2 FOREST REGULATION 



When Silviculture has indicated that a particular tract of land 

 is suited to Spruce, and that Spruce will thrive if planted, thinned 

 and cared for. according to a certain method, its share in Regulation 

 is ended. Then it depends on Utilization and Valuation whether a 

 certain method of planting is sufficiently economical to be planned 

 for by Regulation, whether it is economical to use the method of 

 planting with large transplants, whether it is advisable in this case 

 to thin every ten years, and whether it is best to cut this timber at 

 the age of 80, or 100 years. Regulation, weighing all conditions 

 formulates the plan for Silviculture to follow, and do its best whether 

 the decision is for seeding, planting, or natural reproduction, and 

 whether it is the most effective, expeditious way of raising a stand 

 of timber or not. 



c) In our country the Forester starts with wild woods ; often 

 not even surveyed. In one locality he finds good market for every 

 thing, in another no market at all ; usually no division of the forests 

 into convenient tracts, (fields or lots or compartments) ; no roads; 

 no help, no information regarding land or timber, save a few 

 unreliable estimates of the 'merchantable'' stufif ; no information as 

 to how fast the timber grows, how old it must be before it reaches 

 certain marketable sizes. The job is all new, and in many cases 

 conditions do not warrant doing more than establishing ownership 

 and giving the forest protection. Generally, however, the tendency 

 is to overrate difficulties, and underrate possibilities. In the I'nited 

 States conditions change rapidly ; what serves and seems sufficient 

 today is no longer so tomorrow. Railways are building into ever\' 

 nook and comer of our country ; the demand for timber in the United 

 States is enomious and is still on the increase ; the price of stumpage 

 has advanced, in some cases 500% in less than 20 years ; large areas 

 of supplies have been entirely exhausted ; there is practicallv no 

 growth replacing our cut. The development of forestry in the 

 United States cannot take the slow way it has followed in the Old 

 World. The tree planted today in almost any part of the eastern 

 half of the United States will bring as good a stumpage as it would 

 in Germany or France by the time it is ready to cut ; the forester 

 builds for the future, and this future is safely judged by the best 

 conditions seen in parts of our country even now. It is also safe to 

 judge this future by the conditions existing in the most advanced 

 and most prosperous parts of Europe. 



