PKIVATE FOEESTEY. 23 



prospective market prices for stumpage and forest products, in the 

 present state of the lumber industry, under existing laws, and with 

 the prevailing public sentiment toward the forest, can, under more 

 conservative management, be made to yield an interest rate satis- 

 factory to investors as compared with the profits of forest devas- 

 tation. The lumberman and the forest owner are facing a real 

 situation of concrete facts, and the forester's answer to their question 

 must be no less concrete. 



OBSTACLES TO PEIVATE FOEESTEY. 



Getting right down to the situation as it comes home to the forest 

 owner and the lumberman, it is easy to see that there are certain 

 obstacles in the way which must be overcome before it is reasonable 

 to expect that private forestry will be widely practiced. The chief of 

 these are the following: 



THE GREAT FIRE RISK. 



T\Tiile the private owner should unquestionably be required to con- 

 tribute toward the protection of his own holdings from fire, he can 

 hardly be expected to assume the whole expense in a country where 

 the general sentiment toward fires is indifferent. The most effective 

 fire protection anywhere outside of the State and National forests is 

 secured now in the States of Oregon, Washington, and Idaho by 

 cooperative fire associations which assess their members on an acreage 

 basis and maintain a patrol. During the past year such associations 

 cooperated successfully with the protective force maintained by the 

 National Government and the States. Investigations show that 

 patrol can accomplish full protection to forest land at an annual cost 

 of from 2 to 4 cents per acre throughout the United States, according 

 to the regional fire risk. The total annual cost of protecting all 

 private forests is estimated at $10,000,000. The annual fire losses in 

 standing timber alone are placed at $50,000,000. 



ILL-DEVISED TAXATION. 



In a real sense, forests are in many cases simply taxed out of exist- 

 ence. As long as forests continue to be taxed on the basis of an 

 annual crop, holding young forests until they reach maturity, and, 

 still more, the establishment of new forests, means financial loss to 

 anyone who attempts it. Such methods of taxation are in the end 

 ruinous to the community also, for they encourage devastation and 

 the abandonment to the State of lands which thereafter yield no reve- 

 nue in the form either of products or of taxes. (See State For- 

 estry, p. 18.) 



By suitable legislation the State can remove both of these obsta- 

 cles now in the way of private forestry. They are artificial obstacles. 



[Cir. 167] 



