INVESTMENTS AND COSTS IN FOREST PRODUCTION 75 



States Forest Service operations, this cost is transferred wholly 

 or in part to the logger, and taken out of the price of stumpage. 

 By this means, the true nature of the expense is concealed. 

 The loss in stumpage value is a present cost or investment in the 

 new crop as surely as if the owner received full value for the tim- 

 ber and re-expended the amount required for brush burning. 

 This initial cost, then, accumulates interest until the new crop 

 is cut ( 107). For this reason, it has been advocated as an 

 alternative, that a sum representing merely the annual interest 

 on this initial expense could be expended annually on the area 

 to secure better protection from fire, without increasing the 

 total outlay. 



Fire lines will frequently be necessary, particularly where a 

 bad hazard occurs and where an investment has been made in 

 plantations. This constitutes a capital expenditure, especially 

 where the initial cost of the lines greatly exceeds their subse- 

 quent cost of maintenance. The charge must be pro-rated 

 over the area benefited, dated from the year it was incurred. 

 Subsequent maintenance of these lines, a necessity often lost 

 sight of, is an annual charge per acre. 



Lookout towers and installation of telephones used in fire 

 protection are of the same class of expenditure as fire lines. 



The labor employed in fire protection for patrol constitutes 

 an annual charge. 



Extra costs of extinguishing fire, if borne by the owners, con- 

 stitute losses, entered against the area burned, and recoverable 

 in some cases as damages. 



101. Administrative Expenses. With a large area and 

 well-developed system of forest production, the administration 

 of the tract involves not only all business matters dealing with 

 sale of products, taxes, protection and silviculture, but includes 

 as well the proper technical direction of the work to assure 

 the success of the measures for forest production which are 

 the basis of the business. The salary of a technical forester is, 

 therefore, a necessity, and this must be pro-rated on an area 

 basis. Should the tract be too small to justify such expense, 

 the owner must seek occasional technical advice and trust the 



