74 FOREST VALUATION 



In permanent forest property, this construction cost may be 

 assumed by the forest owner, whether or not he intends to do the 

 logging. This is necessary in order to permit of the radical 

 change in logging from the removal of practically the entire 

 crop at one time to the system of continuous removal of smaller 

 quantities over the entire area. Under the latter system, no 

 logging contractor could afford to construct his own transpor- 

 tation facilities. 



Such permanent systems are a capital expenditure similar 

 in character to land, and the overhead costs thus incurred 

 should be pro-rated by area and charged as an addition to the 

 cost of acquiring the property. The maintenance of transpor- 

 tation systems is an annual expense to be pro-rated in the same 

 way. The owner's benefit from thus assuming costs belonging 

 to logging is obtained by appropriating a larger share of the 

 general profits through increased value of stumpage. 



99. Silvicultural Operations. All labor expended directly 

 upon the forest crop constitutes a charge against the particular 

 area or stand which is benefited. Such costs include planting, 

 with the cost of the plants; weeding or removal of injurious 

 "weed" trees or brush when the plantation is young; protection 

 from insects by measures requiring expenditure of labor on the 

 area; and thinning, provided this is done at a cost exceeding 

 the value of the product obtained. Costs incurred in natural 

 reproduction, by leaving a portion of the stand to serve as seed 

 trees, correspond to the cost of planting and should be charged 

 against the new crop. Practically all silvicultural expenses 

 occur as single or initial costs, and not as annual expenses, when 

 reckoned in cost accounts for the stand. In a forest under 

 perfect management, costs of most of these operations consti- 

 tute a nearly constant annual expense for the forest as a whole, 

 and would so appear in the proprietary account. 



100. Protection Expenses. Initial expenses for protection 

 from fire take the form of measures for disposal of slash left from 

 logging. This expense is chargeable to the cost of the new 

 crop and may be so treated in a cost account. But in practice, 

 where the owner is not doing his own logging, as in the United 



