. Cyclopedia of farm crops. Farm produce; Agriculture. 322 FORESTS FORESTS. Fig. 454. Hemlock (Tsitga Canadensis). duce under forest management of similar intensity, between 400,000 and 600,000 pounds of useful vegetable substance, or ten timesas much. These figures, of course, must not be consid- ered, even for a moment, as absolute. To begin with, the average acreage of farm land cultivated by one man, as given by the Census, is altogether too large, since not all land that has been reported as improved farm land is actually cultivated,—a great part of it remains idle. These figures are mere
. Cyclopedia of farm crops. Farm produce; Agriculture. 322 FORESTS FORESTS. Fig. 454. Hemlock (Tsitga Canadensis). duce under forest management of similar intensity, between 400,000 and 600,000 pounds of useful vegetable substance, or ten timesas much. These figures, of course, must not be consid- ered, even for a moment, as absolute. To begin with, the average acreage of farm land cultivated by one man, as given by the Census, is altogether too large, since not all land that has been reported as improved farm land is actually cultivated,—a great part of it remains idle. These figures are merely brought forward to illustrate approximately the relative role which labor pla)'s in the production of wood and of agri- cultural products. Capital. Wood-cropping, to be done continuously, needs investment of capital, and, in a certain sense, of a larger capital than is re- quired for farming. The form in which most of the capital is tied up in wood- cropping is very charac- teristic of forestry as an industry. It is not the land that claims most of the investment, since land devoted to forest growth is, as a rule, poorer and therefore has a considerably lower value than farm land. Nor do buildings, tools, machinery or labor absorb much capital, be- cause all these items are a source of considerably less expenditure in for- estry than in farming. The forest crops do not need buildings to house them ; the tools used in harvesting or caring for the harvest are very simple and inexpensive ; the application of machinery, with its concentration and division of labor, is very circumscribed because of the bulkiness of the product, and because variety in the size and shape of trees requires the constant exercise of judgment on the part of the wood-cutter; there are no seeds nor manure to buy ; very little wages need be paid. In other words, the capital needed for defraying the current expenses of growing wood-crops is small as compared to that needed for raising agricultural crops.
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1920, booksubjectagriculture, bookyear
