Comment. 457 



The national forests as administered pay 6 per cent, on a valuation of 

 17^ cents per acre. 



Sixty-five million dollars wortJi of timber in the national forest reserves 

 is annually kept off of the market and rots in the forest. 



At the present rate it would take more than 25,000 years to cut over 

 once the land in the national forests. 



The national reserves that contain some of the most valuable forests 

 on the globe have furnished the people, for the last eight years, timber 

 of the value of i cent per annum from each acre, and no more. 



By the national forest system the State of Washington receives $14,400 

 annually, and has taken from it more than $7,500,000 each year. 



There would be room, no doubt, for improvement of the Ser- 

 vice, as there is of any human institution, but it should not be 

 allowed to be made by its enemies or grafters ! 



In this connection, Mr. Graves has issued an enlightening bul- 

 letin explaining the manner, amount and method of timber sales, 

 and showing the absurdity of the fear of overcutting, since the 

 sales in comparison with the estimated stand of timber are still 

 small, and he expresses a hope that the annual business of the 

 Forest Service would soon reach the amount of three billion feet, 

 "which is about half of the estimated annual growth on the For- 

 ests." 



We do not know how this estimate of growth has been or, in- 

 deed, can be made, for, in a general way, we may lay it down as 

 an axiom that in the uncut virgin forest, there is practically no 

 growth, and although not all the National Forests are made up 

 by such virgin forest, the bulk probably is, and here increment 

 depends on the rate of cutting- Be this as it may, in our opinion 

 a much stronger argument for an increased cut may be made 

 by pointing out that the timber now standing ready for the axe 

 does not grow in volume (although it does in value), that it is 

 a dead capital which can be made to actually produce only by 

 the use of the axe and silviculture. There are supposed to be 

 only 75 million acres of real timber in existence in the National 

 Forests with a stand of less than 400 billion feet. If the gov- 

 ernment is to attempt, as we believe it should, a sustained yield 

 management, we might assume an average rotation of 100 years, 

 when the annual cut would be four billion feet of stock and 

 whatever increment occurs (increasingly) on the cut acres, which 

 if silviculture is practised, would, we believe, increase the cut 

 beyond the 6 billion annually for the first rotation at least. But 

 for the present, probably all that is to be done is to increase the 



