VALUE OF THE DEAD WOOD INSPECTION. 33 



IN THE REMAINING PARTS OF SOUTH DAKOTA. 



The Black Hills are situated in the extreme southwest corner of 

 South Dakota, and the only railroad connection which they have with 

 the surrounding territory is southward into Nebraska. It is there- 

 fore entirely impracticable to consider a possible use of any of the 

 dead timber in parts of South Dakota outside of the Black Hills. 



It appears from the foregoing that only a very small amount of the 

 dead timber can be used in the Black Hills, and that practically none 

 can be taken to other parts of South Dakota. The only practicable 

 method of disposing of this surplus amount would be to ship it out of 

 the State, but this is not permissible under the present forest-reserve 

 law, as will be pointed out hereafter. 



VALUE OF THE DEAD WOOD. 



The dead wood which ought to be removed from the Black Hills 

 Forest Reserve is of all grades and values, and for practical purposes 

 it is impossible to draw any lines grading the same which will hold 

 good. It must be taken for granted that the only wood which can be 

 considered as worth anything at all is wood which shows no sign of 

 decay or rot. Most of the timber, in fact nearly all, will be blue. The 

 blue color, as has been previously shown, ought not to make much 

 difference as regards its strength, and if properly treated with pre- 

 servatives it is probable that the "blue" wood will be serviceable for 

 ties and lagging. 



The wood which is dead in the forest now rots rapidly, as has been 

 pointed out, and every day that it is left makes large amounts of it less 

 valuable than it was before. At best one may expect that timber which 

 is killed by the beetles one year will begin to deca}^ after two years. 



In fixing the price of this dead timber it should be remembered that 

 in order to get it out, lines of railroad would have to be constructed 

 at a very considerable cost. Even with such lines the cost of bringing 

 the dead timber from the forest to points where it could be utilized 

 would be great. The expense of bringing timber from Montana and 

 Wyoming to Nebraska (such cost including the first cost of the timber 

 plus the transportation) will about equal the cost of bringing the tim- 

 ber from the Black Hills to Nebraska. That the wood must have some 

 value to be worth going for at all is obvious, but, as has been pointed 

 out, its value will depend upon the rapidity with which it is removed. 



INSPECTION. 



One of the greatest difficulties which will be encountered in the 

 utilization of the dead timber will be in connection with the inspec- 

 tion of the material used. There will be vast quantities of the timber 



16614 No. 3603 3 



