REPORT ON FORESTS. 25 



we have omitted and cannot well estimate. On the whole the 

 forest product, not including" manufactured material, may be 

 taken to be worth nearly $4,000,000 annually. 



Assuming all of the above to be cut from timber 50 years old, 

 yielding 40 cords per acre, or 5,000 feet B. M. of merchantable 

 lumber, about 30,000 acres would need to be cut annually, and 

 1,500,000 acres would keep up the supply. The results of our 

 surveys indicate that, taking the State as a whole, the timber is 

 not being cut at a more rapid rate than this. The owners are 

 finding it more profitable to allow the timber to attain an age of 

 from 35 to 50 years than to cut it younger. 



VALUE OF STANDING TIMBER. 



Careful inquiry as to the value of standing timber of various 

 ages has been made. The variation is rather wide, according to 

 the character of the growth and its accessibility to market. In 

 the Kittatinny valley and Highlands the value of stump land, 

 where land is valuable only for forest, ranges from $i to $5 per 

 acre ; timber 30 years old, from $10 to $30 ; 50 years old, from 

 $25 to $50, with instances of exceptionally good or well-located 

 timber selling as high as $100. Timber classed as heavy, 

 usually upwards of 60 years old, ranges from $60 to $100, but is 

 scarce in the Highlands, where very little timber exceeds 50 

 years in age. A fair average value for all forest in this legion 

 is $25 per acre. In the red sandstone and Cretaceous regions 

 the value of good land for farming or other purposes is often 

 considerable, and it is difficult to determine the value of the 

 timber apart from the land, but it averages older and heavier 

 than that of the Highlands, and even for the same age is more 

 valuable. Timber 30 years old may be taken to be worth from 

 $25 to $50 per acre, while that classed as heavy ranges from $50 

 to $150 per acre. Perhaps the average value of all forest in 

 these regions may be taken to be $40 per acre on the red 

 sandstone and $35 for the clay and marl region. 



In the Pines a number of answers to inquiries give the value 

 of stump or brush land at from 10 cents to $5 per acre where it 

 is valuable only as forest. Its value over a large part of the 

 district is purely nominal. A growth of pine 30 years old is 



