10 Forest Management 



2. The quality increment, depending solely on the difference of 

 price shown in the same year by logs of different diameters, per unit 

 of contents. 



3. The price increment, depending solely on the difference of value 

 which the same log will exhibit in different years. This latter incre- 

 ment is influenced by increase of population and wealth, cheapened fa- 

 cilities of transportation, exhaustion of the virgin woods, and declining 

 purchasing power of gold. 



As an illustration of price increment, the following figures may be 

 of interest: 



Wholesale Prices of Yellow Poplar, 4-4 Lumber, 



at Biltmore, N. C. 



Quality. In 1896. In 1907. 



fas. $21.00 $43.00 to $52.00 



saps 1 6.00 33.00 



C. i 12.00 28.00 



C. 2 6.50 16.00 



The expense of production, with modern mills and improved trans- 

 portation, is as high in 1907 as it was in 1896, viz.: $9 per 1,000 feet b. m. 

 Assuming that certain trees have turned out 25 per cent, of fas, 25 per 

 cent, saps, 25 per cent. C. i and 25 per cent. C. 2, the stumpage values 

 of such trees was per 1,000 feet b. m. 



in 1896 $ 5.00 



in 1907 $22.00 



and has increased, consequently, at the rate of 30 per cent, (simple in- 

 terest, equalling 14 per cent, of compound interest) per annum. 



The increase in the value of many other forest products has been 

 similarly phenomenal; and the question arises: Why is the owner of 

 forests unwise enough to reduce this stumpage as long as the rise con- 

 tinues to be phenomenal, in excess of any dividend derivable from 

 other investments? The answer frequently lies in three words: 



Poverty; 



Impatience; 



Ignorance. 



The enormous increase of gold production during the last 20 years 

 promises to continue and to become more phenomenal. The director 

 of the U. S. Mint reports (in 1904, p. 41) that the rise of wages does 

 not act as an automatic check to gold production, and that the tendency 

 of the expense of gold production continues to be downward. The 

 effect of increasing gold supplies on commodity prices, wages, land 

 values, mortgages, bonds, etc., is easily perceived: 



The owner of bonds and mortgages sinks to a lower level of rev- 

 enue; whilst the owner of forests and farms remains (at least) equally 

 wealthy. 



The question will be asked, naturally: Does it pay to strive towards 

 the establishment of an "ideal forest" .... towards the establishment 

 of an impossibility? 



