347 
DAMAGE AWARDED GOVERNMENT FOR DESTRUC- 
TION OF YOUNG FOREST GROWTH. 
In an action for fire trespass on the Black Hills National 
Forest brought by the United States against the Missouri 
River and Northwestern Railroad, the jury has awarded 
damages to the Government not only for the loss of mer- 
chantable timber, but also for the destruction of unmer- 
chantable young growth. 
This is regarded by Government officials as establishing a 
very important precedent. So far as is known at the U. vS. 
Department of Agriculture, it is the first time that any court 
has recognized what foresters call the “expectation value” 
of young growth as furnishing a basis for the award of dam- 
ages. The difficulty in the way of such an award in the past 
has been that there was no way to prove to the satisfaction 
of the courts the money value of the loss suffered. 
The award in the South Dakota case followed the pre- 
sentation of evidence as to the cost of work in reforesting 
which the Government is actually doing in the Black Hills. 
The amount claimed for the young growth burned was $12 
an acre, and the claim under this item was allowed in full 
by the jury. The total amount of damages claimed was 
$3,728.85, of which $2,634.45 was for merchantable timber 
destroyed or injured by the fire. 
It is recognized by foresters that the cost of artificial re- 
forestation will not always furnish a fair basis for estimating 
the damage to forest reproduction. Where new growth can 
be expected by natural sowing from seed-trees on the ground 
within a short time, artificial planting or sowing is an unnec- 
essarily expensive method. To meet such cases what are 
known as “yield tables” are being prepared. By the use of 
these the loss can be shown in terms of the final crop and 
the time necessary to produce it. 
Thus, if it is known that ten thousand feet of timber per 
acre can be cut once in seventy years, it is easy to calculate 
the value of the crop when it is ten years old by discounting 
from -its value when mature. In European countries where 
forestry has been long practiced this method is regularly ap- 
plied in selling, condemning, or estimating damages on forest 
property. It is also used abroad in insurance, which would 
be impracticable if there were not both an accepted basis for 
determining the loss suffered and a reasonably accurate 
knowledge of the hazard involved. 
QUALIFICATIONS OF FORESTERS. 
Washington, October 24. — Examinations opened this morn- 
ing in fourteen far Western States, and in Elorida, Michigan, 
