32 



THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 





; 1 







Photo from U. S. Forest Service 



A FOREST RANGER SCALING LOGS AT THE) HEAD OF LOG CHUTE: M'ALPINE TIMBER 

 SALE, MONTEZUMA NATIONAL FOREST, COLORADO 



from the forests could very easily be 

 made not only to keep pace with the 

 expenditures, but to return to the gov- 

 ernment the entire cost of maintaining 

 the Forest Service. Private owners of 

 grazing lands in the same regions ask 

 and receive a very much higher return 

 per head of stock for the use of their 

 lands than does the Forest Service. The 

 national forests, which contain one-fifth 

 of the standing merchantable timber in 

 the country, furnished last year about 

 1.3 per cent of its lumber cut, resulting 

 in the removal from the forests of 

 about one-eighth of 1 per cent of the 

 stand. Of this comparatively insignifi- 

 cant amount cut, one-fourth was not sold, 

 but was given to home-builders and com- 

 munities ; yet the sales brought in nearly 

 $900,000. If the chief object of the 



forests were to produce immediate in- 

 come, the amount received could be 

 multiplied several times. There is actu- 

 ally going to waste in the woods each 

 year, through decay and other natural 

 causes, from five to ten times the amount 

 of timber now being cut. 



With an adequate force of forest offi- 

 cers available much of this waste might 

 be prevented. Timber sales involve, for 

 marking, scaling, and supervising the 

 work, a cost to the government of about 

 30 cents per thousand feet, and the 

 amount sold cannot be much increased 

 without an increased appropriation. 

 There is also the waste of the productive 

 power of the forest, which cannot be 

 brought into full play until the mature 

 trees have been removed to make room 

 for a growing crop. 



