FISHERIES, GAME AND FORESTS. 403 



with its property, although perfectly sound from its standpoint, may not at all recom- 

 mend itself and would be faulty for the private owner. In Germany, the fact that 

 all portions of a forest crop, from the root to the brushwood, are salable in most sec- 

 tions, owing to the density of the population, makes possible the use of methods in 

 the conduct of the business of forest cropping which, in our more or less unsettled 

 conditions, are impracticable. 



As long as we have an abundance of superior material from nature's forests to 

 draw upon, we shall be inclined to leave the inferior material, inferior species and 

 inferior sizes unused. This condition of the market for the crop must hamper not 

 only the business part of the management, but also the silvicultural part, that which 

 is concerned in the production and reproduction of the crop. For, with tree weeds 

 and inferior competitors to contend with, which cannot be removed without expense, 

 the young crop is necessarily not developing as it should and could, were the com- 

 petition removed. 



The forester must finally be a lumberman. The difference between the lumber- 

 man and the forester is like that between the berry picker in the wild woods and the 

 market gardener who grows his berries with skill. The essential difference between 

 the logger's practice and the forester's practice in utilizing the crop which nature in 

 the virgin woods has grown without regard to man's particular needs, is that the 

 former culls the virgin woods of the valuable portion, without regard to the replace- 

 ment of the old by the young crop, while the latter's business is to perform his log- 

 ging so as to secure not only a new crop, but a better crop of the useful species, and 

 thus leave his property in better condition for the future. 



This means, financially, a handicap on the forester every time. He must either 

 leave something that he might have taken and turned into cash ; or, in order to give 

 his young crop a chance for developing, he must take out what does not pay ; at 

 any rate, he must log with care for his young crop, which means expense beyond 

 that which the ordinary logger incurs. Perhaps he must even plant his new crop 

 and that means direct expense. In other words, however you may turn it, the 

 application of forestry does not increase, but always decreases present possible 

 profits. The logger unquestionably, if properly equipped and conducting his busi- 

 ness intelligently, always makes more present profit than the forester, intent on 

 replacing a crop, can possibly expect to secure. 



It is, then, not for the present, but for the future, that the forester's business is 

 concerned. He must forego present profits or must even spend additional invest- 

 ment for the sake of a future revenue, possibly, to be sure, superior to the one he 

 might have drawn by mere logging at present. 



