128 FOREST REGULATION 



timber by cutting clear in strips and depending on natural repro- 

 duction. 



In this way the three types of woods, on three very different 

 kinds of land or sites, may be expected to differ always. Regulation 

 of the cut is made much simpler, the plan much clearer, by making 

 a separate plan of Regulation for each of these three types, and 

 treating each type as a separate Working Section, just as if it were 

 a separate property. 



In larger properties, and in properties made up of several 

 separate tracts, miles apart and especially in mountain districts 

 where different watersheds have different local or general markets, 

 this matter of distance, separation and market, alone justifies divi- 

 sion of the forest into Working Sections. A forest like the Big 

 Horn, over sixty miles long and twenty miles wide, supplies settle- 

 ments many miles apart. In this case each settlement or local market 

 requires a steady supply of timber and the forests of each of the 

 larger stream basins may well be made into an independent Work- 

 ing Section, with its own plan of Regulation and its own series of 

 Age Classes, or young and old stands and its own continuous supply 

 of timber. 



From the above it is clear that a Working Section is a part of a 

 forest property having its own Plan of Regulation of the cut, series 

 of Age Classes, and sustained yearly cut. 



Up to sixty years ago the great importance of local market as 

 compared with distant, large city markets, was so great that each 

 Working Section, and certainly each Forester's District ("Revier" 

 of the Germans) was expected to furnish strictly the same amount of 

 timber, year by year. With extension of railways, local market lost 

 in importance and large forests depend almost entirely on distant 

 markets. In such cases an equal cut each year from each forest or 

 Working Section is no longer so necessary, and there is considerable 

 agitation abroad to do away entirely with this requirement of a sus- 

 tained yearly cut even for each district or "Revier". While, perhaps, 

 permissible in the case of State or National forests and for large 

 forest properties, yet its advisability is doubtful. The State forest 

 which will be cut over regardless of future regularity of supply and 

 left for twenty-five years without any timber cut and income, will 

 not fare well in allotment of appropriations. 



