4 PKACTICAL FOBESTEY. 



most useful when it produced the greatest number of ties and bridge 

 timbers. In both cases the forest would render its best service by 

 producing the greatest quantity of valuable material. This is the 

 central idea upon which the national forests of France are managed. 

 The greatest return in money may be the service most desired of 

 the forest. If a farmer wished to seU the product of his woodlot 

 instead of consuming it himself, his woodland would be useful to him 

 just in proportion to its net yield in money. This is true also in the 

 case of any owner of a forest who wishes to dispose of its product, 

 but who can not, or will not, sell the forest itself. State forests, like 



Fig. 1. — Wind-breaks of Lombardy poplar, intended to protect orcliard trees against wind and moving 



sand, near The Dalles, Oregon. 



those in the Adirondacks, often render their best service, in addition 

 to their iisefulness as protection forests, by producing the greatest net 

 money return. 



Regarded as an investment of capital, a forest is most useful when 

 it yields the highest rate of interest. A forest whose owner could sell 

 it if he chose, but prefers to hold it as productive capital, is useful in 

 proportion to the interest it yields on the money invested in it. Thus, 

 an acre of sprout land may be worth only $5, while the investment in 

 adjoining land stocked with old trees may be $50 an acre. This is 

 the view which controls the management of state forests in Germany. 

 Lumbermen also regard timber land as an investment, but usually 

 they take no care except for the yield at the moment. They disre- 



358 



