HARDWOOD RECORD 



25 



addition, the task of distributing the taxes on forty acres of timber- 

 land equitably upon each item presents some difficulties. To simplify 

 the matter some, short cuts were necessary which did not affect to 

 any extent the accuracy of these figures. We received detaUed esti- 

 mates on 26,559 acres of timberland, covering practically all the 

 forest counties in northern Michigan, with detail of all taxes on each 

 description from 1907 to 1915. 



Eliminating from the calculation such items as hemlock bark, cord- 

 wood, and making an allowance for ties, poles, etc., we computed the 

 value of these lands, using the average stumpage prices ruling in 

 1907-8 for the different kinds of saw timber, secured as previously 

 described. The taxes on these lands were then subdivided propor- 

 tionately for each year, giving us the yearly taxes on each kind of 

 wood, and it should be noted that the taxes have increased 146 per 

 cent in the last eight years. 



This process enables us to make the following table (see pao-e 24), 

 commencing with an initial cost January 1, 1907, and bringing the 

 cost down to January 1, 1915, of each kind of saw-log timber which 

 is of importance: 



The figures in this table, which are too numerous to read in de- 

 tail, are worthy of careful study. They show, perhaps more clearly 

 than we have ever before realized, just how stumpage costs mount up 

 year after year, and that if we bought stumpage, or had it in our 

 possession on January 11, 1907, we must calculate that the cost on 

 January 1, this year, was almost double that of eight years ago. 

 The question that faces us, as stumpage owners, is whether we can 

 sell our stumpage at prices which will let us out on these costs. The 

 answer is given in the lumber market of 1915, as in the last analysis 

 lumber and stumpage are the same, stumpage being what there is 

 left out of our lumber prices after all costs of logging, manufacture 

 and selling are deducted. 



At this point, therefore, having ascertained the cost of our stump- 

 age which has been carried since January 1, 1907, we can do no 

 better than add on the actual operating cost so well presented by 

 E. B. Goodmmi at the October association meeting. This I have done, 

 in the followiug table, to which I have added a line giving the average 

 sell i ng prices for rough mill run lumber at interior Wisconsin and 

 upper Michigan mills in 1914. 



The last Une of table No. 2 is the one that tells the story. It 

 shows conclusively that based upon what were acknowledged to be 

 fair stumpage values eight years ago the present average selling 

 prices for lumber make a loss of from 50c to $6.00 per thousand 

 feet of lumber manufactured in that year. 



Extended comment on this situation is unnecessary. We must either 

 get more out of our timber, or incur greater loss each year, as carry- 

 ing charges mount up with fatal persistence. 



No Chance for Over Production in Memphis 

 Territory 



There has been a sliglit further increase in production of hard- 

 wood lumber in Memphis and the Memphis territory during the 

 past fortnight. It is emphasized, however, that a number of the 

 mills which have resumed are not running more than from fifty to 

 sixty per cent of their full capacity and that there are still quite 

 a goodly number which have made no preparations whatever to 

 start up their machinery again. Taken as a whole, production for 

 this section is still sharply below normal, and, while there may be 

 some increase in the near future, it is pointed out by milling in- 

 terests that it will be quite difficult to bring the output up to any- 

 thing approximating normal even if conditions should become 

 sufficientl}' favorable to justify this course. 



This view is based largely upon the scarcity of logs available 

 for immediate use. The millmen say that weather conditions have 

 been such during the past few months that they have been able to 

 make very little progress in getting out timber and, while some 

 few of the larger firms arc well supplied with logs, this is by no 

 means true of the rank and file. It has been raining, sleeting, or 

 snowing almost uninterruptedly in this territory for the past three 

 or four weeks and the amount of clear weather since Thankagiving 

 day has been perhaps smaller than ever known for the same period. 

 The ground is thoroughly water soaked throughout this entire 

 section of country and the situation, from a logging standpoint 

 has been very bad. This weather has very greatly restricted log- 

 ging operations and these were further cut down during August, 

 September, October and November as a result of the war in Europe 

 which caused practical stoppage of both logging and milling. 



One of the officials of the Valley Log Loading Company is 

 authority for the statement that there are not 1,000 cars of logs 

 to be handled on the Yazoo & Mississippi line of the Illinois Central 

 and the Memphis-Mariarma cut-off of the St. Louis, Iron Mountain 

 & Southern, on which this firm operates log loading machinery. 

 He says that there is only one loader in operation and that the 

 company is loading about 300 to 400 cars per month, or between 

 twenty and twenty-five per cent of its normal capacity. He does 

 not see prospect of any material increase in the amount of timber 

 in the near future, declaring that weather conditions have been such 

 as to make preparation of timber for marketing almost impossible. 

 This company loads from seventy-five to eighty per cent of the timber 

 received at Memphis r.nd at a number of points in the Memphis ter- 

 ritory and its statement of logs in sight and the amount of timber 

 being loaded is accepted here as quite trustworthy. 



Editor's Note : The foregoing is an artdrpss mado liy C. H. 

 Worcester of Chicago, 111., before the Northern Hemlock & Hardwood 

 Manufacturers' Association in session at Milwaukee, Wis., January 26. 



Lodgepole pine, one of the principal trees of the Eocky Moun- 

 tains, makes good strong wrapping paper and pulp board. 



