FOREST SERVICE. 



359 



The application of this pohcy will not prevent sales of National 

 Forest timber to an amount sufficient to make the Forests self- 

 supporting. If only one-half of the total annual cut of 3,273,690,000 

 feet, which it is estimated could be removed without reducing the 

 permanent stock on the Forests, were sold each year at the average 

 price obtained in the sales of the past fiscal year, leaving the other 

 half to accumulate as a reserve supply, the income from this source 

 would exceed S4, 000, 000 annually. The timber cut during the 

 year under both timber sales and free-use permits, aggregating 

 498,166,000 board feet, was but a little over 15 per cent of the total 

 annual cut established as representing the actual yield of the Forests, 



The specific policy adopted, therefore, has been to increase the 

 volume of timber sales, as business conditions permit without an 

 undue sacrifice of stumpage value, up to an amount which will, in 

 connection with receipts from other sources, put the National Forests 

 upon a self-supporting basis. To go beyond this at the present time 

 does not appear advisable in view of the need of accumulating reserve 

 supplies of timber to draw upon when the supplies in private hands 

 shall be largely exhausted. 



That it will be practicable in pursuance of this policy to place the 

 National Forests on a self-supporting basis is indicated by the results 

 obtained on a number of Forests where, because of the presence of 

 local industries wliich consume large amounts of timber annually or 

 of transportation facilities which make possible the logging and 

 manufacture of Government timber for the general market on a large 

 scale, the sales have been much larger than on the great majority of 

 Forests, which are still undeveloped in these respects. The following 

 table shows the receipts and disbursements and the proportionate 

 amount of receipts from timber sales on four such Forests where local 

 conditions not only have made self-support possible but have resulted 

 in a substantial net revenue after meetmg the cost of administration. 



Receipts and disbursements on certain Forests. 



' Exclusive of permanent improvements. 



Another fundamental feature of the sale policy of the Service, 

 which directly affects the amount of timber sold and the receipts from 

 this source, is the maintenance of stumpage prices at figures repre- 

 senting the actual value of the standing timber under normal market 

 conditions as closely as it is practicable to determine it. This value 

 is based upon market prices of the products manufactured from the 

 timber during normal conditions, stumpage rates being determined 

 by deducting the cost of logging and manufacture and a reasonable 

 percentage of profit from the sale value of the product in the form 

 prepared for final consumption. The Service has consistently refused 

 to make sales at a sacrifice in what is believed to be the value of its 



