Timber Sale Contract Clauses. 155 



a sample marking how the timber will be cut, but it must be re- 

 membered that minor or major improvements in methods are 

 often made during the life of a contract. 



9. Stumps will be cut so as to cause the least possible waste, and will 

 not be cut higher than inches on the side adjacent to the high- 

 est ground — lower when possible — except in unusual cases when, in the 

 discretion of the Forest officer, this height is not considered practicable. 



Eighteen inches is the usual stump height specified. Some 

 districts find it practicable to impose a 16" height for western 

 yellow pine ; one contract examined had separate maximum 

 stump height limits for western yellow pine trees of different 

 size (2' trees=i8"; 2' — 3'rr:24" ; over 3':=3o"). Lodgepole pine, 

 Engelmann spruce and small-sized white fir stumps can be cut 

 15" very easily. The large Douglas fir and associated veterans 

 can always be felled so that the stump height will not exceed the 

 diameter outside bark where cut, but ordinarily it is preferable to 

 impose a definite maximum stump height in inches. See special 

 clauses 22 (a), (b), (c). 



It is interesting to note the low stumps in conservative white 

 pine cuttings in New England — namely 4 to 6 inches. 



10. All trees will be utilized to as low a diameter in the tops as pos- 

 sible so as to cause the least waste, and to a minimum diameter of 



inches, when merchantable in the judgment of the Forest officer; the 

 log lengths will be varied so as to make this possible. 



Most species of average size can be utilized to 8 inches D. I. B. 

 Western yellow pine in Arizona and New Mexico has been utilized 

 to 6 inches but 8" is the usual top limit. The exact limit of course, 

 depends on the local utilization and marketable product. It is 

 often true that the Forest Service gets exactly the same scale 

 whether western yellow pine is cut to 6, 8, or 10 inches, simply 

 because a 16 foot log 6" in D. I. B. has the same scale by the 

 Scribner Rule Decimal C as a log 12 feet long and 10" D. I. B. 

 If cutting to a very small diameter is a hardship on the purchaser, 

 it is certainly logical to be lenient if the scale is not seriously 

 affected. Lodgepole pine is sometimes cut to 2^" if it can be 

 utilized for converter poles; if cut for stulls the top limit may 

 have to be increased to 8" D. I. B., but ordinarily lodgepole pine, 

 Engelmann spruce, white fir and the Rocky Mt. form of Douglas 

 fir can all be cut to 6" D. I. B. Douglas fir and associated species 



10 



