(From the Forest Service, U, S. Department of Agriculture,} 



BSST YH;AR FO:-~. 

 GOVERNMENT'S FOISTS 



Washington, December 10, More than 2 billion board 

 feet of timber, with a value of 4-J- million dollars an the stump, 

 was sold by the forest service last year, according to the annual 

 report of Henry S. Graves, forester, published today* This is an 

 increase of 167 p-er cent over the sales of the preceding year* 

 The timber sold was largely for future cutting under contracts 

 J that will run for a number of years. The actual cut was a little 

 less than 500 million board feet, an increase of 15 per cent over 

 1912f Still larger sales are in prospect. 



Timber sale methods and yproblems 



The timber sale policy of ihe forest service is sum- 

 marized as aiming first of all to prevent losses by fire, and 

 secondly to utilize the ripe timber which can be marketed. 

 Other aims are: to cut so as to insure restocking and forest 

 permanence; to get the full market value for the timber sold; 

 to prevent speculative acquisition and private monopoly of pub- 

 lic timber and to maintain competitive conditions in the lumber 

 industry so far as possible; to provide first for the needs ->f 

 local communities and industries; to open lands of agricultural 

 ve-lue to settlement without allowing them to be tied up by timber 



91 p 



