40 



Canadian Forestry Journal, Mar.-Apr., 1912. 



not so accessible, at from i|;2.50 to 

 $5 per i\I. The assessed] value of the 

 timber in the State of Washington 

 averages $2 per M, and this is al- 

 ways considerably below the sale 

 value. 



That these differences will be 

 eliminated in the near future is cer- 

 tain. One of the chief reasons is 

 that the supplies in the East are 

 diminishing rapidly, and the centre 

 of timber production is moving west. 

 The cut of white pine in the United 

 States has been reduced) from 7.742,- 

 000.000 b.f. in 1900 to 3,900,000,000 

 b.f. in 1909; of hemlock, from 3,421,- 

 000.000 b.f. to 3,032,000,000 b.f., 

 while that of Douglas fir has increas- 

 ed from 1,737,000,000 b.f. to 4,856,- 

 000,000 b.f. and Washington has 

 jumped from sixth place to first as 

 a lumber-nroducing state. Another 

 reason is that so much of the British 

 Columbia timber is located directly 

 on protected arms of the sea, that 

 logging operations and shipping can 

 be carried on at all times of the 

 year. The increased railway facili- 

 ties furnished by the Grand Trunk 

 Pacific and the Canadian Northern 

 and the completion of the Panama 

 canal, will remove a handicap which 

 British Columbia has suffered in 

 competing in eastern markets. Then, 

 again, the size and quality of the 

 British Columbia timber cannot be 

 obtained elsewhere except in the Pa- 

 cific States. The damp climate and 

 broken topograohy of the country 

 renders the fire risk less than it is 

 with almost any other timber in 

 North America. 



From the standpoint of the in- 

 \-estor. the tenure under which the 

 bulk of the timber is held is very at- 

 tractive. The owner may now hold 

 the licenses in perpetuity, or as long 

 as there is merchantable timber on 

 them, or they are not required for 

 agricultural purposes. Settlers are 

 not allowed to homestead, purchase 

 or squat on licensed lands, thereby 

 eliminating one of the greatest 

 sources of trouble and loss from 



which Eastern Canadian lumbermen 

 suffer. An annual ground rent of 

 $140 is charged for coast timber, 

 $115 for interior timber, and this 

 amounts on the average to, approxi- 

 mately, one cent per ]\I. The largest 

 part of the taxation is reserved un- 

 til the timber is cut, as it should be. 

 This gives the Government an inter- 

 est in the timber to the extent of 50c 

 per ]\I, and is a great stimulus to 

 Government co-operation in forest 

 protection. This reservation of the 

 50c royalty is practically a loan to 

 the investor of that amount of mon- 

 ey without interest for an unlimited 

 time. On an average stand of 20 M 

 per acre, this loan amounts to $10 

 per acre, and the interest saved to 

 the investor at 6 per cent is 60c per 

 acre, or about three times as much 

 as the ground rent. The lumber- 

 men of Washington are trying to 

 have their taxation arranged in this 

 way, on the ground that high an^ 

 nual taxation forces early and 

 wasteful logging. 



The only practical way of study- 

 ing stumpage values, however, is by 

 comparing the net values after de- 

 ducting the cost of manufacture 

 from the prices of lumber. This 

 may be called the absolute stump- 

 age value. Canadian data on this 

 point have not been collected, but in 

 Bulletin 122 of the U. S. Forest Ser- 

 vice the report of a careful investi- 

 gation of prices between the years 

 1899 and 1906 is given. In spite of 

 the increased efficiency of logging 

 machinery, there is no doubt that 

 the cost of labor is increasing, and 

 the timber logged is less accessible, 

 so that $2 to $2.25 should be allow- 

 ed for increased cost of manufacture 

 during that time. It was found that 

 the average mill value of fir in- 

 creased from $8.67 per :\r in 1899 to 

 $14.20 per :\I in 1906, which, after 

 deducting $2 for increased cost of 

 manufacture, shows a net increase 

 of $3.53, or an average of 50c per 

 annum. Cedars increased in, the 

 same time from $11.68 to $19.27 per 



