A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 1167 



Following the establishment of a national-forest purchase unit, 

 ownership of the lands embraced therein are determined and recorded. 

 The willingness of the United States to receive and pass upon offers 

 of sale is publicly announced, and persons desiring to offer their lands 

 are furnished with printed forms upon which their proposals can be 

 presented in detail. As they are received the proposals are carefully 

 reviewed and if the proposed conditions of sale, including the price 

 asked for the property, are deemed reasonable, a careful examination, 

 cruise, and appraisal of the property is then made by a trained and 

 experienced examiner. Values for soils and young growth are based 

 upon values prevailing in local commercial practice as checked by 

 comparisons with values established by earlier purchases in other older 

 units. Stumpage values are worked out by determinations of utiliza- 

 tion or conversion costs as against average sales prices of lumber or 

 other products in the appropriate markets; and are checked against 

 stumpage values established by earlier purchases in other comparable 

 units. Standards or bases of valuation are checked periodically and 

 revised as necessary. All details related to a given tract of land are 

 combined in a single report, which is then reviewed and checked in 

 turn by the forest supervisor, the regional forester or his immediate 

 assistants, and the Forester or his immediate assistants. The 

 acceptance of an option on an offered tract is not authorized until the 

 reviewing officers are completely satisfied that the price demanded is 

 conservative and equitable and the conditions of sale are wholly 

 acceptable. 



Upon receipt of an acceptable option the case is then ready for 

 presentation to the Commission, each member thereof being furnished 

 with a detailed digest of all facts as to the character of the offered 

 land, timber volume, value, etc. All conditions of purchase, even 

 minor reservations of negligible importance are brought to the 

 attention of the Commission. If later title investigations disclose 

 new conditions not previously approved by the Commission the case 

 must be resubmitted and again approved before payment for the land 

 can be made. All titles must be approved by the Attorney General 

 prior to their acceptance. A member of the office of the Solicitor of 

 the Department of Agriculture, and corps of title attorneys and 

 abstractors working under his supervision, has charge of and full 

 control over all features of the title work, independently of the Forest 

 Service. The funds appropriated for the purchase of lands are 

 disbursed under the supervision of the chief disbursing officer of the 

 Department of Agriculture and, of course, the Comptroller General. 



DONATIONS OF LANDS SUITABLE FOR NATIONAL FOREST 



PURPOSES 



There are certain owners of forested or forest-productive lands who 

 for sentimental reasons desire that such lands shall be fully conserved 

 and safeguarded but who are unprepared to permanently bear the 

 costs of properly protecting and managing such lands. There are 

 others who are sincerely interested in promoting forest conservation 

 and, as a step in that direction, are disposed to dedicate to public 

 forest purposes lands from which they otherwise could derive some 

 financial returns. There is another and rapidly growing class 

 possessed of large areas of forest land, generally cut-over, but 



