FORESTS 



FORESTS 



321 



wise destroyed) is constantly gaining in fertility 

 instead of becoming exhausted, — just the reverse 

 of what happens in farming, where every harvest 

 impoverishes the soil by depriving it of a part of 

 its nutritive substances. 



While farm land must, of necessity, be fairly 

 level, since a slope of 20° renders it unfit for till- 

 ing, and an incline of 25° unfits it even for pasture, 

 gradients up to 45° are still capable of sustaining 

 tree-growth. On slopes from 5° to 30°, the forest 

 finds its true home, producing there more wood, 

 and often yielding greater revenues than when 

 grown in the valley. The reason for the increased 

 growth of trees on moderate slopes is to be found 

 in the stimulating effect of favorable exposures 

 with their greater amount of light and air, of more 

 perfect drainage, and of greater protection from 

 wind and frost than is usually found on flat 

 ground. 



The ability of the forest to grow on situations 

 too poor or otherwise unfit for agriculture led to 

 designating such situations as absolute forest land 

 (Pigs. 425-6). To absolute forest land, therefore, 

 b.elong all territory north of the range of cultivated 

 plants, all steep slopes, gullies, situations too rocky 

 or too dry for agricultural plants, and swamps. It 

 is impossible, of course, always to draw a distinct 

 line of demarcation between absolute forest land 

 and other land, since the soil may be artificially im- 

 proved, as, in the case of swamps by drainage, but 

 such improvements are, as a rule, very costly, and 

 in this country, where there is still a comparative 

 abundance of land, the absolute forest soil may be 

 made profitable without improvements, by devoting 

 it to forest growth, for which it is fitted, as it 

 were, by nature itself. 



Labor. 



The raising of agricultural crops demands a 

 great amount of human effort. The land must be 

 plowed, harrowed, manured or otherwise fertilized, 

 the seeds put in the ground, the harvest gathered 

 and threshed, and all this has to be repeated year 

 after year. 



In the growing of wood crops the application of 

 human labor is very limited. The forest provides 

 for the fertilization of its own soil, new crops start, 

 as a rule, from self-sown seeds transported by wind 

 or birds, or from stumps or roots of old trees, and 

 wherever man does undertake to assist nature by 

 sowing or planting cut-over land, the work on the 

 same area has to be done only once in Ihany years. 

 It is only the harvesting of the timber crops which 

 requires any considerable, labor, and this occurs at 

 very long intervals. Tens, often hundreds of years 

 must pass before the new crop becomes ready for 

 the axe. 



While farm crops must be harvested as soon as 

 they ripen, a delay of even a few days often caus- 

 ing considerable loss, the harvesting of timber 

 crops may be postponed for many years without 

 injury to the crop, and can be done at a time and 

 rate most profitable and convenient to the timber 

 owner. 

 , The relative importance of labor as a factor in 



B21 



Fig. 449. 



Cottonwood iPopulus 



deltoides) . 



the production of timber and farm crops is well 

 shown by the fact that while the 414,000,000 acres 

 of improved farm land, given by the Twelfth Cen- 

 sus, engage 10,000,000 men, or 

 one man to every forty acres, 

 the 700,000,000 acres of forests 

 engage only 120,000 men, em- 

 ployed in harvesting the timber 

 and getting it out to the nearest 

 points of shipment, or one man 

 to every 5,800 acres. This dif- 

 ference is especially large in this 

 country because most of the 

 labor that is employed in our 

 forests is engaged solely with 

 harvesting and transporting the 

 timber crops, and practically 

 none with forest-culture proper, 

 which is still in its inception. 

 But even in forests managed most intensively, only 

 one-tenth to one-thirtieth of the labor required by 

 an acre of farm land is needed per acre of forest 

 land. The different branches of 

 agricultural production may be 

 ' arranged in the order in which 

 each calls for labor, beginning 

 with that which needs least, as 

 follows: Ranching, wood-grow- 

 ing, hay-raising, production of 

 cereals, fruit - growing and 

 truck-farming. 



At a smaller expenditure of 

 labor, forest land is capable of 

 producing at the same time an 

 equal, if not a greater amount 

 of useful vegetable substance 

 than farm land. Thus, common farm crops yield 

 on an average 3,400 to 4,600 pounds of vegetable 

 substance per acre ; of this, only about one-third 

 (1,000 to 1,500 pounds) is in 

 the form of grain. An acre of 

 forest produces under human 

 care 8,000 to 10,000 pounds of 

 vegetable substance annually, 

 and of this about one-half is 

 in the form of wood, the re- 

 mainder being roots (450 

 pounds), and leaves (3,000 

 pounds). Deducting from the 

 wood the amount of water held 

 by it mechanically, there re- 

 mains 1,500 to 3,600 pounds 

 (dry weight) of vegetable sub- 

 stance, as the product of one acre in one year. 

 Putting these facts together with the Census fig- 

 ures, according to which there is one man for every 

 forty acres of improved farm 

 land, the inference may be 

 drawn that in agriculture the 

 labor of one man is instrumen- 

 tal in raising annually 40,000 

 to 60,000 pounds of useful 

 vegetable substance ; the same 

 amount of labor expended in „„;, „^f,■Jf^„,,,„ 



, ^ , -, Hard or sugar maple 



growmg wood crops could pro- Ucer aacchannum). 



Fig. 450. 



Box elder {Acer Nt- 



gundo). 



Fig. 451. 

 surer or soft maple 

 (Acer dasycarpum). 



