12,000,000 feet of timber was recently made on a National forest in Wyoming, at the rate of $5 per thousand feet. The proceeds from the sale of the timber alone will be $60,000. The timber averages 8000 feet per acre and covers 1500 acres. Had the sale been made under the timber and stone law it would have yielded but $3750 for both timber and land.
"It might be argued that the Government is not in the lumber business and that it should dispose of its remaining timberlands as rapidly as possible, leaving it to private enterprise to exploit them. But public opinion is emphatically in favor of a more conservative use of what remains of the National forests than would be possible were they turned over to lumber companies, whose sole concern would be their quick conversion into cash. The Government has been forced into the lumber business solely that a supply of forest products may be guaranteed to future generations.
"Probably 65 per cent of the total stand of merchantable timber within the forests is located on the Pacific Coast, where for a long time the enormous supply of privately-owned timber will satisfy most of the demand. This more accessible private timber surrounded the forest as the meat of an apple surrounds the core. But this belt of private timber has been entirely eaten away in many places, while in others it is locked up for the purpose of speculation. The thing to remember, then, is that this immense body of public timber is there as a great reserve against the time when private timberlands will be depleted, and for use as a weapon against monopoly. Already, even on the Pacific Coast, actual operators, who are not speculating in timber, but who, if they are to meet the demands of commerce, must have logs to supply their mills, are turning to the National forests.
"The advantages in the purchase of timber from the National forests to the actual operator, and especially to the sawmill man of small means, are man3^ There is no large initial investment required in acquiring timberlands and no possibility of annoying litigagation over defective title to lands. The purchaser is entirely relieved of taxes and the cost of protection. The Government assumes the entire risk of loss by fire or other causes.
"The first effect of National forests upon prices, particularly where there is still a great deal of available timber, is to raise the price of stumpage toward its intrinsic value by withdrawing the excess supply of low-priced timber from the market. On the other hand, as the supply of timber dwindles and values are forced upward by holding for speculation, the effect of the forests will be to check advance in prices and make them lower.
"In the Rocky Mountain states and territories the major part of the small remaining supply of timber is in the National forests, and here their beneficial effect upon the lumber supply may be more plainly seen than on the Pacific Coast. The demand for timber from the forests throughout this region has come very generally from small sawmills which supply towns and ranches located off the railroads and from mines which use the timber for their own development.
"From the forester's standpoint, mature timber should be cut in order to give the small trees more light and a chance to grow and to make way for reproduction. From the standpoint of National economy, the mature timber on the forests should be utilized as needed for the development of the West, provided the local supply is not reduced below the point of safety. The whole weight of the movement in favor of National forests is squarely against a reckless use of the timber resources, but it is emphatically in favor of the legitimate use of timber. The points of vital importance are that the remaining supply of timber must be used with the utmost economy and that in every case reproduction must be absolutely assured.
"Far beyond the present influence of the National forests upon the lumber supply will be their importance in the future. The United States is now facing a serious decrease in the available supply of timber. That from the National forests will aid greatly to bridge over the period of inevitable lack of mature timber which will last from the time the old trees are gone until the young trees are large enough to take their places. The definite. result, therefore, of the sale of timber from the forests will be to sustain the lumber business, to maintain a steady range of timber values, and thus to lessen speculation, and far more important still, to render possible the uninterrupted development of the great industries dependent upon wood."
Ample provision has been made in the Act of June 11, 1906, for the acquisition of title to any lands in forest reserves found to be agricultural in character. It is provided that the Secretary of Agriculture may in his discretion, upon application or otherwise, examine and ascertain as to the location and extent of land within permanent or temporary forest reserves, except the following counties in the State of California: Inyo, Tulare, Kern, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, Ventura, Los Angeles, San Bernardino, Orange, Riverside and San Diego, which are chiefly valuable for agriculture, and which, in his opinion, may be occupied for agricultural purposes without injury to the forest reserves, and which are not needed for public purposes, and may list and describe the same by metes andPage 467
