566 JOURNAL OF FORESTRY 



under which it administers the forests. But it is the condition that 

 should be squarely faced, and which the officers of the Forest Service 

 should strive to have changed if they believe it to be true. No system- 

 atic plan of forest management can be put into execution on the Na- 

 tional Forests until the Forest Service assumes complete control of the 

 timber operations, whereby it can cut when, where, and how much the 

 plan calls for and do it in the manner prescribed by the plan. No regu- 

 lar, consistent development of the Government's timber resources can be 

 made so long as the Government cannot dispose of its timber except 

 when a lumber company — to repeat MacKaye's expressive phrase — 

 "backs a sawmill up against a forest" and buys the adjacent stand of 

 fine timber. 



We admit that there are many National Forests on which it would 

 not be feasible to attempt even an approach to an intensive sustained- 

 yield management and on which it would not be good policy for the 

 Government to do its own logging. That is doubtless true of most of 

 the Forests of Districts 2 and 4; but on the National Forests of the 

 Pacific Northwest the conditions certainly appear to be favorable for 

 practicing annual sustained-yield management. The logging in that 

 region is now done very largely by companies which operate independ- 

 ently of the milling companies, and if the Government did its own 

 logging it would probably have very little difficulty in finding a market 

 for its logs. It looks as though the time has come for the Govern- 

 ment to take the lead in building up a great permanent forest industr}' 

 in that region. 



[The Editor wishes to express his entire agreement with the position 

 taken by Professor Terry, and merely to add a significant remark by 

 the manager of one of the largest paper companies in Canada regard- 

 ing the need of stable crews. This manager had followed the advice 

 of the Editor to employ a forester and take stock and map his ex- 

 tensive holdings. Having spent in the neighborhood of $50,000 on this 

 work, the question was what to do next. After careful deliberation 

 the management came to the conclusion that no substantial improve- 

 ment in the logging methods could be inaugurated until the limits were 

 colonised by a population from which a stable crew, that could be edu- 

 cated, might be drawn.] 



