FUTURE OF FORESTRY 171 
money compel the owner to pay about ten per cent of 
his selling price. This method permits the owner to 
pay when he is best able to do so. With just tax laws 
and increased fire protection the raising of timber will 
be both safe and profitable. 
Forestry Today.—During the early years the practice 
of forestry was confused by many with the park and 
playground idea. Many hardheaded business men 
thought ‘forestry foolish because they had been told 
that the forester’s motto was, ‘‘Woodman, spare that 
tree.’’ The last few years have cleared up the real 
meaning, and as soon as it was known that forestry 
meant using the forest in a practical way and har- 
vesting crops of timber from non-agricultural lands, 
much more interest and support was received. For- 
estry is essentially practical and while every forester 
loves the woods for their beauty and grandeur, and 
appreciates the indirect influences in harboring game 
and serving to refresh and rebuild the weary, never- 
theless he believes that these ends may be obtained 
without locking up the wood land. Such is the case 
abroad, for the Black Forest attracts thousands of 
tourists each year ; the shooting it furnishes is unexcelled 
in any part of Germany and yet profitable crops of 
timber are cut each year from the mountain slopes. 
The present situation regarding forestry in the United 
States is that out of a total of 1,900,000,000 acres within 
our boundaries, about 545,000,000 acres are covered 
with forest. This area contains approximately 2,500,- 
000,000,000 board feet of lumber of which about 40,000,- 
000,000 board feet is used as saw timber each year and 
for all purposes about 23,000,000,000 cubic feet is cut. 
In ease it might seem that the supply of timber now on 
hand is so large that we could never see the last of it, 
