RESULTS OF CUTTING IN THE SIERRA FORESTS. 17 
• 
Cost of brush-disposal at 30 cents per thousand for 28,500 board feet per acre 
removed, or $8.57 at 3 per cent compounded for 30 years, $20.80 per acre. 
Fire pervention and suppression, 30 years at 1| cents per acre annually, 
with compound interest at 3 per cent, 71 cents. 
Total investment in timber at the end of 30 years, omitting taxes and admin- 
istrative charges, $131.22. 
Since most losses on sale areas occur during the first five years 
after cutting, we may expect a higher net annual growth rate for 
the longer period of 30 years than the 0.93 per cent given above, so 
it seems conservative to use a rate of 1 per cent annually. At this 
rate the stand per acre at the end of 30 years would be 32,482 board 
feet. With an investment of $131. '2:2. as determined above, the stand 
would have to bring an average stumpage price of $4.04 per thousand 
to earn 3 per cent on the investment. 
As present (1922) stumpage rates for similar timber are $5 for 
sugar pine, $4.50 for yellow pine, and $1.50 for white fir and incense 
cedar, more than twice what they were at the time of the above sale 
10 years ago, it is readily seen that the Government may reasonably 
expect a profit of over 3 per cent on the 30-year investment from such 
high quality stands. 
REPRODUCTION. 
In the forests of California, where expense generally prohibits 
artificial regeneration, the question of securing natural reproduction 
is of the first importance. Unfortunately, when this study was be- 
gun, the securing of growth data was given first consideration and, 
except in a few cases, only rather generalized reproduction data were 
provided for. Since that time more intensive studies have been un- 
dertaken, but have not .yet yielded conclusive results. Only the more 
obvious facts developed will be mentioned and no attempt will be 
made to explain them. 
One of the most important results of these studies has been to 
emphasize the great importance of advance reproduction. It be- 
comes more and more evident that the establishment of reproduction 
after cutting is a long, tedious process, requiring as high as 20 years 
or more on poorer sites to secure even a fair stand. In none of the 
sample plots even on the best sites has more than one-third of the 
seedlings now present been established since cutting, and in only two 
cases are the number and distribution of seedlings sufficient to con- 
stitute complete stocking 10 }<ears after logging. That this condi- 
tion is not exceptional is evident from examination of many of the 
more important cut-over areas in the State. With very rare excep- 
tions the large number of seedlings now found on cut-over areas was 
present under the original stand, or developed from seed borne fry 
trees during the season of felling. 
Investigation of the excellent stands of seedlings often pointed out 
on clear-cut or heavily-cut areas in support of the argument that this 
is the proper method of securing good reproduction, practically al- 
ways discloses the fact that the majority of seedlings were present 
as very small inconspicuous trees at the time of cutting, and that the 
removal of the older stand was exactly what was needed to release 
them. Their sudden advent was apparent, not real. (PI. 11.) 
Some remarkably fine stands of yellow-pine reproduction have be- 
come established by a rare combination of circumstances, such as an 
