762 Forestry Quarterly 



There are on the National Forests large areas of mature and 

 over-mature timber which could be sold for $1 per M feet or more, 

 tending rather to decrease in volimie from the 40 to 50 M they 

 contain. Figuring soil at $10, protection and administration at 

 20 cents, stumpage at $1, the cost of holding for 60 years would be 

 $7.93 per M, to compare with $3.36 {see table above) for producing 

 the same amount of timber. 



The summary of the very interesting expose is given in the 

 following six paragraphs : 



1. The chief cost of producing timber is the interest on the 

 capital involved. 



2. It follows from (1) that the interest rate under which the 

 forest owner works, to a large extent determines the cost of 

 producing timber to the owner concerned. 



3. Taxes, though important, are a minor cost as compared with 

 interest charges. 



4. The costs of production under high interest rates are so 

 great as to bar forest production to those owners who cannot secure 

 money at a rate not much, if any, higher than 5 per cent. 



5. This makes forest production at a profit possible only to the 

 federal government, the State, the municipality and the larger 

 corporation, and those owners exceptionally situated as to the 

 ownership of land for other purposes, such as mining, in connection 

 with farming, etc. 



6. Since the federal government is already practising forestry 

 so far as its resources make practical at present, the large cor- 

 poration is not likely to become interested under present condi- 

 tions, and the municipality can engage only to a limited extent; 

 there is little hope of introducing forest practice in adequate 

 manner except through the State. 



The Cost of Growing Timber in the Pacific Northwest, as Related to the Interest 

 Rates Available to Various Forest Owners. Forest Club Annual, University of 

 Washington. Seattle, Wash., 1915. Pp. 23. 



For more than 150 years the practice in 



Errors the European wood trade has been to 



in Using meastu-e contents of logs by the use of the 



Middle middle diameter, and Ruber's formula, 



Diameters (^ ^ JL.^2/) ^as since 1822 been accepted to 



express the voltune. The accuracy of the formula has been again 

 and again tested, with varying results, due probably to failtire in 



