242 



Garden and Forest. 



[May 14, 1890. 



India, at the foot of the north-west Himalaya. We quote his 

 words : 



" Any one who has ever stood on the hills behind Hushiar- 

 pur, in the Punjab, and looked down upon the plain stretched 

 out toward the south-west, has carried away an impression 

 which he is not likely to forget. In that part the Siwalik range 

 consists of an exceedingly friable rock, looking almost like 

 sand baked together. Formerly, the range was covered with 

 a growth of forest-vegetation, but a number of years ago cat- 

 tle owners settled in it, and under the combined attacks of 

 man, cows, sheep and goats, the natural growth disappeared, 

 while the tread of the beasts tended to loosen the soil. The 

 annual monsoon rains, though not heavy, soon commenced 

 a process of erosion and of carrying away the surface soil. 

 Gradually, small and then large ravines and torrents were 

 formed, which have torn the hill range into the most fantastic 

 shapes, while the debris has been carried into the plains, 

 forming, commencing at the places where the torrents emerge 

 into the plain, fan-shaped accumulations of sand which reach 

 for miles into the plain and which have already covered and 

 rendered sterile extensive areas of formerly fertile fields. In- 

 deed, one of these currents or drifts of sand has actually car- 

 ried away a portion of the town of Hushiarpur. The evil has 

 by no means reached its maximum extent, and if curative 

 measures are not adopted at an early date, the progress of 

 transporting the hill range into the plain will go on, until the 

 greater part of the fertile plain stretching away from its foot 

 has been rendered sterile." 



The author might have added the denuded hills, and the 

 rivers, formerly navigable, but now silted up in the Ratnagiri 

 district of western India, and other similar instances, the 

 counterpart of which is probably not wanting in the drier dis- 

 tricts of North America. 



Secondly, forests are useful, inasmuch as they furnish timber 

 and other forest-produce. Under this head the author touches 

 upon a question which will be more fully dealt with in 

 a subsequent volume under the financial aspects of forest- 

 management, namely, the relation of the income derived from a 

 forest to the capital value of that forest. By way of illustration 

 the author gives an account of the yield of a Scotch Pine-forest in 

 England on soil of different quality and managed under differ- 

 ent lengths of rotation. The capital value of such a property 

 on the best quality of land, if managed on a rotation of 100 

 years.is stated to amount to ,£25 per acre for the land and ^80 

 for the growing stock on it, total ,£105 per acre. Those com- 

 partments or portions of the forest on which the timber had 

 attained the age of 100 years would contain 8,390 cubic feet of 

 timber per acre. On the younger portions the growing stock 

 would be less, and the estimated value (.£80) is that of the tim- 

 ber standing on all compartments, old and young, calculated 

 per acre all round. In the care of an estate of 1,000 acres the 

 capital value of such a wood would be ,£105,000. If managed 

 so as to furnish a regular annual yield, such an estate would 

 produce (in the shape of final and intermediate cuttings) per 

 acre per annum 129 cubic feet of timber, estimated to be worth 

 forty-three shillings. Allowing two shillings per acre per an- 

 num all round for current expenses, the net income of the es- 

 tate would amount to ,£2,050 a year, and this only corresponds 

 to an interest on the capital value of the property of 1.95 per 

 cent. In other words, if the proprietor sold the estate, the land 

 with the timber standing on it, at the estimated rate, he would 

 realize a sum of ,£105,000, which, if invested at four per cent, 

 in government securities, or in other safe investments, would 

 give him an annual income of ,£4,200, in the place of ^2,050, 

 which the management of the forest would yield. At first 

 sight, therefore, forestry would seem to be a very bad busi- 

 ness financially. But there is another side to the question. 

 The proprietor, if he keeps his estate and manages it 

 well, has a good chance of increasing its value. First 

 of all, the soil of a well stocked forest improves steadily 

 and hence the annual yield of such a forest goes on increas- 

 ing. This steady improvement of land which has been kept 

 continuously under well cared forest and the consequent in- 

 crease of its timber yield is of great importance. The annual 

 yield per acre of the state forests of the Kingdom of Wurttem- 

 berg (present area, 476,000 acres) has risen steadily, apart from 

 fluctuations, from thirty-nine cubic feet per acre in the ten 

 years 1823-32 to sixty-one cubic feet in the ten years from 1878 

 to 1887. Further, it is probable that in America the price of 

 timber, and probably also in many cases the selling rate of the 

 land, will rise very considerably. This chance of augmenting 

 the capital value of his property and of increasing his income 

 the proprietor loses when he sells the forest with the timber 

 on it. On the other hand, it may be taken as certain that the 

 interest of government securities will go down, and that it will 



not in future be possible to invest large amounts safely at four 

 per cent. Lastly, forest-property has this advantage, that if 

 for any special purpose the proprietor requires money, he can 

 obtain it by making extraordinary cuttings without trenching 

 upon his capital and without necessarily diminishing the pro- 

 ductive powers of his forest. 



