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Show Washington, Jan. 5. Secretary Secre-tary of Agriculture Houston today to-day approved the disposah- one billion feet of westerntf&k low pine timber from the Ktf? national forest in northcrnjpHc zrinnIn order togfet thiAen y TWir!irjbVcMi&atJl build a railroad ripproxinjU 200 miles long. Such a KRvia will connect Colorado and jfrh i with the world-famous vtaijj' Canyon of the Colorado, vwichl hitherto has been accessible, only from the south. For several years the construe- tion of such a railroad has been considered by various capitalists, capital-ists, but it has been stated that the lack of assured immediate -traffic was an effectual barrier. It is pointed out, however, that a contract for a billion feet of timber will overcome this difficulty diffi-culty by providing a commodity for transportation which, together to-gether with tourists and local traffic, will place the project oif a paying baBis practically from the" outset. Chief Forester Henry S. Graves made a personal exam; ination on the ground, and this examination suplemented by the reports of his forest engineeKSj induce him to recommend the sale of such a large body of; timer in order that the country might be developed through the supplying of this resource. Mr. Graves says, however, that the Kaibab forest is one of the most beautiful in America, anu gives assurance that the nuu iw.n.jf of the mature crop of timber will not be allowed to mar the ncanic beauty of the region. .sIn accordance, with thd timber j$ale policy of the government the stumpage will be disposed of to the highest bidder. In order to attract a sufficient investment to assure tho building of the railroad and of the necessary lumber mills at least a billion feet of timber had to be offered. The investment necessary to make this timber accessible will amount to more than $3,000,000. By placing this quantity of timber before tho lumbermen of tho country tho officials of the forest believe that tho develop ment of extensive areas in southern Utah may be looked 'for because tho necessary rail- way will render accessiblofeiy w sources which have heretofore been undeveloped. Tho whole i region is rich in agricultural J&nd, in cattle and sheep range, and in coal and copper deposits, as well as in timber. ". jBids for the timber will be received up to tho middle of June, 1914, and three years will be allowed for tho building of tho railroad and mills, and twenty-five, years for tho cutting cut-ting of tho timber. Tho stump-ago stump-ago rates, however, will be readjusted read-justed at tho end of each five year periods of tho contract, the readjustments being based on the then current lumber prices. 1 By the end of the contract period, the forest officers sav, the young trees left on the area first cut over will bo ready for cutting, so that by the system yi lumbering which tho government govern-ment will require, operations can continue permanently in this lumber belt. Tho annual cut will be not less than ftorty million 'feet, most of which will be readily sold in the large consuming consum-ing lumber markets in Utah and Colorado. The Kaibab 'forest is one of the mest heavily timbered in the southwest, the stand of timber being broken only accasionally by beautiful meadows or openings open-ings locally known as parks. Lumbermen who have visited it consider the country ideallv adapted to logging. 'There are, altogether, two billion feet of timber, of which more than one bttlon .feet are mature andready |