 timber estate is actuated by exactly the same consid- 

 erations as the holder of other property he wishes it 

 to produce more money than he has put in. If he can 

 be convinced that the timber is such that its growth 

 will give him greater earnings on his investment than 

 its cutting at the present time he may be induced to 

 hold it ; but he is not likely to let his forest stand solely 

 for the benefit of posterity, or unless it is practically 

 shown that this procedure will lead to enhancement in 

 the value of his estate. In so far, however, as the 

 timber is already matured the time of its harvest is 

 already at hand. The owner, of course, desires to 

 harvest it in the most economical manner ; and if 



