CHAPTER XXI 



TIMBER VALUATION 



In the determination of the value of standing timber, or stump- 

 age value, the following four factors must be considered : 



1. The amount of the timber in board feet, cubic feet, coras 



or other unit. 



2. The quahty of the timber. 



3. Sale value of the finished product whether lumber, cord- 



wood, etc. 



4. The costs of manufacture including logging, milling, etc., 



and a reasonable profit to the logger and mill man 



Estimating. — It is not necessary to discuss here in detail the 

 various methods employed in determining the amount of stand- 

 ing timber. It does seem apropos, however, to summarize the 

 facts which have been developed in the discussion of the different 

 types of timber with reference to the costs of estimating. 



The cheapest kind of an estimate is, of course, a guess and 

 strangely enough this method is employed widely with one of our 

 most valuable types of timber land, second growth white pine. 

 The reasons for this are that the stands are remarkably uniform 

 in size and density while there is but one merchantable species 

 and the tracts are small. It is perfectly possible for an experi- 

 enced operator to guess within 5 per cent of the true amount. 

 But no man would feel safe in applying this method to large tracts 

 which he could not walk all over in a day. Hence it happens 

 that large tracts of cheap stumpage such as are found in the 

 tropics must be taken as examples of the second cheap method of 

 estimating, the sample plot method. In this way a large area can 

 be covered expeditiously and yet sufficiently accurate results ob- 

 tained. For most cases the third method — the strip system — 

 is the best. Where the tract is large, the stand uniform and the 

 stumpage cheap the percentage of the area actually measured may 



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