96 FOREST VALUATION 



change in economic conditions affecting the price of products, 

 but with the opinions of property owners as to the amount and 

 present value of the anticipated income. Since it is the furthest 

 removed from actual income, soil value is the most unreliable of 

 all forest values, and is subject to greater proportional fluctua- 

 tions than values of standing timber. 



117. Value of Many-aged Forests Producing Regular In- 

 come. The true character of this capital value of bare forest 

 soil is further emphasized in the valuation of stands of timber 

 composed of trees of many different ages. 



Two cases may be presupposed. First, the existing age classes 

 are so distributed that an amount of timber can be cut at 

 equal intervals of time, and of approximately equal quantity 

 and value. Second, the age classes are irregular in quantity 

 and unevenly distributed as to age. This second example is 

 the prevalent type of many-aged forest. 



In neither case is the land ever clear of timber, unless the young 

 age classes are destroyed by fire or logging. It follows that for 

 a forest of this character the value of bare land cannot be deter- 

 mined, except by making an artificial assumption of an even- 

 aged stand of equal total yield with that of the many-aged 

 forest, and in which the trees take an equal time to develop. 

 But the trees in the all-aged stand take longer to grow than 

 they would if even-aged, on account of suppression or shading. 

 The correct determination of soil value, apart from the stand, 

 for such forests is therefore quite unsatisfactory. With a slow- 

 growing species the values indicated for bare soil may be nega- 

 tive and are usually very low. 



But the forest itself, or total property, both soil and timber, 

 even after a cutting has just been made, has a positive and often 

 a high value. 



Whether the interval between cuttings m is long or short, 

 the value of the forest just after the cut is 



But in this case, the formula, although similar to that (E) for 



