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In many cases, the original aim in establishing forests has been to protect 

 the watershed and assure the city, or town or other community organization, a 

 pure water supply. 



However, as the movement continues, more and more cities Mr, Randall 

 says, are seeing the possibilities of making the forest pay through the sale 

 of timber grown under forest management. 



Back in 1763, the little town of Danville, New Hampshire, set aside 

 75 acres of tin^berland, the proceeds of which were to be applied on the pay- 

 ment of a minister's salary. That has been done for 168 years and the fund 

 has a bank balance of more than $10,000. All during that time, the ministers 

 have received their salary from the sale of wood from that tract, and it prom- 

 ises to give an annual return for another hundred years, or ma^'be a thousand, 



Yes, a thousand years or more, Mr. Randall tells me that one of the 



communal forests belonging to Zurich, Switzerland, has actually been traced 

 back to the year 851 « That forest has 2,560 acres of timberland, and it 

 yielded an average net income of $20 ,000 or about $8 an acre a year for the 

 one ten year period for which there are figures. Instead of selling the tim- 

 ber as it stands, the city, cuts it and so gives work to about 100 men the 

 year around. 



At least two thirds of all the forests in Switzerland are owned by 

 local communities. In Germany, about 20 per cent are owned that way. In 

 France the communities own about twenty-two per cent of the forests. In 

 Czecho-Slovakia they own nearer fifty per cent, 



Germany has at least 1,500 town-O'wned forests. Five hiindred of those 

 not only pay all the local expenses, but return the surplus as a bonus to the 

 citizens. At the same time, they have high recreational value, and serve as 

 game refuges and bird sanct^oaries. 



In France, towns or communities own woodlands to the total amount of 

 5,000,000 acres. Most of the European countries have many more forests in 

 town ownership than in this country. 



As a rule, the town forest of Europe is iinder some State supervision, 

 with the forester being paid by the town. Where the towns don't own mills, 

 the trees are mcorked by the forester and sold to the highest bidder. 



The policy is to cut no more in one year than the annual growth of the 

 whole forest. In that way, cutting can be done every year until the end of 

 time. It is estimated that the average net profit from the European town 

 forests is $5,00 an acre a year. 



Those European community forests, Kir. Randall says, are usually man- 

 aged by highl/ trained foresters, who see to it that the land is devoted to 

 the best paying kinds of trees. They select timber for cutting only when 

 it has passed its most profitable period of growth. And after cutting, it is 

 immediately follov/ed by natural or artificial regeneration of young trees of 

 valuable species. 



The idea is to keep timber growing all the time and to so balance the 



