TIMBER GROWING IN" THE LODGEPOLE PINE REGION 23 
If it be argued that returns from the forest lands in this region are 
at present so meager as to make, it impossible for private owners to 
undertake any but the simplest protective measures for their timber- 
lands, the answer must be that the measures suggested in the follow- 
ing pages have been worked out mainly with the idea of present ap- 
plication only where conditions are especially favorable, but at the 
same time with the idea in mind that their usefulness will increase 
and widen constantly as economic causes increase the demand and 
improve the market for local timber. The measures recommended 
are by no means fanciful or purely theoretical. They agree closely 
with the practice now followed on the national forests, a practice 
based on a long period of observation and research. For any timber- 
land owner who, like the United States Government, can afford to 
invest liberally in the production of stands of high quality destined 
eventually to bring a full return, the measures proposed here are 
essentially practical, as has even at this time been thoroughly dem- 
onstrated. 
METHODS OF CUTTING 
PRESENT CUTTING PRACTICE ON STATE AND PRIVATE LANDS 
In Colorado, contracts for the sale of State timber provide for cut- 
ting no trees under 10 inches at breast height, but the State has lacked 
an organization by which a close check might be kept on actual cut- 
ting operations to see that smaller trees are not taken. In view of the 
land exchange with the Federal Government which this State has 
planned, cutting on State lands has been rather limited for the past- 
several years. If the exchange becomes a reality, arrangements will 
undoubtedly be made for an effective administration of the new for- 
est and for better sales practice. 
The accessible private lands in Colorado have been, or are being, 
heavily cut over and, as in private-land enterprises in all of these 
States, all marketable material is removed in the initial operations, 
which are generally followed by further cuttings whenever markets 
warrant. This means that as a general practice recuts are made on 
most of the more accessible areas whenever any material is of mine- 
prop size. A ranch firm in eastern Colorado, for example, recently 
sold every stick of timber on its lands for a flat sum ; this resulted in 
the operator cutting thrifty young trees containing only one railroad 
tie to a tree and leaving half or more of the volume as waste. 
Outside of Colorado comparatively little timber is cut on State 
lands. In Wyoming the only recent cutting on State lands has been 
within the Medicine Bow National Forest, where the Forest Service 
has cooperated in administering the operations. Within the region 
covered by this bulletin, practically no timber is being cut on State 
lands in Idaho, Utah, and Nevada, and only a very small quantity in 
Montana. 
On private lands in Idaho, Nevada, Utah, and Wyoming the con- 
dition is much the same. In Montana many of the more accessible 
private lands were heavily cut in the early nineties, and comparatively 
little cutting is now taking place on the more inaccessible areas. 
In the lodgepole type the characteristic small size and the crowded 
habit of growth restrict the commercial use of the species mainly to 
