126 PROCEEDINGS OF THE 



money per acre per annum, and the return on the 

 capital invested in the land and that portion of the 

 merchantable timber which it would be necessary to 

 hold over until a second cutting. 



Actual measurement of the forest on 5 per cent, 

 of the lands developed the fact that by curtailing the 

 present cut by less than 20 per cent, the company 

 could, after twenty years, again obtain an amount 

 equal to 45 per cent, of the present cut. This at the 

 present value of stumpage, figuring at compound 

 interest, is a 2 per cent, investment, but assuming a 

 rise in stumpage value to $5, it is a 6 per cent, 

 investment. Should the value of stumpage reach $10 

 per thousand, which we confidently believe will be the 

 case, the value of the timber in twenty years' time 

 will represent an investment of 10 per cent : Included 

 in the calculation is a liberal allowance for the value 

 of the land and of the timber held over, and for 

 taxes, and cost of protection. 



This assumption of a rise in the value of yellow 

 pine stumpage leads to certain general considerations 

 which influence the practicability of forestry, and 

 brings in a speculative feature of the lumber business 

 in the South. It is only recently that economic 

 conditions have justified the yellow pine lumberman 

 in considering seriously the possibility of holding his 

 cut-over lands to lumber a second time. Up to a 

 comparatively recent date the value of pine stumpage 

 in the South was exceedingly low ; means of transpor- 

 tation to market were unsatisfactory; the market 

 itself was restricted and uncertain; and competition 

 with Northern pine was keen. Of late years, however, 

 the development of Southern timberlands has been 

 phenomenal. The growing scarcity of longleaf pine 

 and the steadily increasing demand for it renders 



