THE THEORY AND PRACTICE OF WORKING PLANS 235 



are desirable, areas for free use of inhabitants only, and areas 

 reserved as protection forest. 



This rough division of area, indicated on forest and district 

 maps, was further supplemented by general notes on areas 

 requiring cutting because of overmaturity, insect damage, dis- 

 ease, fire, and the like. 



Minimum stumpage rates for each species and class of 

 material were also fixed for each national forest so as to prevent 

 the wide variation in prices obtained. 



It had been the custom to draw up special marking rules 

 for each timber sale of larger size. To avoid constant repeti- 

 tion these began to be combined into a set of marking rules for 

 all the various forest types contained within a certain national 

 forest and these rules made standard for all sales within that 

 forest. 



The rules by forests were then combined into general mark- 

 ing rules for the various silvical regions of the West. This 

 work was completed in November, 1908, and the mimeographed 

 marking rules as sent out to all forest officers represented the 

 best information then available on the very important question 

 of marking trees for cutting in timber sales. They have been 

 revised from time to time and have been aptly supplemented 

 by actual examples of properly marked areas as an ocular dem- 

 onstration of how to do it. 



Although the section of reconnaissance had brought to- 

 gether all the data stored in the files of the service and built 

 thereon the first crude beginnings of a systematic forest organ- 

 ization, further progress would have been impossible except for 

 the active cooperation of the men in th^ field. Realizing the 

 inadequacy of the existing estimates and tlie time which must 

 elapse before each forest could be covered by detailed recon- 

 naissance, a circular letter was sent to all the supervisors in 

 the spring of 190S requesting them to make every effort to 

 correct and amend existing estimates during the approaching 

 field season and to segregate the estimates by blocks (i.e., by 

 watersheds), by species, and by classes of material. 



