TIMBER SALES IN SELECTION FORESTS. 

 Professor W. J. Morrill. 



When a request has been made for a sale of timber the 

 Forest officer has some of the following matters to consider or 

 duties to perform : 



1. Is the sale advisable? 



(a) A timber sale is generally advisable when silvicul- 

 turally the stand can be made to become thriftier and more pro- 

 ductive. Virgin forests are non-productive, since growth is 

 about balanced by decay. There is usually decadent timber in 

 every stand that has not been properly cut over in the last few 

 years. Frequently it is found that the stand, although thrifty, 

 is overstocked, and that by means of fellings it can be advanced 

 toward normality not only by reducing the stock, but by correct- 

 ing in a measure the abnormality in diameter class gradations. 

 This matter has been discussed by the writer in the April, 1913, 

 number of the Forest Quarterly. 



(b) If the amount of material or its quality makes the 

 felling budget likely to prove unprofitable to the purchaser at 

 present, he should, as a matter of policy, be discouraged in his 

 proposed enterprise. A purchaser's losing money is usually 

 conducive to administrative difficulties and unpleasant business 

 relations. 



(c) A sale should not be made if the area desired, when 

 cut over, will leave isolated or more remote tracts that cannot 

 independently be logged at a profit. The whole or none should 

 be sold; later some purchaser for the whole can be found. 



(d) Rarely there are stands which serve so highly for 

 protective purposes or for recreation that even light cuttings 

 are undesirable. 



