of cases.
But back of them are thousands of experiences for
comparison, and immediate and actual knowledge as to
how nearly correct their guesses are. It is all right for amuse-
ment to guess at weights, but no one would think of buying
meat or sugar that way. No butcher would buy his beef by
even his own guess at the weight, and yet his experience in
sizing up the weight of a piece of beef is often a matter of daily

recurrence.

The land owner must therefore deal with the question of The owner's obtaining a knowledge of forest values, and must base all his problem operations upon those determined values, in paying taxes, in buying, selling, improving, or converting the land. The degree of error in the original valuation cannot be made up by any amount of wise management, and must appear in the result. Sometimes, fortunately, the error is on the side of conservatism, and the owner profits more largely than he was led to expect. But sometimes the error is in the other direction, and what might have been a profitable move turns out an inexpedient one.

In borrowing money on Timber-Bonds accurate estimates of the value of the property, based on actual measurements by competent men, are necessary to prevent mistakes on the part of the seller, underwriter, or investor.

Whether operators are wasteful or conservative and economical depends largely on their point of view. There are some operators whose policy it is to go over the land once and clean it up thoroughly, take all the profit there is in it, rather than to cut out a few selected trees and let the rest grow for future operations.

Another class of operators, particularly those for large companies, are more inclined to look forward, and are more and more becoming saving agents for the forests. They realize that they, as a class, are perhaps in a position to do more than almost anyone else for the conservation of our woodlands. Theirs is a work that calls for a high type of administrative ability and leadership, and it is only natural that such qualities should go hand in hand with a proper consideration of the future values of the property. There are many broad-minded operators who, so far as their financial needs will allow, are carrying on a correct operation of lumbering, according to the best methods which the science of forestry can devise.

Between these two extremes in the types of operators are many whose intentions are to conserve the property and get

Policies of

operators

Two kinds of mills

The

consumer's

Moving camp in the North.

It takes practical woodsmen to meet such

conditions as these.

the maximum profits out of their operations, and yet who fall short in both instances through lack of knowledge of what truly constitutes efficiency.

Mill men are of two very distinct classes. One has a light investment of capital, and desires returns of a comparatively high profit, and is not dependent on a restricted territory for any great length of time. The other class has heavy investments of capital, and expects sure but lower profits, and is dependent on a restricted territory for a long term of years.

The portable mill, jumping from place to place, and skinning the woods clean, is the best illustration of the first mentioned. class. The enormously expensive pulp mill, with its network of water storage basins, sluices, heavy machinery, and other permanent features, is a type of the second class.

While outside connections and influences sway the individuals of these two classes, it is generally conceded that the first named class is a forest destroyer, and must tend to be so by the financial exigencies of his means and calling. The other class has often a profitable opportunity to be a forest conservator, since he must consider the forest as much a part of his plant as his machinery, and whatever prolongs the value of the forests. increases the value of his investment.

The consumer is interested in the conservation of the forests both as a citizen of the nation, with a care for the future, and

viewpoint as a user of lumber and the products of the forest, since whatever

is wasteful in lumber operations must eventually come out of him. The ideal of scientific forestry is to provide for the consumer the maximum of material for the minimum of expense, even while it provides a maximum of present and future profit for the land owner and forest operator.

customs

Lumbering is the actual instrument by which profits are derived from forest land, and it is upon the way this instrument is used, and with what foresight and economy and common sense, that the present and future value of forest lands depends. In the past lumbering has considered the forest as a single Forest crop to be harvested once for all, rather than as a continuous crop. Under the economic conditions which have prevailed that was, unquestionably, the most profitable method for the operators. Men work in the woods to make money, and so long as apparently unlimited resources are at hand few will stop to consider a remote and improbable future, when there is a keen need and opportunity for immediate profits. The working idea has been, as a rule, to get out all available timber as cheaply as possible, considering neither the larger trees carelessly left, the young growth harmed, nor the condition of the forest when the work is completed. Conditions have seemed to call for this, and in some places still do. But under many present circumstances it is both wrong and wasteful.

