LAND VALUES 13 



exact influence of interest and depreciation must be determined. 

 The most complete discussion of this subject is to be found in 

 the U. S. Forest Service Stumpage Appraisal Manual. For our 

 purposes it is sufficient to state the principles involved. Actual 

 stumpage values for spruce and balsam range all the way from 

 $2 to $8 per M according to the accessibihty of the tract in ques- 

 tion. Between 1900 and 1907 there was an increase from $2.26 

 to $5.49 per M, or a rise of 143 per cent. The percentage of bal- 

 sam also influences the stumpage price of a tract. Fortunately, 

 however, this inferior species seldom makes up more than 25 per 

 cent of the total stand except in immature stands only large 

 enough for pulpwood. It is a relatively short-lived tree which 

 has to yield in the long run to spruce. Consequently there is 

 seldom enough to greatly depress the value of a tract. 



Land Values. — Land values in this type are impossible to 

 determine from current sales because the timber is never sold 

 separately. However, members of the New Hampshire Timber- 

 land Owners' Association have agreed to the taxation of their 

 clean-cut lands at $2 per acre so that that figure may be used as 

 a minimum valuation. From the productive aspect it is easy 

 to show that spruce land is worth at least $3 an acre using a 3 per 

 cent interest rate and assuming that there \vill be a yield of 15M 

 feet in 100 years worth $150 an acre. Losses from insects, fungi, 

 etc., will be offset by possible intermediate yields from thinnings. 



Very little of the soil in the spruce type has any value for 

 agriculture. Even as pasture in the Southern Appalachians it is 

 not a success. The soil is so thin and the slopes so sharp that 

 grass takes hold very slowly and cannot prevent washing. Fur- 

 thermore, the climate is so rigorous that only the hardiest north- 

 ern crops can survive. However, arguments and illustrations of 

 this kind are superfluous. The facts prove the case. Scarcely 

 I per cent of the entire type, north or south, has ever been cleared 

 up for either tillage or pasture in spite of the keen demand for 

 agricultural land that there has been in the northeast and south- 

 east. 



Titles. — Title questions are relatively simple because the tracts 

 involved have usually been handled in large units. There have 



