6 Forest Management 



Frequently forest destruction promises better dividends than forest 

 maintenance. In such cases a forest working plan resolves itself into a 

 plan covering the various operations commonly known as destructive 

 lumbering. The soil may be cleared because it is thought to be valua- 

 ble as farm soil, pasture soil, orchard soil; or the land may be aban- 

 doned after lumbering as worthless when the owner believes that the 

 taxes due on the cleared land (taken together with the expenses of pro- 

 tecting a second growth expectable on the cleared land) form a new 

 investment of an unpromising nature. 



Forests cannot be well developed where the development of the 

 whole country is in arrears. Here the owner is compelled to adopt a 

 policy of waiting — waiting for that general development of the country 

 which is sure permanently to improve the value of stumpage. In such 

 cases a working plan resolves itself into a plan for forest protection 

 (against squatters, fires, etc.) 



In the prairies and also in the East, the land owner is frequently 

 inclined — on a small scale, usually — to improve the condition of his 

 property sylviculturally, making investments for afforestation, clean- 

 ing, weeding, etc. In such cases a forest working plan resolves itself, 

 essentially, into a plan covering various sylvicultural operations (con- 

 structive forestry). 



In Germany and France, at the time being, conservative fprestry 

 produces invariably financial results superior to those of de-forestation 

 and of abandonment of cut over woodland. In these countries cut over 

 woodland unfit for the plow (known as absolute forest land), has a 

 value usually exceeding $io per acre. 



Modern European foresters are in the habit of identifying the term 

 ■'management" with the term "conservative management" of forests; 

 and all European forest working plans provide for conservative work- 

 ing of the forest. 



CHAPTER I— THE IDEAL FOREST 



In an ideal forest continuously supplying certain mills or certain 

 markets with an equal annual amount of timber or wood there should 

 be at hand: 



A normal gradation of the age classes (If II); 



A normal growing stock (If III) ; 



A normal increment (If IV). 

 No forest ever has been, is, or ever will be "ideal." The ideal forest de- 

 serves attention only im theory. Its theory deals with volumes instead 

 of dealing with values. 



PARAGRAPH II. 



NORMAL GRADATION OF AGE CLASSES. 



A normal gradation of age classes is literally at hand in the forest 

 when there are found as many age classes as the rotation comprises 



