14 Circular 211, Dept. of Agriculture 



the forests, because it is no longer growing at a profit- 

 able rate and should give way to young trees and 

 seedlings which will insure continuous production. 

 The fewest possible restrictions are imposed upon 

 purchasers of timber, only such as will insure cut- 

 over areas being left in the best condition for fu- 

 ture growth. Experienced woodsmen estimate t]^ 

 quantity and quality of national forest timber and 

 its approximate value as a basis for the price to be 

 charged. In fixing this, all factors which affect the 

 cost of lumbering, such as accessibility, number and 

 kind of improvements necessary, etc., as well as gen- 

 eral market conditions, are taken into account. The 

 prices set allow the purchaser of national forest tim- 

 ber opportunity for a fair profit. Bids are then 

 obtained through public advertisement, unless the 

 amount is small enough to come within the limit which, 

 can be sold without advertisement. Information con- 

 cerning attractive logging chances and the conditions 

 of sale is gladly given inquirers, for the Forest Service 

 wants the ripe timber used. 



Before an extensive program of timber sales is- 

 started on any national forest, forest officers make a 

 careful survey of its timber resources and prepare a 

 plan of management prescribing the area of timber 

 land to be cut over each year and the methods and 

 order of cutting. These long-time plans are made in 

 order to insure a constant supply of timber for the 

 communities and industries dependent upon the for- 

 est for raw material. This makes possible the es- 

 tablishment of permanent wood-using plants and 

 prosperous communities of people who look to the 

 woods as a market for their labor. 



The trees to be cut on a sale area are marked in 

 advance by a forest officer, the object being to leave 

 enough of the younger trees to seed the ground ansi 

 form the basis of a second crop of timber on the same 

 land. This is merely applying the principles of prac- 

 tical forestry to make sure that there will always be 

 timber on the national forests to cut. Timber on 

 the watersheds of streams is not cut to an extent thafr 



