130 FOREST VALUATION 



of similar property on which to base such values. There is a 

 further difficulty in judging of the loss in sale value resulting 

 from the damage. For these reasons, and in order to base the 

 damage fairly upon loss in income or use, the capital value or 

 expectation value of the property, as well as of the portion de- 

 stroyed or income lost, must be calculated, in spite of its uncer- 

 tainties. These uncertainties ( 67) lie in the determination of: 



Future yield of merchantable material. 



Date of maturity or final cutting. 



Future price of products. 



Rate of interest adopted. 



Authoritative studies of the yields per acre for important 

 commercial species are becoming available which indicate not 

 only the amount of merchantable material to be expected, 

 but the proper age at which to cut the stand. In the absence 

 of such data, experience of farmers and woodlot owners in re- 

 gions of second growth can be cited. 



It might seem that the certainty of the upward tendency of 

 prices for wood products would justify the adoption of higher 

 stumpage values as a basis of damages for destruction of young 

 timber (Chapter XII). This argument is ingeniously used by 

 the Forest Service to justify valuation of very young timber on 

 the basis of cost and thus secure higher values than would be 

 shown by capitalizing income on the basis of present stumpage 

 prices. It is probably true that owners forced to accept settle- 

 ment on terms of expectation value based on present prices, 

 for timber which will not mature for several decades, are losing 

 a profit which in all reason they may expect. But the deter- 

 mination of the amount of this increase introduces a speculative 

 element into a calculation already sufficiently complicated, and. 

 runs directly counter to principle g ( 133). Damages are in- 

 tended to fully compensate the owner for reasonable profits, 

 and no objection can be raised to admitting the effects of the 

 growth of the timber or its increase in quality, but the fluctua- 

 tion of stumpage prices will not ordinarily be admitted by a court 

 and it is the part of wisdom to base the evidence upon prevailing 

 prices. In such calculations as an owner may make for his own 



