<)14: JOURNAL Ol" FORESTRY 



disposed of at some sort of price later. , Not a few owners are hoping 

 to exchange their cut-over lands with the Government for timber or 

 other consideration. If it were the settled policy of the Government 

 to place an exchange value on these cut-over lands equal to the base 

 value as land, plus a fair value for any reproduction which they may 

 carry, then the members of the timber protective associations would 

 have some encouragement not only to retain association membership 

 but to adopt regulated cutting methods which would insure the estab- 

 lishment of a new crop at time of logging. 



By Geo. W . Peavy 



That a hard-headed logger in the West should expend good money 

 for the purpose of ascertaining the value of reproduction on a cut-over 

 area of 18,000 acres, and that professional foresters should be employed 

 to do the work is indicative of the fact that an appreciation of forestry 

 principles, in a small way at least, is entering the minds of those whom 

 foresters have long sought to impress, namely, the practical lumbermen. 

 It is true the approach is by the vital avenue of the pocket-book, but 

 so much the better. Through no other channel will private forestry 

 ever be established, anyway. Mr. Berry's description of the method 

 of covering the ground is interesting. It would appear that the survey 

 was sufficiently intensive for the purpose intended. 



While replacement costs may be regarded as reasonably satisfactory 

 as a means of appraising the value of very young growth when a damage 

 suit is involved, or when a sale of cut-over land is contemplated shortly 

 after logging, it does not seem to me a fair or scientific method to 

 employ when 20-year-old stuff, to be managed on an 80-year rotation, 

 is involved even though the replacement cost is carried forward at com- 

 pound interest at a proper rate per cent. To me "expectation value" 

 IS alluring even though it is a prey to all the "economic forces of 

 society." Mr. Berry, who is thoroughly familiar with California con- 

 ditions, could, as accurately as anyone, set a stumpage value on the final 

 yield, assume a proper "p" per cent, together with appropriate carrying 

 charges, and then eliminate time differences by carrying forward and 

 discounting, thus approximating this rather unstable expectation value. 

 If reasonable data are assumed the expectation value should show the 

 maximum price the owner can expect. The process of getting the 

 exi)ectation value is the same as that employed in case of any property 

 having a deferred income. The greater uncertainty involved in applying 



