Items of Interest January 15, 1916 Issue

Items of Interest

Bids have been accepted by the department of agriculture for two large bodies of national forest timber estimated to contain 188,100,000 board feet. One is in California and the other in Utah. With one exception these are by far the most important sales made this fiscal year, which is expected by forestry officials to run considerably above last year in receipts from timber sales. The California sale is on the Plumas National Forest, in the Sierra Mountains. The most valuable timber is sugar pine, for which $3.25 per thousand was bid, with an estimated total of nearly 26,000,000 board feet on the tract. For yellow pine, of which the amount is put at over 37,000,000 feet, $2.60 was bid. Douglas fir, white fir, and incense cedar brought an average of about 70 cents a thousand for a total of over 43,000,000 feet. The purchaser will be allowed an operating period of fifteen years, besides a year at the beginning for the construction of necessary improvements; but the prices to be paid are subject to readjustment every five years.

The Utah timber is in the Wasatch National Forest, and will be cut chiefly for railroad ties. It comprises, according to the Government estimate, 82,100,000 board feet of green and dead lodgepole pine, Engelmann spruce, and Alpine fir. The total cut from all the national forests last year was 689,000,000 board feet. The timber receipts during the last fiscal year were in excess of $1,175,000.

After having been interrupted for some time, owing to the war, efforts are again being made to render the Werra River, Germany, navigable, a task that has been undertaken in connection with a scheme for constructing a waterway to the Danube from Nürnberg to Munich capable of being used by vessels of 1,000 tons.

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