168 Canadian Forestry Journal. 



to the financial conditions imposed at the titne of the sale, and the 

 uncertainty as to what changes in this respect may be made in the 

 future. 



The three ways in which the lumberman pays for his logs 

 have each a special bearing on how^ it will be most profitable for 

 him to cut the timber. The tendency of the stumpage dues, 

 which are paid only when the logs are actually harvested, is 

 towards conservative cutting. The higher the stumpage dues, 

 the more careful will the lumberman be to select only the more 

 mature timber, certainly no immature timber which has a stump- 

 age value of less than the stumpage dues will be cut. The 

 payment of a portion of the stumpage in the form of a cash-in- 

 advance "bonus" has quite the opposite tendency. Assume, 

 for illustration purposes, a pine stand cutting ten million feet 

 of mature timber which has an average market value of ten dol- 

 lars per M as it stands, or a total of $100,000. If sold at public 

 auction on a stumpage basis for $10 per M the operator will cut 

 no trees which when manufactured will not yield at least $10 

 per M over and above the cost of manufacture. Suppose, 

 however, that $80,000 of the purchase price be paid cash in ad- 

 vance in form of " bonus " with the stipulation that the remaining 

 $2.00 per M be paid as stumpage dues when the timber is cut. 

 The same operator who in the first case found it in his interest 

 to cut no trees which were not worth $10 per M on the stump 

 will now find it in his interest to cut whatever may have a 

 stumpage value of $2.00 per M. The cutting of the young pines 

 having a stumpage value of between two and ten dollars per M 

 may under circumstances be the main difference between good 

 forestry and destructive lumbering. 



The annual payment of a "ground rent" per unit of area 

 held by the lumbermen is worthy of special consideration. The 

 payment of any annual tax on woodlands tends to early cutting 

 and discourages holding for a second crop, hence affects the har- 

 vesting unfavorably from the standpoint of practical forestry. 

 How great will be this unfavorable influence depends on the 

 amount of the tax and the rate of interest demanded by the 

 lumberman for the capital invested. Wherever there is a ground 

 rent levied it becomes necessary for the lumberman when plann- 

 ing logging operations to consider carefully whether it will pay 

 him to cut with care that he may return again after a period of 

 years for a second crop — reasonable safety from fire being assured 

 — or whether the tax will eat up the profit of any yield that he 

 may hope for over and above what can now be realized by cutting 

 clean without regard to the future. This is the only point of 

 view from which the lumberman as a business man can regard 

 the logging of the lands under his control, whether they be owned 

 or leased. 



