366 TIMBER BONDS 



diffei-ent kinds of timber on each survey, but the purpose 

 of this letter is to give you some further information re- 

 garding the general character of the land, gathered during 

 our personal examination of it. 



"As will be seen from the map of the property, the 

 various surveys constitute an almost solid body, very com- 

 pact, which is one of the requisites of an easily logged 

 tract of timber land. We think that, taking into account 

 in this case all conditions which ordinarily affect logging 

 operations, this timber could be logged very cheaply; good 

 transportation facilities are afforded by the railroads now 

 running through the tract, the International & Great 

 Northern and the Trinity & Sabine railroads, and the 

 Beaumont & Great Northern. The latter, although but a 

 short road used for a logging railroad, could undoubtedly 

 be made of much service in developing this property. The 

 only part of the tract for which a railroad would have to 

 be built is the part lying west of the town of Trinity, and, 

 as the land there is very gently rolling, there would be 

 very little grading required in the building of the rail- 

 road, and no bridges, as there are no streams of any con- 

 sequence in this part of the property. The surface of the 

 land throughout is gently rolling, just enough to give it 

 good drainage, although it is not far from level; the pine 

 land is never overflowed, and there would be no trouble 

 with high water in conducting logging work. 



We consider the timber good short leaf pine, green and 

 thrifty. The estimate, carefully made under the super- 

 vision of our Mr. P. A. Lemieux, is accurate and the figures 

 speak for themselves. Besides the short leaf pine above 

 mentioned, there is a large amount of good hardwood 

 timber on the land, which adds a great deal to the value 

 of the tract." 



TIMBER VALUES. 



It is now a matter of common knowledge that standing 

 timber in the United States is constantly becoming more 

 scarce and rapidly increasing in value. This increase in 

 values has been especially marked in the last three years, 

 owing to the rapid depletion of the forests to supply the 

 constantly increasing demand for lumber. The United 

 States Department of Agriculture (Forest Service) reports 

 that the timber of this country is being consumed three 

 to four times as fast as its natural increase. The con- 

 sumption of lumber per capita is more now than ever be- 

 fore. The increase in population from 1880 to 1890 was 

 52 per cent., but the increase in the lumber cut was 94 

 per cent. Yellow pine (the kind of timber standing on the 

 lands covered by this mortgage) is still far in the lead 



