CHAPTER IX. 



TIMBER ESTIMATING AND VALUATION. 



Methods of timber estimating are numerous and of varying 

 degrees of accuracy. The method which should be employed 

 depends very largely upon conditions. Usually there is not the 

 same need of exactness in estimating timber on a large tract 

 that there is on a small one, since the large tracts, as a rule, do 

 not have a very heavy average yield per acre, and they are situ- 

 ated in remote regions where the stumpage price is comparatively 

 low. Some small tracts, on the other hand, are worth from $ioo 

 to $500 per acre, on account of heavy yield and proximity to the 

 market. Naturally one would employ more exact methods of 

 estimating the stand on a fifty-acre tract priced at $5000 than 

 on a ten-thousand-acre tract valued at $100,000. As a general 

 thing the more valuable the timber the greater the need of an 

 accurate and elaborate estimate. 



Estimating lumber is like every other business; the more ex- 

 perience a man has in it, the more accurately he can estimate 

 and the simpler the methods he can use. Many lumbermen, or, 

 more correctly, timber cruisers can go over a large tract in a 

 casual way and estimate fairly well the total amount of timber 

 upon it. They are able to do this because they have had ex- 

 perience in cutting off many similar tracts and know the amount 

 of lumber taken from them. The roughest method is simply to 

 compare in one's mind the tract under consideration with those 

 with which one has had experience. This method is liable to 

 errors of twenty -five per cent even when used by experienced 

 men. Stumpage prices of timber have now advanced so much 

 and competition is so great that practically all cruisers now use 

 some more accurate system. 



It should be said at the outset that the land owner or pro- 

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