FOREST ECONOMY. 



225 



While these considerations of future danger 

 make a distribution of felling areas desirable, 

 present considerations of logging expenses dictate 

 consolidation of felling areas, for the concentrated 

 logging can be done more cheaply than the dis- 

 tributed logging, since temporary means of trans- 

 portation may answer the first plan, while per- 

 manent roadways become necessary in the latter 

 plan. 



Here, again, we see that the forest regulator is 

 constantly called upon to compromise between the 

 exigencies of the present and the benefits for the 

 future ; he must weigh the desirability and the finan- 

 cial ability of present investment or present loss 

 for the sake of future gain. The general working 

 plan, then, — the result of the investigations of the 

 forest regulator, — is more than a mere budget 

 regulation ; it furnishes the broad basis, the prin- 

 ciples and policies, for the entire management in 

 all directions for a long time to come, taking into 

 consideration present as well as future contin- 

 gencies, and serving as a guide to the manager. 



Since, during the long time which such a plan 

 contemplates, all sorts of changes, unforeseen and 

 uncontrollable, take place, changes in economic 

 conditions and changes in forest conditions as well 

 as growth in experience, it is useless to make detail 

 prescriptions beyond a short period, leaving to the 

 future a readjustment and revision of the working 

 plan and the formulation of new policies. 

 Q 



