REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 97 



were made for operations to cover a longer period than five years. 

 Last year, however, three sales were advertised on tenns which con- 

 templated operations extending over from 7 to 10 years. It will* be 

 my policy, as favorable opportunity offers, to sell a certain amount of 

 timber under longer-term contracts than have prevailed in the past, 

 but with provision for the readjustment of stumpage prices at regu- 

 lar intervals and with proper precautions against purchases made 

 with a view to reaping a speculative profit. Such sales will not only 

 make it possible to utilize timber now ripe for the ax and thereby to 

 increase the productivity of the Forests, but will also make it possible 

 to advance with fair rapidity toward the point at which a sufficient 

 income will be obtained to make the Forests self-supporting. The 

 marked increase in the volume of sales last year, previously noted, is 

 an indication of progress already making in this direction. On a 

 number of Forests on which demand for timber is active the receipts 

 from timber sales show even at the present time a net revenue over 

 the cost of administration. 



REFORESTATION. 



The problem of reforestation concerns both the establishment of 

 new growth after lumbering operations and the extension of the for- 

 est over denuded areas. In either case there is a choice of methods. 

 Reforestation may be accomplished, and is actually being accom- 

 plished on a very large scale, by making the forests themselves do the 

 work. It is also accomplished through artificial methods. 



The most valuable tool, under present conditions, for renewing and 

 extending forest growth is fire protection. There are about 15,000,000 

 acres of denuded lands within the National Forests, the result of old 

 fires and unregulated grazing. To a large extent these areas are now 

 practically unproductive barrens, though some of them have a certain 

 value as inferior grazing lands. In addition, some 90,000 acres are 

 cut over annually under National Forest timber sales ; and there is a 

 further area, large in the aggregate, of grass lands, much of which 

 will eventually be covered with growing timber. On all of the land 

 which is now being cut over the operations are planned with a view 

 to securing natural reforestation. It is estimated that an additional 

 150,000 acres of denuded land are being reoccupied by forest growth 

 through natural extension. In both cases the desired results depend 

 absolutely on keeping out fires, supplemented on a large part of the 

 areas involved by the control of grazing. In other words, over 

 250,000 acres are being reforested annually by creating conditions 

 favorable to natural reproduction. 



It is probable that half the denuded lands, amounting to about 

 7,500,000 acres, will eventually be reconquered by the forest with- 



23165°— AGK 1911 7 



