FOREST MANAGEMENT. 317 



(1) The great variety of conditions existing in the various sections 

 of the various states from which the financial prospects of conservative 

 forestry depend. 



(2) The fact that conservatism in the forest cannot be expected, in 

 the long run, to be as remunerative in this country as it is abroad unless 

 the forest is rendered as safe as the German forests from fire, taxes and 

 whimsical legislation. 



(3) The fact that an ideal forest represents a large investment yielding 

 a small rate of surplus revenue. 



(4) The possibility that a forest now considered " ideal " as to rotation, 

 composition, species, roads and so on, is apt to be considered deficient when 

 the lapse of years has caused a change of the economical conditions surround- 

 ing the forest. 



As long as our country develops by leaps and bounds, as long as the 

 immediate future of our forests is dark, as long as other investments seem 

 safer, simpler, better than forestal investments, the time has not arrived 

 to strive toward " ideal forests." 



The American forester can consider the forest only as " so much money 

 invested." That forest is ideal which can be expected to yield, for a long 

 time and perhaps forever, a safe, steady and high dividend on every dollar- 

 invested. In such a forest, the various items of value (as trees, soil, roads, 

 sawmills) appear as proper shares of the aggregate value. 



The following may serve as an illustration : 



Value of stumpage, per acre $7.75, or 77^ per cent. 



Value of soil, per acre 1.00, or 10 percent. 



Value of roads, per acre . 50, or 5 per cent. 



Value of sawmills, per acre .75, or 7^ per cent. 



Total investment $10.00, or 100 per cent. 



The form of the ideal revenue depends on the owner's wish. The 

 owner may or may not prefer an annual revenue of 40 cents per acre, obtained 

 without decreasing the value of the stumpage, to a revenue of $2.00, exhaust- 

 ing the forest in a dozen years. The owner alone can decide whether a 

 dividend is safe enough, steady enough and high enough; his decision is 



