The gazette-times. [volume] (Heppner, Or.) 1912-1925, 1912-10-03
eIseo. and the CONTRACT Of gaIe Vii ba

cisco, ana Lne contract or sale Wlll D6
signed
1.-THE Forest Service" said Mr..
Graves in speaking of this sale, "has
received number of inquiries wether
: in selling so much timber to single
purchaser the Government may not
be opening the way to monopolistic
control of local lumber markets.
Other correspondents are disturbed
lest the sale prove bad bargain for
the Government through the rise i'm
value Of the timber in the twenty-five,
years during which the company will
cut.
Such large and long time sales
of National Forest timber as that to
the California company are new de-
velopment in the Forest Service.
Great bodies of mature but inaccess-
ible timber can be put on the market
only il sale contracts are let on terms
which will justify very heavy initial
investment in transportation facilities
In entering into such contracts, how
ever, special safeguards to protect the
public against monopoly and to prevent
an undue speculative profit to the
purchaser are employed.
"The National Forests contain, in
all, the equivalent Of nearly 600 billion
feet of timber now of merchantable
size, besides Young growth for future
harvest Because of its remoteness
from market and the wild, mountain
GUS country, with ont transportation
facilities, in which most of it lies,
only small percentage can now be-
sold on any terms. Most of it would
cost more to get it out than it would
bring. The sale of less than one
fifth of one per cent of our total spply
to one company leaves plenty Of room.
for competition by other companies
The timber which has been sold tor
the California company lies we'll back
in the Sierra Nevada Mountains and
will require the construction Of 7Os
miles of standard gauge railroad to-
open up the area. Since this road will
also open up other National Forest I.
timber and will be common carrier
it creates another safeguard against
monopoly. The company is given
cutting period Of twenty-five years
to remove the timber, besides am
additional two years for the manufact :
facilities The sale was publicly
advertised for six months in order to
give an opportunity for all who wished
to compete for the contract to make
bids, as is done in all large National
Forest sales. "No business organi-
zation would undertake the heavy
investments necessary in such cases
unless the handling of large body
of timber and a sufficient period in
which to remove it under practicable
logging conditions are assured. The
great difficulty in making such long
term sales is to establish price which
will be fair to both sides. No one
can fore-see future conditions we'll
enough to know what stumpage will
be worth ten, fifteen, or twenty years
hence.
Consequently the terms of sale
provide for the Ieadjustment of sthmp-
age prices every five years. The
basis for fixing the prices will be in
each case, the pri ces of manufactured
lumber in the markets where the
timber is sold the preceding two years.
For several years the Forest Service
has been selling in the neighburhood
of a million dollars worth of National
Forest stumpage per year, but this
combined with what is cut for free
use is only about one-eight of what
might be cut without reducing the
permanent stock of the Forsets. The
supply will be kept Up through growth.
BY making long-term lease it will be
possible greatly to increase the amount
available for present needs of the
timber consuming public, without en-
dsngering future supplies through
overcutting. 1t will always remain
true, however, that vastly the greater
part of our timber sales will be to
small purchasers, who are the favored
wherever possible. Monopoly is i'm
possible as long as the door is kept
open for such purchasers. Out of
over $500 sales made in the fiscal
" ar 1911, about forty were for over
IS 600 worth of timber to a single.
purchaser. "
The planting of a $50 acre wal