172 ECONOMICS OF FORESTRY. 



must be maintained for ^11 the ye ars of removal, 

 and they occasion also otherwise greater expenses 

 in the harvest than the concentrated logging in the 

 clearing system, which may be done over tempo- 

 rary roads. Where, as in Germany, most forest 

 districts are provided with well-built permanent 

 road systems, gradual removal methods are often 

 probably the least expensive ; but in the United 

 States, in most places, unless water transportation 

 can be relied upon, a gradual removal system 

 means heavy initial outla ys for ro ads, which may 

 make the clear ing foll owed by pla nting the cheaper 

 meth od. It i s in most conditions also the surer ; 

 for a complete success of the young crop can, in 

 most cases, be forced. In the natural regeneration 

 methods there are elements of uncertainty, the seed 

 years may not come when expected ; in a mixed 

 forest, which, for many reasons, is the most desira- 

 ble form, the species seed irregularly, have different 

 requirements of light, so that the composition can- 

 not be very well controlled ; the damage and loss 

 occasioned in the young crop by the removal of 

 the old crop must be discounted in the final result ; 

 and besides, where the removal is very slow, the 

 young crop is impeded in its development bv the -^^ 

 shade of the old crop. These systems, tfteretore, 

 are better adapted to shade-enduring species than 

 to light-needing. The main argument and the 

 most important in favor of these methods is that 

 they furnish protection to the soil, preventing its 



