416 ANNUAL REPORTS OF DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



procldinations puttinf]j tlio changes into efTect will bo issued in the 

 course of the next few months. 



The study of the business side of National Forest management will 

 be continued on certain typical Forests to increase the effectiveness 

 of the held force by cutting out lost motion and misdirected effort. 

 It is true that the organization can not be operated precisely along 

 tlie lines of a private enterprise having a strictly commercial purpose, 

 but the proper output or tne desired results in National Forest man- 

 iigement are not wholly intangible. They include i)rotection of the 

 Forests, increase in their productiveness, and proper use of their 

 resources. It can at least be determined on each Forest what is the 

 cost of the work done and what results are produced, whether that 

 cost is excessive, and whether the output in work or results can not 

 be increased. 



The better preparation of the rangers for their work will continue 

 to be encouraged, both by regular courses of winter study and by 

 the continuance of rangers' and supervisors' meetings. As the 

 results of the work are shown by the increased effectiveness of the 

 men, it is believed that a stimulus will be applied in the form of a 

 steadily rising standard of qualifications necessary for forest officers. 

 In this connection mention may be made of tlie very valuable work 

 which is being done by several universities and agricultural colleges 

 in the West, wliich give short ranger courses each winter. A con- 

 siderable number of National Forest rangers go on furlough in order 

 to attend these courses each year, and the Forest Service finds it well 

 worth while to permit them to do this and to cooperate with the 

 institutions offering the courses by sending lecturers who deal with 

 questions of tecluiical administration. One beneficial effect of these 

 schools is to provide the means, which nowhere existed previously, 

 for the training of prospective rangers. 



The principal effort in connection with sales of National Forest 

 timber will be to secure the disposal of as large a quantity as possible 

 of the fire-killed timber still unsold. This effort will be combined 

 with the encouragement of large sales under long-term contracts in 

 localities where inaccessible bodies of mature timber exist for which 

 there is no local demand and whose removal will be beneficial to the 

 Forests. The specific objects of this policy will be to improve the 

 Forests by the removal of deteriorating material, putting them in 

 better condition for future production, and to increase receipts to a 

 point which will place the Forests upon a self-supporting basis. 



The systematization of the management of the respective Forests 

 based upon working plans in which all of the data secured by the 

 Ser^^ce is assembled in ready form for administrative use will be 

 particularl}^ emphasized. Another important feature will be the 

 standardization of methods of cutting in similar forest types through- 

 out various portions of the West, in the light of careful study of the 

 results obtained in all of the sales made up to the present time. 



In continuing reforestation work an effort will be made to cover 

 approximately 30,000 acres annually, but by periods of years rather 

 than in individual years, the work in any one year being concentrated 

 upon the various processes of seed collection, seeding, and the like, 

 in accordance with the most economical and effective organization. 

 Intensive experiments will be continued in direct seeding, nursery 

 practice, and field planting, and with valuable exotics Lq restricted 



