---
type: "LegalText"
title: "16 U.S.C. § 504"
description: "Purchases of tree seeds, cones, forage plant seed, and nursery stock for national forests"
jurisdiction: "us"
corpus: "united_states_code"
kind: "code_section"
title_number: 16
title_name: "CONSERVATION"
chapter_number: "2"
chapter_name: "NATIONAL FORESTS"
section: "504"
citation: "16 U.S.C. § 504"
status: "current"
release_point: "119-100"
release_date: "2026-06-26"
source: "official"
source_url: "https://uscode.house.gov/download/releasepoints/us/pl/119/100/xml_usc16@119-100.zip"
source_identifier: "/us/usc/t16/s504"
source_file: "data/legal/raw/us/code/title-16/usc16.xml"
source_hash: "cfefcd53e24403e67c06449c3bb12550d4875397fd3556e481bbe7267dfb6d93"
raw_snapshot_hash: "7be8950da5a93cac7c98e4576ce00340f2aba5e8e46d29915382c203c421d503"
text_hash: "543be54b73bd5b0576d698035aeaa7438f90ae497f4e472b0dc129f275312113"
retrieved_at: "2026-07-04"
confidence: "official"
tags: ["legal", "us-code"]
---

# 16 U.S.C. § 504 - Purchases of tree seeds, cones, forage plant seed, and nursery stock for national forests

## Text

The provisions of section 6101 of title 41 shall not apply to any purchase by the Forest Service of forest-tree seed or cones or of forage plant seed when the amount involved does not exceed $10,000, nor to any purchase of forest-tree nursery stock when the amount involved does not exceed $500, whenever, in the discretion of the Secretary of Agriculture, such method is in the public interest.

(June 30, 1914, ch. 131, 38 Stat. 429; Apr. 24, 1950, ch. 97, § 2, 64 Stat. 83.)

## Notes

Editorial Notes

Codification In text, “section 6101 of title 41” substituted for “section 3709, Revised Statutes (41 U.S.C. 5),” on authority of Pub. L. 111–350, § 6(c), Jan. 4, 2011, 124 Stat. 3854, which Act enacted Title 41, Public Contracts.

Amendments1950—Act Apr. 24, 1950, increased open market purchase limitation from $500 to $10,000 on forest-tree seed or cones or forage plant seed.