Forest Management 11 



European foresters are apt to answer the question by an emphatic 

 "Yes." 



The American forester might consider, before answering, four 

 points: 



(1) The great variety of conditions existing in the various sections 

 of the various states from which the financial prospects of conservative 

 forestry depend. 



(2) The fact that conservatism in the forest cannot be expected, in 

 the long run, to be as remunerative in this country as it is abroad un- 

 less the forest is rendered as safe as the German forests from fire, taxes 

 and whimsical legislation. 



(3) The fact that an ideal forest represents a large investment yield- 

 ing a small rate of surplus revenue. 



(4) The possibility that a forest now considered "ideal" as to rota- 

 tion, composition, species, roads and so on, is apt to be considered de- 

 ficient when the lapse of years has caused a 'change of the economical 

 conditions surrounding the forest. 



As long as our country develops by leaps and bounds, as long as the 

 immediate future of our forests is dark, as long as other investments 

 seem safer, simpler, better than forestal investments, the time has not 

 arrived to strive toward "ideal forests." 



The American forester can consider the forest only as "so much 

 money invested." That forest is ideal which can Ibe expected to yield, 

 for a long time and perhaps forever, a safe, steady and high dividend 

 on every dollar invested. In such a forest, the various items of value 

 (as trees, soil, roads, sawmills) appear as proper shares of the aggre- 

 gate value. 



The following may serve as an illustration: 



Value of stumpage, per acre $7-75, or 77^2 per cent. 



Value of soil, " " i.oo, or 10 per cent. 



Value of roads, " " So, or S per cent. 



Value of sawmills, " " 75. or 7^4 per cent. 



Total investment $10.00, or 100 per cent. 



The form of the ideal revenue depends on the owner's wish. The 

 owner may or may not prefer an annual revenue (of 40 cents per acre, 

 obtained without decreasing the value of the stumpage, to a revenue of 

 $2.00, exhausting the forest in a dozen years. The owner alone can de- 

 cide whether a dividend is safe enough, steady enough and high 

 enough; his decision is based, naturally, on a comparison between for- 

 est revenue and revenues obtainable from other investments. 



The investor stakes his money on that enterprise in which he has 

 the greatest confidence; and it is usual that the farmer puts his money 

 in farms; the miner in mines; the railroad man in railroad stock; and 

 the lumberman in forests, 



