166 FARM FORESTRY 



On the Length of Time Allowed to Cut the Timber. The 



shorter the time allowed, the lower the stumpage price will 

 be. Purchasers of woodlots will often buy the trees and hold 

 them indefinitely without cutting, waiting for a rise in the 

 stumpage price. More has often been made from a rise in 

 stumpage price than from the profit in manufacturing the 

 material into lumber. 



In every region and locality the stumpage price is deter- 

 mined by these different factors and is a more or less fixed 

 amount for the same kind of timber. Stumpage prices do not 

 fluctuate rapidly. In spite of changes that may have occurred, 

 there has been a gradual rise in the value of standing timber 

 since the early days, and the price will undoubtedly continue 

 to rise as timber becomes scarcer. In many regions the valu- 

 able timber now lies in the farm woodlot and its value is 

 bound to increase in the future. No woodlot owner should 

 sell his timber until he knows that he is getting all that the 

 timber is worth. 



HOW TO FIND THE STUMPAGE VALUE OF TIMBER 



The stumpage value is found by subtracting from the sell- 

 ing price of the manufactured product, the cost of logging 

 and the cost of manufacturing, and also the depreciation on 

 the sawmill, the logging outfit and equipment, and the 

 profit. The profit is often figured at 25 per cent of the log- 

 ging and manufacturing costs. This can be expressed in a 

 formula : 



Stumpage price selling price (cost of logging-f- 



cost of manufacturing -j- depreciation) profit. 



On a portable sawmill operation in the northern Appala- 

 chian Region the stumpage value was figured as follows : 



