326 REPORT OF THE FOREST, FISH AND GAME COMMISSIONER. 



charters to be secured from the legislature, are topics requiring attention. 

 The plan of transportation is explained by a map showing the existing and 

 the proposed lines of transportation. 



Foresfal Investments 



In the United States, no private activity having the forest for its 

 object {id est, any forestry in a broad sense) is conceivable which does not 

 mean to result in good financial returns. Forestry is business, and in busi- 

 ness there is no room for sentiment. That forestry must be considered 

 best, which pays best. 



Compared with other investments in realties (e. g., farms, mines, 

 houses), forest investments show several undesirable features. They are 

 difficult of control; they fail continuously to yield annual cash dividends; 

 they are endangered by fires and cannot be insured against destruction; 

 their products are not as absolutely indispensable to mankind as farm 

 products, mine products or the shelter of a house; subdivision, joint owner- 

 ship, sale in fee are difficult to arrange; mortgages or bonds on forests are 

 hard to secure, and theft of timber is hard to prevent. 



There are, on the other hand, many factors speaking in favor of forest 

 investments: Notably the phenomenal increase in the value of timber 

 brought about by an increase in population and continuous prosperity; 

 the certainty of wood production, year in and year out, with which fires 

 only can interfere; the strong possibility of more extended use of wood 

 products in the manufacture of paper, packages, yarns, alcohol, sugar and 

 food stuffs ; the fact that the forest stores its own products away, free of 

 charge, until it may please the owner to place them on the market; the 

 rapid advance in the value of soil, etc. 



According to the location of the forest and in a higher degree, accord- 

 ing to species of trees and age of trees, the disadvantages connected with 

 forest investments vary from case to case. They seem to weigh heavily 

 on a second growth which yields no dividend whatever, is seriously endan- 

 gered by fire, contains assets of prospective value only and offers no chance 

 at extraordinary results. There exist in the United States enormous areas 



