THE ADVANCE IN THE VALUE OF 



STUMPAGE 



BY 



JAMES T. BARBER 



President Northwestern Lumber Company, Wisconsin 



""THE selection of the writer to furnish for your con- 

 sideration information on this subject, necessarily 

 confines the question to the value of white pine stump- 

 age in Wisconsin, as his experience and observation 

 have been confined to this quality of timber and to 

 this locality. Every one, at all familiar with timber 

 values, knows that the advance in white pine stumpage 

 in this State in the past thirty years, has been phe- 

 nomenal, but few realize its full extent. This advance 

 has been peculiar when compared to other property, 

 in that, while the increase in values has not been 

 regular and continual, the market price of pine stump- 

 age has never taken a step backward. Every change 

 in prices, from year to year, has been upward. 



Perhaps as good an illustration of the increase in 

 values of this class of property, covering practically the 

 entire period of development of extensive lumbering 

 operations in Wisconsin, is the experience of Cornell 

 University. In 1862 the Congress of the United States 

 apportioned over 9,000,000 acres of land to the differ- 

 ent States, the proceeds of which were to be devoted, 

 by the several States, to the establishing and mainte- 

 nance of schools ^nd colleges in which such branches 

 of learning as are related to agriculture should be 

 taught. Scrip, called Agricultural College Scrip, was 

 issued to the several States and by them placed upon 