conservation

Upon the idea of getting out lumber as cheaply as possible, First steps in as the only prime motive, there has gradually been grafted a kindred idea of saving for a future cut. From economy in the mill has come economy in the woods. The first step has almost always been the enforcement of a specific diameter limit, below which no trees shall be taken, and that limit has saved many areas to forest land that otherwise would have been depleted. The head woodsman for a large land owning company pointed with pride to a distinctly marked line of growth which was visible from the lake. On one side of the line were the light tops of hard woods, on the other were black masses and clusters of spruce spotting the hardwood background. "That's the way with all our towns," said the woodsman. In that locality a specific diameter limit has been enforced for soft woods, with the penalty of increased stumpage price on undersized trees, and the result has been the careful sparing of young trees of the more valuable kind.

Science now entering the woods

Moving camp in the South. It requires experience to cope with the widely varied conditions we are called upon to meet.

With the diameter limit idea came also the rules for economy in cutting: low stumps, small tops, sparing of the smaller individuals of valuable species when making bridges, skidways and camps; careful scaling, clean picking up on penalty of payment for cut lumber left. Even without technical aid there has been this tendency among thoughtful owners and operators to develop and conserve the forests along lines in which scientific forestry effects its greatest results.

Until a few years ago lumbering was almost the only large semi-engineering industry into which the services of specially trained and educated men had not been called.

Now, the application of science to lumbering is being worked out, and under systematic management the forest is being cut with the idea of both continuing and improving the tree holdings operated upon. Specially trained men give exact advice on handling, and that advice is being followed with profit. The engineer is aiding the lumberman just as he aids the miner. Under his guidance an exact science of lumbering may be discerned as a future possibility. Such lumbering will get the greatest real profit from each piece of land. Land that is unfit for agriculture will be kept under timber, and the wood crops on such lands will be harvested at proper intervals and in the proper way. Land that is particularly fit for agriculture will be cleared and devoted to it, and in this way the country will approach maximum production, a condition which today is only a dream of the future.

Forestry as a science is new in America, and like all new professions has proceeded from theory to practice, and mistakes have been made in the effort to fit the theory to the practice. Men with proper technical training, but without experience, have come in contact with practical woodsmen, and have been literally laughed out of the woods for recommendations which even a little experience would have prevented them from making. One young forester strongly objected to a main hauling road following the valley of a stream where there was much softwood growth. He advised shifting it to the ridge top. His technical education told him to save the young growth of the more valuable species, but common sense and experience were wanting or he would have known that it was not profitable to yard logs up hill, and that heights of land are not good places for main roads!

men misunderstood

In the efforts of such men to get their bearings, and modify Technical their theoretical training with the wisdom of practical experience, much harm has been done by creating in the minds of practical men the idea that technical training hits wide of the mark. There has perhaps been more pleasure in circulating anecdotes to illustrate the mistakes of the newcomers than in telling how technical knowledge was able to teach old dogs new tricks. Human nature is not different in this respect than in all other departments of life where innovations of any kind are met with misunderstanding and consequent opposition. But science has triumphed too frequently over the prejudices of human nature to be retarded in its advance by a few mistakes and the misunderstanding of their import.

Although forestry is as yet but a new profession in America, and the first generation of trained foresters is still young, these men are quickly absorbing the wisdom of experience and mixing it with their technical knowledge, and are demonstrating the definite commercial value of the science of the woods.

The future of forestry as a profession is a matter of which no one can speak with assurance, and yet it is but reasonable to say that greater and greater reliance must continue to be placed on more scientific methods, and that efficient administration of forests must naturally take the place of guess work and rule of thumb methods, and that the present wasteful tendencies will eventually be turned to practical and scientific conservation.

In years

to come