CHAPTER IV. 



FOREST MANAGEMENT. 



The timber lands of Minnesota should as a rule be man- 

 aged so as to get the greatest cash returns from them for that 

 only is practical forestry which has this fundamental feature 

 always in view. For many years the attention of the people 

 of this country has been drawn to the possibility of a de- 

 pletion of our forests and a timber famine in the near future. 

 But increased transportation facilities have made new sources 

 of timber easily accessible to us, which fact together with the 

 use of inferior kinds of trees for lumber has kept the predicted 

 timber famine from -materializing until now our people have be- 

 come skeptical on this point and look upon these predictions as 

 very premature. To any one who carefully studies the subject 

 however, it will be very evident that our supply of White 

 Pine, that most generally useful of all our timber trees, is fast 

 decreasing and that it cannot be many years before this will 

 be apparent by the advance of prices for this kind of timber. 

 Most of the land of good quality in Minnesota seems destined 

 to be eventually used for farming purposes, but there will 

 always remain a large area of stony or very sandy land that 

 will be unfit for profitable agriculture and which will produce 

 more revenue when used for the production of timber than 

 when used for any other crop. There is also a large amount 

 of land that will not be needed for farming purposes for many 

 years and this should grow timber until needed for agri- 

 culture. Besides this, with the increased value of fuel, lum- 

 ber and other forest products there will come a better appreci- 

 ation of the importance of farm wood lots as a source of fuel, 

 poles, lumber, etc., for farm use and a more general dispo- 

 sition to save some land for this purpose. 



At present in the greater part of our forested area north 

 of St. Paul the timber is greatly in the way of settlers and the 

 price of fuel is simply the cost of gathering it, no charge 



