208 ECONOMICS OF FORESTRY. 



mally stocked, or else the statement is made in 

 percentic relation. 



When all these data have been laboriously gath- 

 ered, with an attempt at a degree of accuracy 

 greater or less according to the intensity of the 

 proposed management, the formulation of a work- 

 ing plan and the ascertainment of a proper felling 

 budget can be begun. 



After having determined upon the general policy 

 of management, with due consideration of the 

 owner's interests and of market conditions, general 

 and local ; and after having decided upon the silvi- 

 cultural policy, including choice of leading species 

 in the crop for which the forest is to be main- 

 tained, and silvicultural method of treatment, as 

 coppice or timber forest, under clearing system 

 or gradual removal or selection system, — the 

 most important and difficult question to be solved 

 is that of the rotation, the time which is to elapse 

 between reproduction and harvest, or the normal 

 felling age, that is the age, or so far as age is in 

 relation to size, the diameter, to which it is desirable 

 to let the trees grow before harvesting them. 



In the United States, among the enthusiastic 

 propagandists of the necessity of forest preserva- 

 tion, there exist the crudest notions on this sub- 

 ject, which it may be well here to set right. There 

 is no maturity of a forest crop as we know it in 

 agricultural crops ; wood does not ripen naturally, 

 and trees do not even usually die a natural death 



