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



San Francisco Office) 



175-F 

 NATIONAL FORESTS 



IdUCH USED 



Selling some billirn-and-a-half "board feet of timber 

 and supervising the cutting on several thousand different 

 areas, overseeing the grazing of more than 1,500,000 cattle 

 and 7,500,000 sheep, and building more than 600 miles of 

 road, 2000 miles of trail, 3000 miles rf telephone line and 

 700 miles of fire line are some of the things which the gcv- 

 ernment forest service did last year, as disclosed in the 

 report by the chief forester for 1914. These activities 

 were all on the national forests, which at present total 

 about 185,000,000 acres. 



There is need, says the chief forester, to increase 

 the cut of timber from the national forests wherever a fair 

 price can be obtained for the stumpage, because a great deal 

 o> it is mature and ought to be taken out to make room for 

 young growth. Unfavorable conditions in the lumber trade 

 caused new sales of national forest timber to fall off 

 somewhat during the past /ear, though the operations on out- 

 standing sales contracts brought the total cut above that of 

 the previous year by 130,000,000 board feet. There was, how- 

 ever, a big increase in small timber sales; these numbering 

 8, 98 in 1914 as against 6,182 the previous year. Desirable 

 blocks of national forest timber have been appraised and put 

 on the market and it is expected that these will find pur- 

 chasers when conditions in the lumber industry improve . A I" 1 . 

 told, the government received 01,304,053,66 from the sale of 

 tiuiber on the forests in 1914. The receipts from all sources 

 totaled $2,437,710.21. 



After eight years of experience, stockmen are well 

 satisfied, says the chief forester, with the way the grazing 

 of livestock on the forests is regulated, and have even urged 

 upon congress the application of the same method of control 

 to the unreserved public range. Almost 29,000 permittees 

 graze stock on the national forests, and these paid to the 

 government in the- fiscal year 1914 fees amounting to over a 

 million dollars. The present tendency to raise fewer sheep 

 and goats and more cattle and horses is shown in the fact 

 that the number of cattle and horse/ permittees on the western 

 forests increased last year by 1,579, while the number of 

 sheep and goat permittees fell off by a total of 268. The 

 western stock business, the forester points out, is becoming 

 attached to the soil, and the itinerant sheep grower and the 

 speculator in cattle are giving place to the permanent resi- 

 dent ana owner of improved ranch property. The latter is al- 

 ways given preference in the use of national forest range. 



