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STUMPAGE PRICES IN ILLINOIS FOR SAW-TIMBER 



From data gathered by the U. S. Forest Service in Illinois, Indiana, 

 and Ohio, based on 14,102,000 board feet of logs, the average price re- 

 ceived at the mill for hardwood logs wsls $24.93 per thousand board feet. 

 Based on 26,537,000 board feet of logs, the average price received for 

 hardwood stumpage was $12.86 per thousand board feet. This leaves 

 a margin for cost plus profit in logging, of $12.06, agreeing closely with 

 the results of the questionnaire, which indicated that average costs of 

 logging plus 20 per cent profit was $12.32. 



The returns from the Illinois questionnaire were not sufficiently 

 numerous to indicate a safe average price of stumpage for saw-timber. 

 This varied from an average of $19.86 for the higher grades of logs, to 

 $5.22 for low-grade timber. This would indicate that the average of this 

 much larger quantity, or $12.86, may be safely adopted as the average 

 stumpage value of saw-timber for the years 1919 to 1922, in Illinois. 



By species the yearly average figures show a wide variation, from a 

 maximum of $85.00 per thousand for walnut in 1920 to a minimum of 

 $3.29 for sycamore in 1922. Little reliance can be placed on these specific 

 averages. Walnut commands the highest stumpage prices, followed by 

 ash and hickory. Veneer logs of white oak command prices up to $25.00 

 per thousand board feet, while the poorer grades of oak lumber are some- 

 times sold at less than one half this price. The value of stumpage is 

 residual or marginal and is thus dependent on the total of costs incurred 

 to bring the logs to the market, as well as on the price received for these 

 logs, or for the lumber, or products. 



The receipts and stumpage values for saw-timber were slightly in- 

 fluenced by the demand for walnut during the war. This species con- 

 stituted 13.07 per cent of the total reported sold, while census figures 

 for 1919 show that 3,690,000 board feet was produced in the state, or 

 6.48 per cent of the total. The relative amount of walnut in the returns 

 from farm questionnaires is, therefore, twice as great as the average 

 per cent for this species in the total state output, and with its high stump- 

 age value of $49.29 per thousand board feet tends to raise the average 

 price of stumpage above the actual. 



The average price of oak stumpage at $32.44 is undoubtedly higher 

 than cash prices paid for such stumpage by purchasers, who have not 

 often gone much above $25.00. But the greater portion of the lumber 

 reported was cut by the owner and sawed in a customs sawmill. The 

 owner thus realized both stumpage and 20 per cent profit, which, at the 



