162 AlsTNUAL EEPOETS OF DEPARTMENT OF AGEICTJLTURE. 



demand for stumpage, in regions where the public timber is cut 

 chiefly for local use purchases from the National Forests were normal 

 in volume and in some instances increased. The total number of sales, 

 over 95 per cent of which are in small quantities for local needs, 

 registered a marked advance over any former year. The sales to 

 settlers and farmers at cost rates nearly doubled in number and 

 quantity of material as compared with 1914, the transactions of this 

 character increasing from 2,341 to 4,562. There was also an increase 

 of 549 in the permits issued for free use of timber, bringing the 

 total above 40,000; and an increase of 439 in the number of small 

 sales at commercial rates. All told, 50,811 separate lots of timber 

 were disposed of during the year in free use or small sales for local 

 purposes, aside from a number of large operations whose cut is 

 utilized wholly by local industries or in local development. 



This is the use of the timber in the public Forests which con- 

 tributes directly to community upbuilding and the prosperity and 

 expansion of local industries. Under this use timber is obtained for 

 many western mines, from the small prospect which requires perhaps 

 a single wagonload to the largest copper mines in Montana which 

 consume 400,000 pieces annually; for the railroads traversing 

 National Forest States; for irrigation enterprises; for salmon pack- 

 ing cases at the Alaskan canneries and boxes and trays in many 

 western fruit districts; and for farm and town uses in hundreds of 

 communities in or near the National Forests. The steady increase 

 in this use, notwithstanding a diminished cut of timber in the coun- 

 try as a whole, indicates the importance of the National Forests to 

 the communities in which they are located and the stability of the 

 demand for their products. 



On the other hand, the depressed lumber market, mentioned in 

 last 3^ear's report, and accentuated by the outbreak of the European 

 war, was reflected in a decreasing volume of business for the general 

 trade. There was a decrease of 33 per cent in the number of sales 

 for quantities of timber exceeding $1,000 in value. Since the greater 

 part of the timber cut enters the general market, this decrease is re- 

 flected in the total volume of sales and cut for the year. The former 

 dropped 30 per cent below that of 1914 and the latter 11 per cent. 

 The drop of 30 per cent in the demand for National Forest stumpage, 

 as indicated by the falling off in new sales, is a significant index of 

 the unstable market for lumber and the serious conditions now obtain- 

 ing in the forest-using industries. 



These conditions are the subject of a special study conducted by the 

 Department of Agriculture, in cooperation with the Federal Trade 

 Commission and the Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce, 

 the conclusions of which will be presented in due time. It is clear, 

 however, that they are related primarily to the carrying of enormous 

 quantities of raw material, exploitable only during a long period of 

 time, in private ownership. This load of uncut timber, with its 

 far-reaching financial burdens, hampers or prevents the private 

 operator from adapting his business to the changed conditions of 

 his market and to the competitive factors of more or less recent 

 development. Hence a tendency toward a lumber output governed 

 not by the requirements of the country, but by the financial necessi- 

 ties of the owners of stumpage, with its resultant market demoraliza- 

 tion and wasteful use of timber resources. Had the National Forests 



