Forest Management 21 



had a chance to show dividends obtained from second growth forest 

 (exceptions: farm wood lots; second growth pine in Virginia). 



Under what conditions, it may be asked, can or does conservative 

 lumbering pay in primeval woods? 



The conditions are those under which any business proves to be 

 remunerative, .... be it a livery business or a hotel, a railroad or a 

 music store: that business alone can be remunerative in which the 

 parts composing the business investments are at hand in proper pro- 

 portions; that business alone can be remunerative which is established 

 in an economically proper site; that business alone can be remuner- 

 ative, which is safe from over-taxation and — by insurance or otherwise 

 — safe from accidental destruction of its assets. 



Let us take the livery business for an illustration: The investment 

 consists of several components, viz.: horses, carriages, harness, saddles, 

 buildings, feed. These components must be at hand in proper propor- 

 tion. It would be preposterous, for a livery, to have invested, e. g., 



in horses $ i,ooo 



in carriages 25,000 



in harness 100 



in saddles 50 



in buildings 350 



in' feed 15,000 



Again, the proper economic site for a livery business is in the city, 

 the village — not in the back woods of Maine; not in the wild swamps 

 of Minnesota; not indeed in Chicago one hundred years ago; which 

 shows the dependence of economic sites on economic development. 

 Finally, a livery business is never overtaxed, and all of its investments 

 allow of being insured. There is, probably, many a livery in the United 

 States whose owner is "falling behind," — usually because his invest- 

 ments are wrongly balanced or because the site of his business is 

 wrongly selected. Still, it would be wrong to conclude that a livery 

 business is generally a poor business. 



Properly arrangea within, properly arranged without; properly in- 

 sured against accidents a business must be remunerative. 



Applying this logic to conservative lumbering as a business it is 

 safe to state that it must be remunerative 



A. Where its components are properly balanced. 



B. Where an economic site is obtainable for its conduct. 



ad. A: The components of a business investment in conservative for- 

 estry are partly derived from nature '(natural gifts, natural 

 powers) and partly made by man. The natural components 

 are usually at hand in primeval forests, — which does not 

 mean to say that they are at hand in proper amounts. The 

 components made by man are added to those made by na- 

 ture and consist, above all, in investments permanently em- 

 ployed for forest utilization. 

 Thus the aggregate investments in conservative forestry may con- 



