918 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 



improvements required by an operating forest property and to partial 

 liquidation of the capital investment. At the end of the first 20 

 years' cutting period the liquidation phase would be practically 

 completed and the remaining stand would constitute approximately 

 the growing stock necessary for a continuously operated sustained- 

 yield property producing at an average rate of 500 board feet or 

 more per acre. Such a property will produce stumpage at a current 

 cost for taxes, administration, and protection not far from $1 per M 

 board feet. 



The cost of production per 1,000 board feet in Douglas fir proper- 

 ties is, therefore, less than the accumulated investment per 1,000 

 board feet in many tracts of virgin stumpage, even exclusive of the 

 values written into such stumpage. The cost differential against 

 virgin stumpage as compared with currently produced stumpage will 

 increase. The possibility of earnings on the investment depends, as 

 in any other business, on the margin between the cost of producing 

 the stumpage and the returns that can be realized on it. 



The application of these methods presupposes organized operations 

 on tracts sufficiently large to permit annual cutting operations on an 

 efficient scale. Tracts of 20,000 to 100,000 acres present optimum 

 conditions for such enterprises, being large enough for efficient opera- 

 tion but not so large that the managers will be likely to overlook 

 details of management. In assembling such tracts it should be 

 remembered that over 4 million acres in the Douglas fir region have 

 been clear cut to date. Each operating property can carry a cut-over 

 area equal to the timbered area, especially if regeneration has already 

 taken place on the cut-over area. Even if a little planting is required 

 the cost will not be burdensome to the project as a whole. 



Frequently the growth of young stands will justify more rapid cut- 

 ting of mature stands and will thus increase the current net returns 

 from the property. A proportion of cut-over area such as that sug- 

 gested represents a very small proportion of the investment. It can 

 be relied on under good management to earn a low rate of compound 

 interest in the form of an increase in capital value throughout the 

 period of rebuilding the stands. Mixed stands of Douglas fir and 

 hemlock coming up in the open spots left by early cuttings will at 30 

 to 40 years of age be ready for the first of the thinnings that will 

 provide pulpwood, which is expected to be in permanent demand in 

 the region. These stands as they approach maturity should be man- 

 aged in a way to prolong the rotation, some of the trees being left to 

 grow to large sizes. Early cuttings in these stands will produce as large 

 quantities of poles, posts, tie timber, and similar materials as the 

 market is likely to require. Later cuttings will yield high-grade saw 

 timber. The presence of extensive young stands which even if con- 

 servatively managed will contribue a large quantity of low-grade 

 material to the market, greatly facilitates maintenance of supplies of 

 larger timber in the old stands suitable for the special market demands 

 on the Pacific coast forests. 



Although economic and other factors brought out in this discussion 

 warrant placing great stress on selective-cutting practices, it is recog- 

 nized that Douglas fir stands can be regenerated even if clear cutting 

 is practiced on larger areas than suggested above. On a few tracts the 

 timber is of such uniformly high value that selective cutting is not 

 economically feasible. Certain topographic conditions, also, neces- 



