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Preface 
12 1928 Congress passed the McSweeney-McNary Forest Research Act 
authorizing a comprehensive survey of the timber supplies in the 
United States. Responsibility for this survey was assigned to the 
Forest Service of the Department of Agriculture. The work in Montana 
has been under the direction of the Northern Rocky Mountain Forest 
and Range Experiment Station. ‘This is a report on the findings of the 
Montana survey. 
The job of inventorying the extensive forest of Montana and col- 
lecting growth and drain information was begun in 1934. Before its 
interruption by World War II the survey was completed for that part 
of the State west of the Continental Divide and in four counties east of 
the Divide. Field work was resumed in 1947 and completed in the 
fall of 1949. 
The inventory, growth, and drain figures presented are the first 
based upon a complete systematic survey of the timber resource in 
Montana. It is hoped that these data and the analysis in this report will 
help increase the contribution of this timber resource to the economy 
of Montana and the United States. 
