30 



SHORTLEAF PINE IN VIRGINIA 



age is sold at less than the cost of growing 1,000 board feet, or if 

 the stands cut less than the amounts given at the different ages, 

 less than five per cent, net is obtained on the investment. If 

 stumpage is sola at a higher price and the value of the land is not 

 more than $5 an acre, then the investment will yield more than 

 five per cent. 



TABLE 12. 



Cost of growing shortleaf pine saw-timber in unthinned and thinned stands, 

 including thinnings. Land value $5 an acre; interest rate five per 

 cent; one per cent in addition allowed for taxes. 



* After deducting value of thinnings as shown in Table 8. 



The cheapest cost of production, with interest at five per cent, 

 and taxes at one per cent., or six per cent, for both is $6.25 a 

 thousand board feet from unthinned stands and $2.21 from thinned 

 stands. 



The period when the cost of growing the timber is the lowest 

 is known as the financial maturity. If timber is held longer than 

 the period of financial maturity, there must be a considerable ad- 

 vance in its value to cover the cost of carrying it, 'that is, the 

 accumulated interest and taxes, and this is particularly true of 

 old stands the volume of which is increasing very slowly or per- 

 haps actually declining. 



The owner of timberland is interested in knowing the rate of 

 iiiterest he may expect from his investment when the product sells 

 at a give price. Tables 13 and 14 show the interest yielded 

 by stands of old-field pine at different ages, with the land 

 worth $5 an acre and with stumpage selling at $2 a thousand 

 feet and cordwood at twentv-five cents a cord. In table 14 



