Trees do not usually attain the size at which they give 

 useful products for a considerable number of years after 

 commencing life. It follows that in a forest, worked so as 

 to yield a regular supply, the crop has to furnish annually 

 a product which, if it be timber at least, only matures at 

 very much longer periods. It is generally the chief purpose 

 of a working-plan to constitute a series of crops which will 

 satisfy this condition. 



Both the object sought and the means by which that 

 object can be attained depend on a variety of facts relating 

 to the forest and its management; and, in order that the 

 prescriptions contained in the working-plan may be fully 

 understood, it is necessary that these facts should be stated, 

 and the manner in which the prescriptions have been deduced 

 from them explained. Thesey«c^s, deductions, and preserip- 

 iions are recorded in a single report which, although usually 

 embodying several separate plans, is generally, for conciseness, 

 called the working-plan of the whole area dealt with. 



It is unfortunate that onv term " working-plan " cannot be utilized, like its 

 French equivalent " projet ' d'aminagement, so as to signify at once the art of pre- 

 paring plans (amenagemfn€^, the action (aminager), and the person who prepares 

 them (aminagiste). " Organization " has been, to a certain extent, adopted as the 

 equivalent of aminagement ; but, as already explained, the former term includes, 

 as well as the preparation of the plan, the survey, settlement, and demarcation, of the 

 forest. We may, however, in the absence of a better word, agree to use organization 

 in the more restricted sense. Taxation has been proposed, but not does appear 

 to be generally acceptable. The French word is derived from a and menage 

 (household), and implies the management of a forest so as to meet the regularly 

 recurring wants of a household ; in other words, so as to produce a sustained yield. 

 It is, therefore, very forcible, and no good English equivalent has yet been proposed. 



THE FOREST CAPITAL OR PRODUCING STOCK. 



Meanmg of the term.— It has been stated that the chief 

 purpose of a working-plan is, generally, to secure the con- 

 dition of crop that is necessary in order that the forest may 

 yield perpetually a regular supply of produce in greatest 

 quantity. It is of the utmost importance to have a clear 

 conception of this condition, that is to say of the constitu- 

 tion ot the crop m an organized forest. Without such a con- 

 ception it IS impossible to understand the reasons for the 

 apphcation of even the simplest xaethod of treatment. 



