SUGAR PINE. 23 



STUMPAGE PRICES. 



Theoretically the stumpage value of a given body of timber is 

 that portion of the difference between the cost of operating and the 

 selling value of the manufactured product remaining after a reason- 

 able profit has been deducted for the operator. National Forest 

 stumpage is appraised on this basis. Thus stumpage values mcrease 

 or decrease directly as the selling value of the product, and inversely 

 as the cost of operation. Stumpage values, however, trend steadily 

 upward with much less fluctuation than there is in lumber prices. 



Generally speaking, the value of the stumpage on different tracts in 

 the same general locahty varies with the kind and quality of timber, 

 ease of logging, and general accessibility of the tract to the market. 



The value of private stumpage is materially affected by carrying 

 and holding charges, which consist of the cost of fire protection, 

 taxes, and interest. With interest at 6 per cent, the total annual 

 carrying cost is probably about 8 per cent of the value. This annual 

 cost must be compounded; therefore, stumpage must double in value 

 about every decade hi order to make the holding of it profitable. 



It is only in comparatively recent years that separate stumpage 

 values have been placed on sugar pine as distinguished from yellow 

 pine. The buJk of the pine timberlands in California m private 

 ownership were acquired from the Government under the timber and 

 stone act at S2.50 per acre. These claims were ultimately disposed 

 of to speculators upon an acreage basis which meant anywhere from 

 10 cents to 20 cents per 1,000 feet board measure. Especially acces- 

 sible or well-located tracts brought from 30 cents to 50 cents per 

 1,000 feet. This condition existed until the latter part of the nineties, 

 when more extensive operations brought about a rise in stumpage 

 values. Accessible sugar-pine stumpage in 1900 and 1901 was worth 

 about $1. By 1904 and 1905 private sugar pme stumpage was sold 

 at from 75 cents and $1 in Siskiyou County and the northern Sierras 

 to SI. 50 and $1.75 in the southern Sierras. During 1905 considerable 

 sugar pino was sold from the National Forests in the southern Sierras 

 at $2 per 1,000 feet. These same sales included yellow pine at $1.50, 

 white fir at 75 cents, and incense cedar at 50 cents. 



The value of privately owned stumpage has uicreased still further. 

 Sales arc now made on the basis of board-measure estimates or actual 

 scale. However, in most transactions sugar pine and yellow pine are 

 includod at the same rate, and in many cases a flat rate is still made 

 covering all species. For wcdl-locatcd timber this flat rate is in the 

 neighborhood of $1.75 to $2.25 per 1,000 feet; or sometimes $2.50 

 per 1,000 feet if the proportion of inferior species is light. Assigning 

 to sugar pine its proper share of this averag(^ ])rice would msike it 

 worth from $3 to $4 per 1,000 feet. Timber hns advantag(M>usly 

 located is sold at an average rate of $1.25 to $1.50 per 1,000 feet. 



