424 REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONERS OF 



Wild woods in the Adirondacks are, as a rule, composed to a large extent of kinds 

 of trees and specimens of trees which are not the most useful ; in nature, weeds have 

 the same rights, and often better chances, than the species more valuable to man. 

 Moreover, the virgin wild wood, if old timber, is full of trees which do not grow any 

 more ; practically, production is at a stand-still, decay offsetting growth ; a dead 

 capital, not bringing interest. 



The sooner this old stock is replaced by a new, vigorously growing crop of young 

 trees, which utilizes the soil energy to the fullest, the better must become the 

 investment. Again, there are burnt areas, clearings and brush wastes, grown up with 

 weeds, which are dead, unproductive capital. The sooner they are planted with a 

 desirable crop and turned to useful production, the sooner will the investment bring 

 its returns. 



The aim and business policy, then, of the management should be within the 

 thirty years, or sooner, as quickly as possible, to have cut all the old growth, or 

 nearly so, giving chance for the young, volunteer growth, and otherwise reproducing 

 a crop of superior composition, and also to plant up all the waste places. 



lousiness Considerations. 



These conditions and propositions may be aptly compared to the condition and 

 policy of the owner of a dilapidated house, out of repair. As long as the house 

 remains in that condition it is not only costly and useless property, but prevents 

 useful occupation of the ground. You may sell stone and brick from it, deteriorat- 

 ing it further — just as the lumberman culls the useful species out of the wild woods 

 — deteriorating them only more and more. To utilize it, to secure a continuous 

 revenue, you must either repair it or tear it down and build it anew. In other 

 words, you must invest more money in order to secure ultimately the best revenue 

 from the original investment. 



It is similar with the wild woods : the owner who only culls the valuable species 

 and leaves the ground to the unsalable weeds may recover his purchase money and 

 more, but it is at the expense of the value of his investment as a constant revenue- 

 producer. He who wants to practise forestry must realize that that means, finan- 

 cially, curtailment of present revenue for the sake of continued future revenue. 



The curtailment consists not only in leaving material in the woods, which might 

 have been removed and sold ; it lies in the greater expense which comes from a more 

 carefully conducted logging operation when less material is logged from the same 

 ground; it may consist in the expense of removing unsalable material, burning of 

 brush, etc., or, finally, in the expenditure for planting up unproductive areas. A 



