188 ELEMENTARY FORESTRY. 
states, and money lenders there consider this matter as impor- 
tant when placing a loan; for while the increase on such land 
cannot be gathered at all for perhaps sixteen or twenty years, 
and then only a small amount, yet a certain increase in woody 
tissue is being stored up each year which will later on be har- 
vested. It should be regarded as being worth at any time a cer- 
tain proportion of its total value at- maturity, which perhaps will 
not come for twenty years, but if a forest is reasonably protected 
from fire, it is almost as sure to earn a certain increment as that 
the conditions on the earth will remain as they are for eighty 
years. And if a forest is twenty years old, it may be in such 
condition that it would be wasteful to try to derive any income 
from it for perhaps twenty years more, yet it is worth perhaps 
one-third of what it will be worth twenty years hence. Thus, if 
at forty years it will yield ninety cords of paper pulp per acre, 
worth five dollars per cord, it should at twenty years be worth 
about $140, aiter allowing for compound interest at six per cent. 
Unproductive Forest Land. In almost every range of for- 
est there will be some land that is quite unproductive. This will 
generally consist of ledgy land, or that which is elevated above 
the tree line, or perhaps may consist of extended swamps. But 
on this account it should not be thought worthless, but should 
be allowed to produce what growth it can, especially where it is 
valuable in protecting the sources of streams, and in the case 
of elevated mountain sides the scrubby growth of no value for 
timber may be very valuable in preventing land slips or snow 
slides. Of course, in the case of individuals having small hold- 
ings such considerations do not apply, but they are important and 
should be encouraged in any comprehensive forestry scheme. 
European-.Systems of Forest Management have been 
frequently referred to as being applicable to our conditions, but, 
while we can learn much of value from the history and practice 
of European forest administration, our conditions are so very 
different from those existing in Europe that much discretion 
must be exercised in adapting their methods to our conditions. 
The chief difference between their conditions and ours is in the 
higher price of their timber and their cheaper hand labor, which 
makes possible very different methods than could be profitably 
used here. The conditions in the remote parts of Russia are 
much more like those in this country than are, perhaps, to be 
