18 Forest Management 



financial effect of the various methods of logging (animal power versus 

 steam power), of the various mills (portable, circular, band, etc.) 



The degree in which the owner (through the forester) attends to 

 the removal and to the refinement of his timber products is controlled 

 by local as well as by personal conditions. The owner might offer for 

 sale stumpage, or logs yarded, or rough lumber, or refined lumber. 



As long as there are more owners of timber land than manufactur- 

 ers of lumber, the stumpage market is a buyer's market; and the owner 

 of forests does, well to engage in manufacturing enterprises. 



Of the utmost importance is a careful study of the means of trans- 

 portation (water, rail, flumes, etc.) The forester should never forget 

 that lumbering — and consequently forestry — is essentially a problem of 

 transportation. 



The expense to be incurred for permanent and for temporary means 

 of transportation requires careful discussion. In conservative forestry, 

 the main arteries of transportation, necessarily, have a permanent char- 

 acter. The combination of the means of transportation to be adopted 

 (railroads, narrow or standard; cables; water-courses; flumes; wagon 

 roads) depends on local circumstances. Public roads and railroads, 

 advisable alterations, charters to be secured from the legislature are 

 topics requiring attention. The plan of transportation is explained 

 by a map showing the existing and the proposed lines of transporta- 

 tion. 



PARAGRAPH XVII. 



FORESTAL INVESTMENTS. 



In the United States, no private activity having the forest for its 

 object (id est, any forestry in a broad sense), is conceivable which 

 does not mean to result in good financial returns. Forestry is business, 

 and in business there is no room for sentiment. That forestry must 

 be considered best, which pays best. 



Compared with other investments in realties (e. g., farms, mines, 

 houses), forest investments show several undesirable features. They 

 are difficult of control; they fail continuously to yield annual cash divi- 

 dends; they are endangered by fires and cannot be insured against de- 

 struction; their products are not as absolutely indispensable to man- 

 kind as farm products, mine products or the shelter of a house; sub- 

 division, joint ownership, sale in fee are difficult to arrange; mortgages 

 or bonds on forests are hard to secure, and theft of timber is hard to 

 prevent. 



There are, on the other hand, many factors speaking in favor of 

 forest investments: Notably the phenomenal increase in the value of 

 timber brought about by an increase in population and continuous 

 prosperity; the certainty of wood production, year in and year out, 

 with which fires only can interfere; the strong possibility of more ex- 

 tended use of wood products in the manufacture of paper, packages, 



