4. BULLETIN 1494, U. S. DEPT. OF AGRICULTURE 
is to put the main ideas into the most useful form, considering the 
special needs and problems of each region, for aiding the man to 
whom timber growing is a concrete business and logging problem. 
At the same time it is hoped that they will have a value for the 
everyday reader who is interested in forestry as an important phase 
of land use in the United States and in the public policies designed 
to bring forestry about. 
It is impossible for publications necessarily dealing in broad terms 
with the conditions existing over large regions to attempt any brass- 
tack conclusions on the cost and returns of timber growing. The 
approximate cost of the measures advocated is indicated as far as 
practicable, and the extent to which they may be of benefit in con- 
nection with logging operations, but with no attempt to segregate 
the items chargeable to harvesting one crop of timber from those 
which should be regarded as invested in a following crop. Conserv- 
ative estimates of the future yields of timber that may be expected 
under the various practices recommended are given where the facts 
available appear to warrant them; but no forecasts of the profits 
to be derived from commercial reforestation are attempted. The 
financial aspects of forestry can not be dealt with in general terms. 
Here again expert advice must deal with the situation and with the 
problems of the individual forest owner or manufacturer. 
As a broad conclusion, however, with the exception of limited 
situations which are dealt with region by region, the Forest Service 
has tremendous faith in the commercial promise of timber growing 
to American landowners. The law of supply and demand is working 
steadily to create timber values which in large portions of the United 
States will pay fair returns on forestry as a business. The economic 
history of other countries which have passed through a cycle of 
virgin-forest depletion similar to that which the United States is 
now traversing points to the same inevitable conclusion. The time is 
fast approaching when forestry, and forestry alone, will supply the 
enormous quantities of wood demanded by American markets. The 
fundamental laws of business must in the nature of things so operate 
as to enable the markets of forest products to be supplied at a profit 
to the grower of timber. The returns already being obtained from 
this form of land empleyment at many points in the eastern United 
States show plainly enough that this relationship between the value 
of timber and the cost of producing it is already coming about to a 
marked degree. 
To the men who own forest-producing land in the United States 
or who are engaged in industries which require timber as raw mate- 
rial, forestry now offers a commercial opportunity. Satisfactory 
returns from forestry can not be promised in sweeping terms any 
more than returns from the manufacture of lumber or paper. But 
the opportunity for a profitable employment of capital and business 
talent in the growing of timber merits the same consideration and the 
same expert guidance as industrial opportunities in the conversion 
of timber. This applies with special force to the commercial institu- 
tions in the United States which have made large capital investments 
in manutacturing plants and distributing organizations, dependent 
for their maintenance upon a future supply of forest-grown material. 
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