STUMPAGE PRICES 



20S 



future trend of costs must be considered because no one is going 

 to make changes in stimipage prices for passing fluctuations in 

 costs. For example, a temporary increase in the price of com 

 need not affect disadvantageously the price of pine stumpage 

 even tho corn is fed to both men and mules. There is a good 

 chance that by the time the lumber is ready for market the 

 price of corn may have changed again, and for the better. Yet, 

 on the other hand, the logger and sawmill man must be on the 

 lookout for possible increases in costs so that they do not pay so 

 much for their logs that their margin is entirely wiped out by an 

 advance in food or labor. 



Of the factors that determine stumpage prices the costs of 

 hauling the logs and the lumber are the most important. The 

 other factors only vary within narrow limits. As a consequence 

 the stumpage price of any piece of timber is dep>endent primarily 

 upon its distance from a sawmill and the length of freight haul 

 from the mill to a market. To illustrate take two such unlike 

 softwoods as second growth white pine and redwood. Of course, 

 the latter yields very much better grades than second growth 

 white pine because the pine has seldom been allowed to grow more 

 than lOO years while five times that would be nearer the average 

 age of the redwood which is now being cut. In fact second growth 

 pine yields no wide clear lumber. The percentages of the grades 

 obtained from each would be about as follows: 



Wide clear lumber 



Shop 



Common 



Boxboards 



Second growth 

 pine 



Per cent 



5 



ID 

 85 



Nevertheless the average sale value for both at the mill has been 

 about $30 per M for the log nm, with redwood averaging not more 

 than 20 per cent higher than the pine. In the same way the log- 

 ging costs did not vary greatly. Before the war S5 per M would 

 have covered all costs from stump to mill p>ond in either case. 