In places where small timber finds a ready sale, a shorter 

 rotation, say of fifty years, may be adopted, which means that 

 the timber is cut when about fifty years old. In that case the 

 capital value of the estate would, in the particular instance se- 

 lected, amount only to ^51 an acre (land ,£25, growing stock 

 £16) with a net annual income of 28 — 2=26 shillings an acre. 

 In this case the growing stock of those compartments which 

 had attained the age of fifty years would amount to 5,060 cubic 

 feet of timber per acre. On 1,000 acres the capital value of an 

 estate of 1,000 acres thus managed would be ,£51,000, and the 

 net annual income ,£1,300, corresponding to interest at the 

 rate of 2.55 per cent. These figures show that under certain 

 circumstances it may be more profitable to work a forest on a 

 shorter rotation. Thus the forests of Spruce and Scotch Pine 

 in the district of Aix-la-Chapelle and other districts of Rhenish 

 Prussia are worked on a rotation of fifty or sixty years, because 

 the coal and other mines in those districts require large quan- 

 tities of pit-props and other small timber, which gives a ready 

 market for timber of the smaller sizes. And this holds good 

 whether the forests belong to private proprietors, to towns or 

 villages or to the state. On the other hand, the high forests of 

 Oak and Beech in those districts are worked on a longer rota- 

 tion, because of these kinds the large timber sells best. 

 The state forests of the kingdom of Saxony are mostly worked 

 on a rotation of eighty years, because they chiefly consist of 

 Spruce, which timber in those parts commands a ready 

 market at that age. These forests, which are managed on a 

 very perfect system, comprise an aggregate area of 415,200 

 acres, and furnished in 1888 a net revenue of ,£392,270. The 

 capital value of these estates (land and growing stock) is de- 

 termined from time to time with great care, and it amounted 

 in 1888 to £2,6 per acre, good and bad, and on this the net reve- 

 nue of the year amounted to 2.62 per cent. There are, how- 

 ever, among the 1 10 forest-ranges of these state-forests a good 

 many in which the net revenue of 1888 represented a higher 

 percentage on the present capital value, in some instances 

 more than four per cent. 



It was right at the outset prominently to draw attention to 

 these facts, because at first sight they seem to constitute an 

 insuperable obstacle to the introduction of systematic forest- 

 management in the United States. And yet it is probable that 

 in North America the financial results of forestry will be in 

 favor of systematic forest-management. Definite data are not 

 available, and the following remarks are put forward merely 

 by way of illustration. On a map in Professor Sargent's excel- 

 lent report on the forests of North America, published in 

 1884, which represents a portion of California, and shows the 

 distribution of the Redwood-forests, a considerable area is 

 marked as containing standing Redwood averaging 200,000 

 feet (16,660 cubic feet) to the acre. These figures, it is pre- 

 sumed, relate to 1880, but it appears from data communicated 

 by Dr. Mayr that at the time of his visit a few years ago the 

 Redwood forests of California still contained some very heavily 

 timbered lands. On page 267 of his book he gives a graphic 

 description of some untouched woods 700 years old, the trees 

 275 feet high, and fifty-six stems to the acre, which contained, 

 according to his measurements, the stupendous quantity of 

 188,000 cubic feet of timber per acre. Very likely, therefore, 

 there are considerable areas of old Redwood-forest left con- 

 taining much more than 16,660 cubic feet of timber per acre. 

 Assuming, for the sake of argument, that this timber on the 

 spot was worth twenty cents per cubic foot, the value of the 

 standing crop would be $3,330 per acre. Now, if a proprietor 

 of, say, 1,000 acres of such forest were to clear the timber, 

 without regard to the maintenance of the forest, and if he were 

 to place the proceeds at four per cent., he would realize an 

 annual income of $133,000. If he were to manage the forest 

 in a regular manner, with the view of maintaining it in a good 

 state of productiveness, he might expect, judging from the 

 analogy of forests in Europe, to realize a net income of two 

 and a half per cent, on the value of the growing stock, and this 

 would only be $83,000 a year. As land in the case here se- 

 lected would probably not be salable, its value has here been 

 omitted. It is, however, a question whether the proprietor 

 could at once dispose of $3,330,000 worth of Redwood without 

 lowering the price. If his estate contained 10,000 acres he 

 would certainly have to be satisfied with considerably lower 

 rates in order to complete the transaction at once. It is most 

 probable that he would find it to his advantage to clear the 



