The Significance of the Forest 7 



This shows that the economic value of land cannot be 

 permanently fixed, nor its use determined once for all 

 time. The use, the value, and hence the classification of 

 all land is subject to change with differing conditions in 

 the commercial world, and no inherent qualities of the 

 soil can bind it permanently to one particular use. What, 

 then, is the true basis of land value and hence land classi- 

 fication? Clearly, the productive capacity of land is 

 governed by economic conditions only, — conditions that 

 are subject to change and that may change completely 

 the productive capacity, and hence the classification. It 

 is these changing conditions that are ignored by ordinary 

 methods of classification. More depends on the price 

 of timber and the price of grain than on the quality of the 

 soil. If these premises are true, — and no evidence can be 

 produced against them, — a permanent classification of land 

 is not practicable. 



In the near future, — in fact it is already upon us, — 

 the question of the division of our lands into the two great 

 classes of tillable and forest land will be a pressing 

 one. How shall we meet it? On what shall the classi- 

 fication be based? Once and for all it must be clearly 

 understood that such classification is only temporary and 

 subject to correction at any time. With this in mind, 

 we must proceed on the only just basis : a comparison of 

 the net revenues obtainable from the land under other 

 crops and under forestry. The revenue from farm crops 

 is usually available from pieces of similar land in the im- 

 mediate vicinity. The production of the forest is a little 

 harder to determine and a little less certain, but it can 

 be secured. A study of the forest growth on the nearest 



