IMPORTANCE OF TIMBER 21 



A forester with ten thousand acres of woods properly regulated 

 so that he can cut every year, would cut about one hundred acres of 

 ripe timber. The other ninet)'-nine hundred acres have timber from 

 one to ninety-nine years old and this body of growing stock is worth 

 about four or five times as much as the land on which it stands. 



In farming there is very little of this kind of investment, the 

 orchard trees, bushes of smaller fruit and meadow grass resemble it. 



7. The crop is not ripened in a week or even a year but may 

 be cut when it is thirty, fifty or a hundred years old. 



8. In case of accident, fire, insects, etc., a large part of the 

 damaged timber can be used, providing there are means of getting 

 it out, and a ready market. 



9. Timber after it is cut is not a perishable material like po- 

 tatoes, fruits, etc., but is improved by seasoning. A body of sawed 

 timber may make from three to five per cent on its value in this way. 

 This gives independence in holding. 



10. Timber crop requires further manufacture, sawmill, plan- 

 ing mill, pulp, etc. It stimulates industries. 



11. The forest furnishes more material for transportation per 

 acre than the farm. The latter about two hundred and fifty pounds 

 per acre, the forest about one thousand pounds. 



12. The forest requires little help, therefore making larger 

 net income. 



13. From all ordinary and inferior lands the forest makes as 

 large a gross income as does ordinary farming at present prices. 



14. To the rural people the forest is a necessity to preserve 

 sufficient independence with regard to fuel and building material. 



15. The forest prevents erosion, agriculture leads to erosion. 

 The forest is the only large agency at the disposal of man to influ- 

 ence the flow of water in streams, safely, effectively and permanent- 

 ly. In mountainous countries where the forest, because of the to- 

 pography, covers seventy-five per cent of the land it is the greatest 

 factor in water distribution. 



16. Forest influences evaporation and rainfall, protects, locally, 

 against drying wind. It encourages bird and insect life and tends 

 to maintain a biological equilibrium, helpful to man, especially in 

 agriculture. 



17. The forest is the greatest and most important feature of 

 the beauty of the earth. Thinking man will never wish to do with- 

 out the forest wherever it can be made to grow. 



