forest cover on this area, and the trees that we are now leaving on the other or second-cut type of area will also be logged. The most important problem ahead of us at present is the produc tion of quality timber for a second cut. If our second cut is successful, (and if it is to be a success the ground must not be taken too clean at the time of the second logging), we feel that we will be over the hill and a permanent operation will be insured. This is driving home to us the importance of carrying out thinning operations along the most scientific as well as practical lines. We are not thinning any place where we cannot make a thinning pay for itself-plus a reasonable profit. A great deal of work has been done in developing a market for this small type of timber, and the progress that has been made in manufacturing it in a billet mill has been gratifying. Opportunity to dispose of it as pulp is fast looming on the horizon, and this will mean another outlet. One fundamental policy is never lost sight of, and this policy is—to have the ground produce as heavy a stand of young timber as possible. In our seed-tree areas, the stand in some instances is not coming as fast as we would like to see it. This is partially due to the fact that the stand has opened up too much, and we are therefore leaving a larger number of seed trees to the acre wherever the soil requires it. If this is not possible because of the fact that the trees are over-mature at the present time, we are scraping the ground to make a better bed for the seed. Fortunately, it has not been necessary for us to actually plant seedlings in order to get general reproduction. The beautiful part about getting as heavy a stand as possible started is that it insures not only quantity production, but also the all-important quality production. This quality production cannot be stressed too much. The Swedes pay more attention to it than any other one thing. A person can drive for days through their forests and see thinning operations along the road at every turn. Small poles for charcoal, firewood and pulpwood are being taken out. Last summer the most profitable by-product of thinning in Sweden was firewood. This is surprising. when as much timber exists as does in Sweden; nevertheless it is a fact. Our company had their first intimation of this same firewood market last fall. Due to close working, enough mill refuse was not available to supply the local demand for firewood, and the townspeople had to buy cordwood from the farmers. Looking toward the future, we are endeavoring to so shape our operation that after our second cut, and maybe before, we will have our wagon roads as well as railroads in such shape and so located that it will not be necessary for us to have all of our logging operations going on in one particular area at one time. We hope to be able to cut where a stand is ripe or needs thinning. With the coming of better roads, and the development of not only truck logging but also the use of tractors, it may be feasible to do this. This is an ideal condition, of course, as far as forestry is concerned, but it can only be carried out if it is economically possible. It is being done successfully in Sweden, however, not only in districts where streams that may be driven exist in abundance, but also in districts where the logs must be hauled to the mill. Looking further toward the future, the very closest co-operation between manufacturer, consumer, the Government and the people at large should be fostered. Conservation is just as much a part of forestry as the actual growing of trees. Proper manufacturing methods to obtain the most footage per acre should be carried out by the manufacturer, and the consumer in turn should lend his helping hand by being willing to use odd length stock. Manufacturers should not be cutting interior trim and matched lumber to even lengths of two-foot multiples. The waste in doing this is enormous, and the only reason it is being done is because of obsolete trade practices. The Government is making marked progress, through Mr. Hoover, in trying to break down these unscientific methods. The application of the above principle, as demonstrated by some of our own operations, shows an increase in footage yield per acre of from ten to thirty per cent, which is the equivalent to growing from 1000 to 1500 feet per acre. If the people of the United States understand the problem, and the Government and the Lumber Industry should see that they do, definite progress will be made each year toward its solution. So much more will be accomplished this way than if we come to a point where the country is suddenly alarmed over the shortage of timber supply and passes drastic measures that will be burdensome to all. We never want to arrive at this point. It never will be reached if all co-operate toward the common end of growing new timber as well as conserving what we now have. FORESTRY AS PRACTICED IN EASTERN R. M. EVANS, U. S. Forest Service During the calendar year 1924, the Government made more than 13,000 sales of timber from all the National Forests. Each one of these sales was a separate transaction complete in itself. In size they varied from small sales of five to ten cords of chestnut extract wood which the mountain farmer could get out in about thirty days with his ax, his rickety wagon and his old gray mule as his sole equipment, to great watersheds of 500 million to a billion feet of saw-timber, covering 25 to 50 thousand acres of land and involving several million dollars initial investment in railroads, mills and other equipment and requiring 20 to 30 years to cut. Now this is a pretty big business, but it is petty indeed compared with what will develop when the thousands of lumberjacks now engaged in felling privately owned stumpage reach our woods. We are dealing now with the vanguard only, but the main body is just a few years behind it. How does the Government sell timber anyway? Without going into great detail the answer might be about as follows: When sales business develops or bids fair to develop in some part of a National Forest-a major watershed, perhaps, or the territory tributary to a permanent transportation system—a timber management plan is prepared. This plan takes stock of the timber, determines the rate of