FOREST SEEVICE. 231 



board feet, or about 66 per cent. The amount cut in 1920 exceeded 

 the amount sold in 1919, when hmibermen hesitated to buy laro:e 

 amounts of timber because of the hij^h cost of buildinii; lojjo-injr rail- 

 roads or other means of transportation. At the close of the year the 

 business is still increasing and in many regions is as large as can be 

 administered efficiently by the limited force available under present 

 appropriations. 



One very gratifying extension of the timber business during the 

 year is the progress in securing the use of pulp timber in the Xational 

 Forests of Alaska. The continued shortage of paper, especially news- 

 pi'int. and the enactment of water-power legislation have greatly 

 stimulated the interest of paper manufacturers in the opportunities 

 in southeastern Alaska. One large sale was negotiated and advertised 

 during the year, and the contract has been signed since June 30. Con- 

 struction work on the power and pulp-manufacturing plants is now 

 in progress. Other bodies of timber were cruised at the request of 

 responsible applicants, and further sales for the supply of large 

 paper-making plants in southeastern Alaska appear certain. Thirty' 

 years' supply of raw material is offered under these contracts, with 

 an equitable provision for the readjustment of stumpage prices from 

 time to time. 



Sucli sales not only will tend to relieve the acute paper sliortage 

 in the country but represent a most desirable form of permanent 

 development for southeastern Alaska, where the timber is suitable 

 for pulp and paper manufacture as Avell as for the manufacture of 

 lumber. The great area of forest-bearing land, the rapid growth of 

 tindjer suitable for paper making, and its accessibility to tidewater 

 afford opportunities for at least 12 or 15 large pulp and paper mills. 

 Under careful handling of the forests these can be supplied per- 

 manently and will support an industrial population of considerable 

 size. 



The Forest Service does not propose to repeat in Alaska the pro- 

 cess of pulp wood depletion which has taken place under private 

 ownership in the old paper-manufacturing regions. This new in- 

 dustry in the Xational Forests of Alaska will be restricted in size to 

 what they can permanently support. The immediate need, how- 

 ever, is to se. ure the establishment of several plants, and toward this 

 the Service is making every eft'ort. 



The increase in the timber business of the National Forests gen- 

 erally has emphasized the need, mentioned in last year's report, of 

 determining within relatively close limits the quantities of timber 

 which may be cut from forest units on a basis of permanent produc- 

 tion. Good j)rogress is being made both in blocking out definite 

 units to be handled on a sustained-yield basis and in determining 

 what the yield of each will be. The work is being pushed first on 

 those Forests where the demand is heaviest, and where, as a con- 

 secjuonce, the need for such plans of management is most acute. 

 During the year 597,563 acres were cruised carefully and 22,372 

 roughl}', both in order to prepare for sales and to secure an in- 

 ventory on which to base plans of timber management. There is 

 urgent need for an increase in this work, particularly on some of 

 tlie Forests in the Eastern States and on the Tonga.ss Forest in 

 Alaska. 



