174 OUR NATIONAL FORESTS 



From Forests like this, no sales for the general 

 market can be made. 



Although the National Forests contain about six 

 hundred billions of board feet of timber, or about 

 one-fifth of the standing timber in the United 

 States, only a small fraction of the available timber 

 is actually disposed of. This is due to the com- 

 parative inaccessibility of this timber and the pres- 

 ence of large bodies of privately owned timber 

 which lie between it and the market. The result 

 of this condition is that the bulk of the salable tim- 

 ber on the Forests will be automatically saved until 

 such a time when most of the privately owned tim- 

 ber has been cut. In this way, future generations 

 will benefit and the public will receive a much better 

 price for it years hence than they could possibly 

 obtain now. 



Timber Reconnaissance. Before any timber can 

 be sold to advantage, however, it is necessary to take 

 an inventory of the timber resources. In other 

 words, it is necessary to know where the timber is, 

 how much there is, and what can be done with it. 

 This timber estimate, or timber reconnoissance, as 

 it is called, is also needed to settle questions of title 



