44 



FOREST VALUATION 



and $2.10 to $4.90 per 100 cubic feet solid for cordwood and small 

 timber, also on the stump. 



Average prices for log timber cut and usually peeled and 

 skidded, i. e., ready to haul from the woods, in the state forests of 

 Wurttemberg were as follows : 



g. The cost of exploitation and transportation are intimately 

 associated with market and greatly affect the value of the final cut. 

 In the United States the cost of getting the timber cut, skidded and 

 hauled to the railway, landing, etc., has not changed very much in 

 spite of the great variety of conditions under which the work must 

 be done. A cost of from four to six dollars per M feet of logs 

 would probably include seventy-five per cent of all operations. Nor 

 has this cost changed materially in the last twenty years. Generally 

 the employment of machinery and the utter disregard for the safe- 

 ty and condition of the forest have enabled forest utilization to keep 

 down the expenses of logging or immediate exploitation. 



Timber exploitation in Europe works with cheaper labor, less 

 equipment and less efficiency. In districts with good and ample 

 road systems it is cheaper than the work in the United States, in all 

 difficult situations and whenever it works over long distances as is 

 the rule in the United States, it is not cheaper and often eats up the 

 larger part of the value of the cut. 



The cost of exploitation, (Werbung's Kosten), for all timber 

 in the state forests was as follows in 1900: 



Prussia $0.98 per 100 cubic feet, or about $1.25 per M. feet bm. 



Saxony 1.26 per 100 cubic feet, or about 1.55 per M. <feet bm. 



Wurttemberg 1.33 per 100 cubic feet, or about 1.65 per M. feet bm. 



But these figures are not readily comparable to logging costs 

 in the United States. The stuff includes cordwood, poles, ties, mine- 

 props, etc. Moreover the material is commonly not skidded, and 

 even if skidded, it is so only for a very short distance, generally less 

 than two hundred yards. 



