22 
sufficient distance from standing green trees so that they may be 
burned with no damage, or with a minimum damage to the remaining 
stand as well as to reproduction. Slash disposal should be completed 
as soon as practicable after cutting takes place, and within a maxi- 
mum period of one year. (PL 7. A.) 
COST SUMMARY 
The expense in the lodgepole and fir types of lopping tops, com- 
bined with piling and burning the slash on 5 to 10 per cent of the 
total area, amounts to 30 to 40 cents a thousand board feet, or about 
$3 to $6 an acre. Piling and burning all slash costs about 80 cents 
to $1 a thousand feet, or about $6 to $14 an acre, averaging about 
$10. In the Engelmann spruce type the cost of lopping tops amounts 
to 15 to 25 cents a thousand board feet, or about $2 to $5 an acre, for 
the average stand. These estimates are based upon the expenditures 
which a large number of operators throughout the region are making 
in carrying out such measures. 
The total cost of the measures necessary to keep forest lands 
productive may be summarized as shown in Table 1. 
Table 1. — Summary of cost of measures necessary to keep forest lands productive 
Measures recommended 
Cost per Cost per 
M feet ; acre 
FIRE PROTECTION 
Lodgepole and Douglas fir types 
Engelmann spruce type 
Cents 
Cents 
1.5 
1.0 
SLASH DISPOSAL 1 
Lopping 
Lopping with piling and burning on strips making up from 5-10 per cent of area- 
Piling and burning all slash 
Dollars 
15-25 2-5 
30-40 3-6 
80-100 : * 6-14 
1 Based on $4 daily wage and an average stand of 10-15 M board feet per acre. 
2 Average about $10. 
PREFERRED PRACTICE FOR OBTAINING FULLER AND 
MORE VALUABLE TIMBER CROPS 
The effort has been made in the preceding section to outline meas- 
ures, mainly protective, that would suffice to keep the forest lands of 
the lodgepole pine region in a productive condition, supporting mar- 
ketable crops of pine, spruce, and fir timber. These measures may in 
many instances amount to forest practice as intensive as is possible 
under existing economic conditions, since natural reproduction is ob- 
tained with such readiness that no special attention need be given this 
feature, and since the slow growth of the principal species can not 
even by the most intensive practice be brought up to that obtainable 
in many other regions. Where additional measures are needed in 
order to produce fuller and more valuable timber crops, these will 
take the form of refinements in cutting practice or, better, a closer 
adaptation of the current practice to the variation in condition of 
stand and forest type that is so frequent and abrupt throughout the 
region. 
