Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1913-04-18
MORE NATIONAL FOREST TIM
Der FOR SALE.

months. Altogether it has adj !
vertised since July 1, 1912, the
beginning of the present fiscal
year.. about 100000, 900 feet.
and has closed contracts for the
sale of 100, 900, 900 feet. The
latest advertised sale is of APP
proximate1y 100000 feet of
saw timber in the Rainier Ma
tional Forest, about IS miles
from Tacoma.
In offering National Forest
timber for sale the Government
first makes an estimate of the
quantity of timber on an area
which would naturally form a
single logging unit, and which
offers attractive opportunities for
the lumbermen. The proba BILE
cost of logging and manufacture
ing by a capable lumberman is
then estimated. On the basis of
these estimates combined with
the figures for market values and
freight charges the timber is APP
praised and then advertised for
sale. with the appraised value as
minimum price.
The minimum prices set tor the
Rainier timber vary from 50 cents
| to $3.50 per thousand feet, &C
cording to the kind of timber.
These are stumpage-that is, the
purchaser buys the trees on the
stump and does all the logging,
but pays according to the board
foot measure of the logs. The
Government aims to allow the
manufacturer a liberal profit on
the basis that numbering involves
a good deal of business risk, and
the minimum stumpage prices
are fixed accordingly. Often
however, competitive bids raise
the price above the advertised
minimum.
| One the provisions of the con-
tract which the successful bidder
for the Rainier timber will enter
Into will be that if market prices
advance materially the Govern
ment's Chief Forester may, after
the sale has run three years, re.
quire a reasonable readjustment
of the stumpage prices up to an
added 50 cents per thousand. The
lobiect of this stipulation is to
prevent loss to the Government
that is, to the public-and an
undue profit to the purchaser
through long-term contracts en-
tered into on a rising market.
Provision against such specula-
tive profits is regarded as especi-
ally necessary in view of the
long-term sales now sometimes
made to get purchasers for large
bodies of inaccessible timber.
For the Rainier sale the cut
ting period allowed is only five
years, since the quantity of tim
Der involv ed-approximately 81
900, 900 board feet-does not call
for an extended operation. One
National Forest sale made this
year was for 800, 000,000 board
feet and the purchasers were al
lowed a cutting period of twenty
two years besides a preliminary
two years in which to build
railroad. Usually purchasers
must begin operating the year of
purchase and cut a stipulated
amount each year.
The latter provision is simply
an example of a fundamental
principle that is applied in all
National Forest timber sales.
The primary object is described
as being not profit tor the Coy
eminent but benefit to the pub
lie. Nowhere is the policy a
strictly commercial one. The
conditions of cutting are care
fully prescribed from the stand
point of present as we'll as future
needs. The highest bid for the
contract may be rejected, and is
rejected if it appears that to give
the bidder the contract would
tend to facilitate timber monop-
oily and so subject the consumer
to a hardship. In other words,
the Government foresters con-
slider that they should not only
make the forests grow as fast as
possible but also make them as
useful as possible to the public.