io8 PROCEEDINGS OE THE 



closely estimated and the value of an acre of land was 

 determined by the number of thousands of feet of logs 

 that could be cut from it. But, as in nearly all cases 

 where their is an advance of stumpage values, there 

 was not a commensurate rise in the value of sawed 

 product. Operators with large holdings of standing 

 timber were made rich by the advancement in the 

 value of their stumpage, while they found it necessary 

 to pursue the strictest business methods and use the 

 most economical appliances in order to produce lumber 

 at a profit on the basis of stumpage values. Conse- 

 quently there followed the utmost utilization of the 

 pine on a given area of land. As the years passed 

 standing pine continued to advance in price in greater 

 ratio than sawed product, and the effort to convert 

 every possible tree into salable lumber increased. A 

 great change was induced, a change from the old 

 method of cutting all the larger trees and those nearest 

 the water, as was done in the '405 and '503, to the 

 latter-day practice of scraping the land of every tree 

 that would produce mechantable lumber, down to those 

 that would turn out only a 4x4, with possibly bark on 

 one or more corners of the piece. Sometimes have 

 been cut in this way trees whose product would not 

 pay the saw bill. Yet there was produced from them 

 a product useful to the community at large which from 

 the lumberman's point of view would have been wasted 

 had they been left in the woods, and his natural desire 

 for thrift and economy led him beyond the point where 

 his operations would result in profit to himself. 



The development of railroad logging has also had 

 its notable influence in this direction. The expense of 

 building logging railroads into the timber is so great 

 that only comparatively solid bodies of timber will 

 carry it. When the merchantable timber is taken out 



