STUMPAGE PRICES 



217 



To determine the cost per M a uniform production of 500 board 

 feet per acre per annum has been assumed. Hence, the following 

 values hold at various age periods. 



PerM 



25 years $6 



50 years 8 



75 years 12 



100 years 20 



150 years 60 



That these figures are not far out of the way is shown by the 

 fact that some of them have already been attained in parts of the 

 United States. Three dollars a cord or $6 per M is not an un- 

 usual stumpage price for accessible hardwood cordwood. Box- 

 board material is selling for over $8 per M in all the more accessible 

 parts of the second growth white pine region of the northeast. 

 In fact it is only the production costs of the larger material 

 which have not aheady been equalled or surpassed. So far the 

 supply of large virgin timber has been great enough to supply the 

 demand for high grade lumber at much less than it will cost to 

 grow it. Yet, abroad, many stands are being managed on rota- 

 tion of 150 years or more so that it seems only a matter of time 

 before the United States, too, will be doing the same thing. Or, 

 stated in a little dififerent form, our stumpage prices for cordwood 

 and the lower grades of lumber have already gone about as high 

 as they will in the older, better settled parts of the country. High 

 grade softwood and hardwood on the other hand, are now selling 

 for much below the cost of production and will advance rapidly 

 as soon as the accessible virgin supplies are depleted. This 

 statement refers simply to stumpage prices, not to lumber prices. 

 They are governed by entirely different laws. Even a decided 



