18 THE PRINCIPLES OF HANDLING WOODLANDS 



will cut their trees as soon as merchantable. The cost 

 of producing very old trees is high because of the interest 

 accumulating during a long period of years on the initial 

 investment, and the annual expense of taxes, protection, 

 and administration. The interest returns will be corre- 

 spondingly lower than when there is a short rotation. 1 

 The public owner alone can afford to produce timber of 

 this character. The return will be in part the public 

 advantage of having a certain amount of high-grade tim- 

 ber on the market. 



Objects of Private Forests. — Private forests are, for 

 the most part, managed for profit. On some large private 

 estates of wealthy individuals and clubs, held as hunting 

 and fishing preserves or pleasure parks, the questions 

 of timber production and money returns are secondary. 

 The protective principle enters strongly into the policv 

 of the management by water companies of the forests 

 about their reservoirs. Farmers frequentlv aim to pro- 

 duce timber of a certain class for local use. The essential 

 object of most private owners in forestry is financial. 

 Forestry with them is strictly a business problem. 



The Cost of Silviculture 



The objects of silviculture cannot be secured without 

 cost. There is always required an outlay in some form 

 or other, an investment made for the purpose of securing 

 greater returns in the long run. Sometimes the invest- 

 ment is in the form of actual expense for planting, protec- 



1 By rotation is meant the age at which it is planned to cut the mature trees. 



