

in the clarifying of our stumpage price policy, in the In- 

 crease in efficiency of our fire protection and in the wider 

 application of the principles of "business economy to the use 

 of our funds. 



When we met last v7inter the fog which had sur- 

 rounded the mysterious processes of stumpage appraisals was 

 rapidly disappearing. Principles were "being substituted 

 for hunches. But it was not until February that Assistant 

 Forester Greeley, after getting all the help he oould from 

 all si:: Districts, worked out the clear cut principle of 

 the operating profit - Of course this general policy has 

 always "been supposedly in of feet , "but "before the clarifying 

 process v. r as completed there was no possible way of telling 

 whether a stumpage price was off 25$,' one way or the other. 

 Apply this small amount per thousand to the Sierra Sugar 

 Pine sale and you get the astonishing figure of $200, 000* 

 which one man's poor Judgment might lose the Government or 

 sting the operator* 



Ifow, theoretically at least, there is only one 

 factor in fixing the price on any given block of tiober 

 which is left to individual Judgment - and that is the per- 

 centage of profit. Sven here danger from an error in judg- 

 ment has been EinimizecL by the adoption of a standard profit 

 percentage for average conditions of risk. 



With the definition of the principles of fixing 

 initial prices came the working out of the principles of 



