FOREST SERVICE. 361 



be sold in the general markets of the country. A vast proportion of 

 the National Forest timber is inaccessible to present transportation. 

 To exploit such bodies, large investments in railroads, flumes, or other 

 transportation facilities are needed. Such investments by business 

 interests are not practicable unless the amount of timber covered by 

 the contract of sale is sufficient to reduce the investment per unit of 

 manufacture to a reasonable figure. In accordance, therefore, with 

 the policy of increasing timber sales sufficiently to make the National 

 Forests self-supporting, larger sales than formerly are being made of 

 bodies of inaccessible timber not needed for local use. It may be 

 advisable to make sales under such conditions for amounts of one-half 

 or three-fourths of a billion feet, with cutting periods of 10 years or 

 perhaps more, as determined by the rate at which logging operations 

 can be practically conducted. In every sale of this character pro- 

 vision will be made for the periodic readjustment of stumpage prices 

 in conformity either with stated increases specified in the contract, 

 with prevailing prices secured for similar National Forest timber at 

 the date of readjustment, or with the market value of the manufactured 

 product at the date of readjustment. Because of the physical condi- 

 tions which control the exploitation of the great bulk of National 

 Forest timber, it is from sales of this character that the Service is 

 likely to secure in the immediate future substantial increase in the 

 total volume of its business. The fact that the construction of rail- 

 roads or other transportation facilities, an essential feature of such 

 contracts, enhances the value of other bodies of timber and develops 

 the entire country to a marked degree is a further reason for the adof>- 

 tion of this policy 



Sales op the Year. 



The undeveloped condition of most of the National Forests and the 

 lack of information concerning their timber resources and the oppor- 

 tunities for purchases of stumpage in man}'' of the principal lumbering 

 centers of the country have made it advisable for the Service to take 

 more definite and aggressive steps to bring desii'able sales to the atten- 

 tion of possible purchasers. This is being done through the publica- 

 tion of descriptive material in lumber and trade journals and through 

 the personal efforts of members of the Service. The latter method 

 has been taken up primarily to assist in the disposal of bodies of fire- 

 killed timber, which is in danger of becoming a total loss through 

 rapid deterioration. It is probable that these methods will assist 

 materially in the sale of bodies of National Forest timber whose 

 removal is most urgent. 



The more important factors influencing the sale of timber are: (1) 

 The distance of the larger bodies of National Forest timber from 

 markets and from existing transportation facilities, and the cost of 

 constructing necessary improvements to exploit such bodies, usually 

 under rugged, mountainous conditions; (2) difficulties in logging, 

 particularly the rough surface usually encountered and the short 

 seasons of practicable logging due to the elevation at which most of 

 the National Forest timber occurs; (3) the condition of the lumber 

 markets, which are usually very sensitive to general business condi- 

 tions, and which in many portions of the West are in danger of 

 constant overproduction through the manufacture of bodies of 

 timber, developed by large investments, in excess of the current 



