FOREST IMPROVEMENTS 175 



cl. Houses, barns, and pastures needed in the care of the forest 

 property ; look-out towers or special improvements for protection, 

 and the building of fences in grazing administration are usually 

 provided as development of the property requires. For this reason 

 the general plan can do little beyond stating the policy to be pursued. 

 Questions here to discuss and answer may be as follows : should 

 permanent headquarters be built, or should men be merely camped 

 in tents, etc. ; do the conditions of topography warrant and demand 

 permanent look-out towers with regular man and telephone or is it 

 enough to build trails to certain high points and require the local 

 patrol to visit these? Is the grazing .on this property important 

 enough to warrant any improvements and development, or is it to 

 be treated as temporary, and discouraged and discontinued as soon 

 as possible? If grazing is to be permanent and valuable, should 

 pastures, drift fences, corrals, etc., be built and should this be left to 

 stockman or owner of forest? etc. 



Most of these improvements for administration and secondary 

 utilization are not expensive, a mistake is not serious, and is readily 

 remedied. Whether a ranger station is placed at the best possible 

 place or not, is not serious, the whole affair only costs a few hun- 

 dred, and can be replaced anywhere on a month's notice. 



H. PLANS OF UTILIZATION. 



Regulation of the Cut merely states the areas to cut and the 

 amount of timber produced on the forest which may be taken from 

 this every year without danger of injury, and does not concern itself 

 with methods of logging or utilization. For this reason a separate 

 plan is necessary. 



i. Cutting Timber. In the German forest the cutting of tim- 

 ber in State forests is done by the State itself. The forester makes 

 contracts with individuals or groups, to cut, or cut and skid to the 

 nearby road timber on a given area at a price agreed upon, always 

 per cubic measure. This keeps the logging entirely in the hands of 

 the forester, and he .insists on methods which do the least injury. In 

 the United States the ordinary timber ow r ner is also lumberman and 

 logs- as well as manufactures. He also has the entire situation in his 



