YIELD TO BE EXPECTED FROM NEW ENGLAND FORESTS 413 



that a steadily rising percentage of the better qualities may be 

 expected in the yield. For example, the "workwood per cent," 

 as the percentage of the annual cut suitable for higher grade 

 products is temied, increased in the state forests of Baden 

 from 30 per cent in 1878 to 40 per cent in 1904, and in the 

 state forests of Prussia rose from 47 per cent in 1890 to 63 per 

 cent in 1907. A comparison of present financial returns from 

 New England's forests with those received from forests abroad 

 is instructive and indicates what opportunity there is for 

 improvement. Based on statistics for 1909, the annual gross 

 value of forest products cut in New England is estimated at 

 $85,000,000. A large share of this value, however, is consumed 

 by the expenses of manufacturing and bringing the material to 

 market, so that the net value, or value standing in the forest, 

 of the annual cut falls to approximately $20,000,000. From 

 this net value there must still be deducted such items as the 

 cost of administering the forest lands, of protection and taxes. 

 These various charges are estimated to equal $5,000,000 a year, 

 leaving $15,000,000 as the annual net returns from a forested 

 area of 25,238,458 acres, or $0.59 per acre per year. This return 

 would be less were it not that the annual cut exceeds the growth 

 at the present time. 



Figures of net return per acre vary widely in the different 

 European countries, and of course vary from year to year in the 

 same country, but the tendency year by year is towards higher 

 net returns, although the cost of management is constantly 

 rising. 



Single private or communal forests of relatively small areas 

 often yield annual net returns of from $8 to over $15 per acre, 

 while instances of even higher yields are on record.^ 



From the values in the preceding table it can easily be seen 

 that the present net return per acre of the New England forests 

 is very low. Results, fully as good as those in Europe, can be 



^ See "Forestry Quarterly," Vol. VII, p. 471, where a private tract of six 

 thousand acres in Suabia, composed 92 per cent of spruce (a very profitable species), 

 is mentioned giving an annual net return of $17.47 per acre. 



