METHODS OF FOREST POLICY. 255 



possible, and at least conservative lumbering would 

 appear more profitable. 



Export duties, if placed high enough to prevent 

 practical exportation, would appear a more rea- 

 sonable method of influencing exploitation ; but 

 when we consider that, for instance in the United 

 States, the value of forest products exported hardly 

 exceeds 5 per cent of the value represented in 

 home consumption, and is counterbalanced to at 

 least one-half more by importations, it would appear 

 that the influence of an export duty, at least for 

 this country, could hardly have any appreciable 

 effect in establishing forestry practice. 



But all such devices influence only the present 

 or short future, while the interests of the forestry 

 business are in a distant future. We must never 

 forget that financially forestry means foregoing 

 present revenue, or making present expenditures 

 for the sake of future revenue. 



To induce private owners to begin such a con- 

 servative policy is hardly to be attained by tariff 

 legislation, unless a definite obligation is laid upon 

 them to spend a part of the increased earning in 

 that direction. 



The case is entirely different when a systematic 

 forestry business is actually established and in 

 competition with importations from a country 

 where crude exploitation of virgin forests is still 

 practised, which threatens to make the home enter- 

 prise unprofitable. 



