LAND VALUATION 221 



comparative accuracy and cost. A tract containing 640 acres 

 was taken in making these calculations and 'a unit cost of $1 per 

 man hour assumed. Hence the cost per acre would be too low 

 for smaller tracts. These data will, of course, be most useful in 

 '^jtermining which method will ^ve sufficiently accurate results 

 at the minimum cost under any given set of conditions. 



While the determination of the area is the step of first import- 

 ance in valuing woodland it is far less perplexing than the deci- 

 sion as to the uses to which the land can most profitably 

 be devoted. The possibility of tillage is constantly recurring 

 even with the roughest and stoniest tracts because tillage gives 

 the highest and quickest returns and it is the use which has the 

 sanction of longest usage. All land can be tilled if enough labor 

 is put on it and the idea that there are soils which will give higher 

 net returns when used in other ways makes headway very slowly. 

 This explains why the lumberman tries first of all to dispose of 

 his cutover land to the farmer. Usually, however, there are only 

 limited areas really fit for tillage in any large tract of timber. 

 This is more particularly the case with the areas now covered with 

 virgin timber, restricted as they are to the mountain regions and 

 overflow lands. Few people realize how much good labor has 

 been thrown away clearing up land which is really unfit for tillage. 

 The abandoned farms of New England and the " sand farms " 

 of the Lake States cutover areas are cases in point. This does 

 not mean, of course, that there are not level stretches reasonably 

 free from stones even in the mountains which cannot be profitably 

 tilled. It means simply that no area can be kept in good cultiva- 

 tion unless it has more good soil than rocks and is not so steep 

 that it will wash. Given these two fundamentals there are three 

 other criteria by which it must be judged: 



1. Is it subject to destructive overflow? 



2. Has it good frost drainage? 



3. Are markets accessible? 



As has already been pointed out the overflow lands of the Mis- 

 sissippi are much more profitable under tillage than those of the 

 southeastern Atlantic States because the floods in the latter region 

 come in the middle of the growing season. It is rather the time 



