Part I

on the property at the price he has paid for it. The buyer may also, through lack of knowledge, think a price is too high, and fail to take advantage of what, if he did but know it, would have proved a real oppor- tunity. The methods of arriving at forest values, prior to the advent of scientific methods of measuring, charting, surveying, tabulating, mapping, and figuring, were not such as to commend themselves to the good judgment of the modern business man Selling forest P ro P ei We A Southern party. cover all sections of the American continent. Guessing at values soee who knows that exactness is often the difference between failure and success. Not so very long ago, and even yet in many instances, the value of forest property was appraised by sheer guess work, -pjie cru j ser g 0es through the forest, notes a number of the trees, or sometimes even observes them from a mountain tree top, and after all his jottings and data are considered, in what must be a rather superficial manner compared with scientific methods, he judges value. In their particular locality, where they have had long continued opportunity of seeing lumber cut and what it will turn out, a surprising degree of accuracy is often shown by these cruisers. But the personal equation is always present, and while there are many instances where land has cut just about what the cruiser reckoned, there are also many instances where a great variation from the true valuation of the property has been found. Compared with the scientific methods of the forester the ordinary cruiser's work is refined guess work, sometimes accurate in its results, and sometimes wild to the point of absurdity. A better understanding of the difference between the two methods of determining values can be gained by simple com- parisons. There are men who can guess the weight of a person so closely that it tallies favorably with the scales in a majority 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 amusement 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 obtaining a knowledge of forest values, and must base all his 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 economteal 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 the", 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 oper- ators 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 The owner's problem Policies of operators Moving camp in the North. It takes practical woodsmen to meet such conditions as these. Two kinds of mills The :onsumer's \ iewpoint 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 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 con- sumer 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. 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 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. Upon the idea of getting out lumber as cheaply as possible, 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. Forest customs First steps in conservation 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