RISK IN FORESTRY 23 



spread over all forests evenly instead of being concentrated at cer- 

 tain points, there would not be the general fear of fire risk in for- 

 estry. 



As a real menace to forestry insects and wood- destroying fungi 

 are much more serious. Even in the best cared for forests of Ger- 

 many, fungi, producing defects and decay in the timber, and even 

 killing young trees, are a constant trouble. But this is true of the 

 wild woods as it is of the cultivated forest and it is true of the farm 

 crop more than of the woods. One of the greatest tasks of the 

 United States Department of Agriculture and of all state experi- 

 ment stations is to find remedies for the many plant enemies of our 

 crops and fruits. MiUions are spent every year by the farmer in 

 spraying, etc., and millions more are lost for lack of effective treat- 

 ment. The same is true with insects ; scale, louse, moth, weevil, 

 chinch bug, wheat fly, and potato beetle have, and do cost many 

 millions every year. If the fly gets into wheat, the chinch bug into 

 the corn or the boll weevil into cotton the loss is often complete. An 

 attack of insects in timber, even if severe enough to kill, is only a 

 partial loss, all large stufif can be used, wherever forestry has become 

 a real business with means of utilization and a market. While the 

 German forester is much more concerned about insects and fungi 

 than about forest fires, it does not occur to anyone to think of these 

 difficulties as a risk sufficient to discourage forestry as a business. 

 Weber in the Handburh and Endres in his ForH Politik made no 

 effort to estimate these losses. Like those from fire in the United 

 States they are great both here and abroad but they even up as they 

 do in farming. To the small owner they are serious, in large hold- 

 ings they form a regular trouble to figure with. Endres (p. 95) 

 mentions the losses from wind, snow, ice and insects, (leaves out 

 fire) and says that in all computation of averages these losses are 

 inconspicuous — "Kommen nur wenig zum Ausdruck.'' 



As regards the growth and reproduction of the crop itself which 

 expresses more properly the certainty or success in crop production, 

 the forest far excels the farm crop. From Michigan to the Gulf, 

 the forest was practically unbroken, there were no large "bums" 

 or other gaps. Nature had reproduced one crop after another, the 

 crops had grown to old age, died and given way to new crops. 

 Windstorms, insects and fungi had collected their toll but the forest 

 was there and asked no help. In the most intensive forestry in Ger- 

 many less than twenty per cent of the expenses are devoted to plant- 

 ing, etc., to protection and care of the crop, about fifty per cent is 

 spent in harvesting. Where the forest has not been abused and 

 where the climate is good the new crop comes in without any help 



