FOREST ser\t:ce. 365 



Total Cut of the Year. 



The total cut of National Forest timber last vear, under both sales 

 and free use, was 498,166,000 board feet, with a value of Sl,039,923.13, 

 as against 484,412,000 board feet, with a value of $1,072,475.25, in 

 1910. The falling off in value at the same time that the total quan- 

 tity cut increased is due partly to the somewhat lower stumpage pri( e 

 obtained for the timber cut under sales, already pointed out on page 

 20, but more largely to the increased ratio of the cut under free use. 

 Both because most of the free-use timber is dead and because the live 

 free-use timber is often low-grade material desired for fuel, fencing, 

 and similar purposes, its average stumpage value is much lower than 

 that of the tunber cut under sales. In 1911 this stumpage value was 

 $1.60 for the equivalent of 1,000 feet board measure, as against the 

 $2.25 obtained for timber cut under sale. 



Losses by Forest Fires. 



THE FIRES of 1910. 



Since the fiscal year closes in the midst of what is, taking the 

 National Forests as a whole, the fire season, the statistics of fire losses 

 are compiled by calendar years. Seasonal variations in weather con- 

 ditions produce wide differences in the risk for different years. The 

 calendar year 1910 was exceptionally unfavorable. Throughout the 

 West the winter snowfall and spring rains were unusually light, so that 

 with the oncoming of summer the supply of surface moisture rapidly 

 dried away, and an abnormal and steadily increasing number of fires 

 followed. Through the summer the conditions of drought grew worse 

 and worse, until in parts of the Northwest they became the most 

 severe within the period of Weather Bureau records. Steady high 

 winds were combined with almost complete failure of the light summer 

 precipitation, which usually mitigates the severity of summer drought 

 m the mountains. By the middle of August the Forest Service was 

 straining every resource to hold in check, with a force entirely inade- 

 quate to the work, the multiplying fires. 



Out of this situation there developed a national disaster. From 

 the Pacific coast region eastward to central Montana the forests of the 

 Northwest seemed suddenly to burst into flames. Fierce wdnds 

 attained, in northern Idaho and western ^^lontana, hurricane propor- 

 tions. The scattered fires were driven together and lashed into fury, 

 until they forced to shelter (where shelter could be found) the scat- 

 tered bands of fire fighters. Within a few days' time the National 

 Forests suffered losses which surpassed the total inflicted by all the 

 fires of former years since Government protection of the Forests began. 



The total area burned over withm the National Forests was 

 4,134,253 acres, of which 3,078,109 acres were classified as timbered 

 and 1,056,144 acres as open. These figures are in striking contrast 

 with those for the calendar year 1909, in which 362,014 acres were 

 burned over, of which 209,671 acres were timbered. The loss in 1910 

 in timber destroyed or damaged was 6,508,369,000 board feet, with 

 an estimated value of $14,889,724, as against 169,410,000 board feet, 

 with an estimated value of $297,275 in 1909. There was also a loss 

 of reproduction valued at $9,180,989 and of forage valued at $114,382. 