growth, sets forth when, where and at what rate cutting shall take place, outlines the silvicultural and timber-sale policies to be followed, in short, gives the Forest Supervisor or other officer a clear-cut statement of how he is to manage the timber for which he is responsible. The Supervisor, then, upon receiving an application for the purchase of timber, knows what tracts he has for sale, and after interesting the would-be-purchaser in some one of them makes a careful estimate and an appraisal which sets a fair value for the stumpage, taking into account the costs of logging, manufacturing, etc. This fair value is the least value which the Government will accept. The timber is then advertised for thirty days or longer, in local papers if the sale is small and of local interest only, in trade journals and papers of wide circulation if the sale is large enough to be of regional interest. Every effort is made to secure competive bids and before a contract is awarded all possible opportunity is given prospective purchasers to become familiar with the logging chance in question. But the right is reserved, and on occasion exercised, to reject the highest bid if its acceptance might lead to monopolistic control of local markets, or if on other grounds the public interests might be unfavorably affected. Sealed bids to be opened at a stated time are submitted and, following the award of the sale, a contract is executed. This contract gives the amount and kinds of timber and its location, the price, the minimum and sometimes the maximum rate at which the timber shall be cut, describes how the timber shall be marked and scaled, what shall be done with the brush, enumerates the various necessary measures in the way of fire protection, and such other special features as need to be covered in the particular case. In all large sales and sometimes in small ones a bond is required. The timber is not paid for in a lump sum but in installments in advance of cutting, each installment covering not less than two month's cut. From the purchaser's standpoint such a system of payment has obvious advantages. Before any trees are cut they are marked by a Forest Officer. The usual method is to blaze the tree and stamp "U. S." on the blaze. Trees are marked for cutting with the idea of harvesting all of the mature and over-mature timber, leaving for the next crop the younger trees and sufficient seed trees of valuable species to assure reseeding of the ground left open by the logging operations. A Forest Officer scales the logs at the landing or in the woods, using the Scribner Dec. C. rule which is the standard rule of the Forest Service, except in a few instances, such as the White Mountains in New England where the custom of handling full tree lengths has made advisable the use of the solid cubic foot rule. Brush disposal has for its primary purpose assistance in fire proofing the sale area. In general, hardwood brush is lopped and scattered and softwood brush is piled and burned. There are exceptions to both rules. Special fire protection requirements depend on the kind of logging (horse, railroad, donkey, etc.), and the particular dangers to be encountered. A rather strict application of such requirements has been found advisable, since, obviously, there is no need to invest in careful marking and expensive logging methods if later the investment, consisting of reproduction, young growth and trees left, to say nothing of soil fertility, is wiped out by a fire which might have been prevented. This, in brief, is the way the Government sells its timber, whether in Virginia or in California. Throughout, three principles are constantly in mind-harvesting the mature crop, the improvement and safe-guarding of the next crop, and a profitable business for the purchaser. So much for the general sales business of the Government; what I really want to tell you a little about is the timber sale business in our own territory, and what we are trying to do with the forest properties that have come to us for in this you and I have a personal interest. Of the eight National Forest Districts, this, the seventh or Eastern District is unique in several respects. Its boundaries embrace the largest territory of all, but the area of National Forest land is the smallest. Within its boundaries and tributary to its National Forests are 80 odd million people, or about three-fourths of the population of the United States; within its boundaries also is found the center of wood consumption of the country. It stretches from the Canadian boundary to the Gulf of Mexico and from the Atlantic Ocean to Oklahoma with Porto Rico thrown in for good measure. The commercial forests in this expansive district range from the dark spruce stands of Maine through the great oak, chestnut and yellow popular forests of the Appalachians to the open yellow pine woods of Florida and Arkansas. Some territory! Nevertheless, there is a considerable volume of forest products in this District containing as it does some five billion board feet of sawtimber, half a million cords of tanbark, half a million telephone poles, four million railroad ties and an unestimated volume of fuelwood and other miscellaneous products;-a total volume in the neighborhood of ten billion board feet. There are some sixty species of commercial timber trees and perhaps a third as many more which produce wood that is fit for use. About 25 per cent of the volume is over-mature and decadent, 40 per cent is fully mature and is no longer growing at a profitable rate, the remainder, some 35 per cent, is immature and though of small volume occupies a large area and will eventually furnish the future yield. The Forests have suffered severely from the logging operations of the last half century and the forest fires of a hundred years or more. The soil on which the greater part of the timber stands is of great richness and strength for tree growth, and the climate both as to rainfall and growing seasons is almost ideal; it can be understood, therefore, why foresters estimate that the timber stands of the future, grown under the care of man and protected from fire, will be at least three times as great in volume per acre and many times more valuable. Something over two billion board feet of the sawtimber and products |