CHAPTER VI 
MAKING MONEY OUT OF FORESTRY 
Most owners of forest land demand that their prop- 
erty shall yield a high revenue and consequently 
they desire their trees to grow as fast as possible. 
This recalls the story of a hustling Yankee who was 
traveling in the piney woods of the South. One 
day he came across his first razor-back hog and was 
astonished at its thinness and the speed with which it 
could run. On asking a local resident why he didn't 
pen his hogs up and shorten the fattening time, the 
native replied, “Whut’s time to a hawg?” It makes 
no difference to a tree how long it takes to grow to saw 
log size, but it makes a great deal of difference to the 
owner. 
The timber put on our markets today for the most 
part took Mother Nature from two hundred and fifty 
to three hundred years to produce, and it is extremely 
unlikely that future generations will ever see trees of 
that size outside of occasional parks. The forester aims 
to produce trees in as short time as possible and by 
thinning the forest in youth and thus diminishing com- 
petition for light, food and moisture he forces the growth 
into selected trees. Naturally, this provides better tim- 
ber in far shorter time, to the increased profits of the 
owner. , 
Increasing the Growth.By making thinnings at 
the proper time sprout chestnut will yield railroad 
ties in thirty-five years, whereas if left untouched 
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