20 THE PRINCIPLES OF HANDLING WOODLANDS 



amount of useful products, the maintenance of certain 

 industries which could not otherwise continue to exist in 

 a given region, are all of great advantage to the people, 

 and contribute largely to the actual creation of wealth 

 and prosperity. They justify public forestry even if 

 they involve a continued outlay of money. 



Returns from Public Forests. — As a matter of fact, 

 public forests pay financially in the long run, in addition 

 to furnishing many indirect advantages. The forests of 

 Prussia yield a net revenue of over $16,000,000 a year, 

 or about $2. 50 per acre. The forests of Saxony yield 

 more than $5 per acre per annum above all expenses of 

 protection, administration, and operation. 



Public forests in this country will also pay financially 

 in the long run. In some cases the forests have been so 

 badly damaged by destructive lumbering that there will 

 be no revenue from them for a long time. Thus Penn- 

 sylvania purchases cut-over forests. No timber can be 

 cut on many of them for a long time. But ultimately 

 there will be a large financial return to the State. A 

 typical public forest in Europe vields about 2 l 2 per 

 cent, per annum compound interest on the value of the 

 investment. 



Problem of Private Owners. — The question asked by 

 many private owners of forests is whether it will pay 

 them from a business standpoint to practise forestry. 

 Thus, for example, a lumber company owning 100,000 

 acres, has the problem of whether it shall cut everything 

 from the tract that can be sold, or cut only the mature 



