TIMBER ESTIMATING AND MARKETING 173 



sections. The margin for profit is so small that unless the land- 

 owner has plenty of men and teams this contract method will be 

 cheaper for him. For a six-mile haul in northern New England 

 the price is usually about $3 per thousand, or from $1.50 to $2.00 

 a cord. For short hauls, where two trips a day can be made, the 

 cost will be about half these figures. By deducting the cost of 

 haul from the price to be received at the mill, the value of the 

 felled timber is obtained. If it is to be transported by railroad 

 or river, the further charges for such freightage must be added. 

 In southern New England most of the lumbering is done with 

 portable sawmills. In this case the price paid for logs at the mill 

 is less because the manufactured lumber has to be transported 

 to the railway or market. 



To obtain the value of standing timber, a further deduction for 

 the cost of cutting and logging is necessary. It usually costs 

 about $1.25 per thousand board feet for cutting the trees. Log- 

 ging 1 in the north woods, where the logs are piled on. skids near 

 the cutting, is cheap usually not over $1.50 per M 2 but 

 logging to the portable mill averages about $2 per M. Cutting 

 cordwood costs from 90 cents to $1.25 per cord. 



As said before, when the cost of cutting, logging, and hauling 

 has been deducted from the price to be received for the logs, the 

 stumpage value is secured, which is the value to the owner acting 

 as his own jobber. A lumberman would not pay so much as 

 this, as he must necessarily make his own profit also, which 

 may be considered as a commission paid the lumberman by 

 the owner. 



The commission paid to a lumberman when stumpage is sold 

 him varies considerably, but averages about one-half the net 

 value of the standing timber. For example, if logs are worth 

 $12 a thousand feet at the mill and it costs $6 to get them to 

 the mill, they will be worth to the owner about $6, if he is a suc- 

 cessful lumberman. If he sells the stumpage, however, he will 



1 Logging as here used refers to the operation of removing the log from the 

 place where the tree grew to the skidway or portable mill; it does not include 

 cutting or hauling from the skidway to the permanent mill or railroad. 



2 M stands for thousand feet, board measure. 



