36 



BULLETIN 299, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICTJLTUBE. 



Applying the foregoing mill-run or f. o. b. values to Table 16, 

 taking $14 as an average cost of lumbering, would give stumpage 

 values as follows: 



Size of 

 trees in 

 diameter, 

 breast- 

 high. 



Stumpage value per 1,000 

 board feet. 



Low. 



Average. 



High. 



Inches. 

 7 to 11 

 12 to 16 

 17 to 21 



84.18 



7.82 



11.45 



S7.82 

 12.36 

 16.91 



$12.36 

 18.73 

 22.36 



These values may appear too high, because in practice the operator 

 is often at present able to purchase his stumpage for less than its 

 real value and accordingly makes more than 10 per cent profit. 

 This state of affairs, however, is rapidly disappearing as the supply 

 of raw material diminishes; and the operator will finally be forced 

 to do business on less rather than on more than a 10 per cent profit 

 basis, especially when it comes to the purchase of second-growth 

 timber grown at some expense under forest management. Further, 

 it must be remembered that the timber grower is not at the mercy 

 of the market so much as the manufacturer and the farmer, because 

 he can more easily hold his goods until better prices obtain. 



Probably a record price for ash stumpage was paid in 1913 in 

 east-central Illinois (near the Indiana line) when $32 per thousand 

 board feet was paid for a quarter million feet of old-growth white 

 ash, while on the same tract, $125 per thousand board feet was paid 

 for black walnut, $24.75 for white oak, and $18.05 for hickory. 



ADVISABILITY OF FOREST MANAGEMENT OF ASH. 



The growing of ash timber, under proper management, will some- 

 times pay 6 per cent or better on the money invested, where good 

 yields per acre and good stumpage prices are obtained. This is 

 shown by Table 18, which gives the compound-interest rates (where 

 3 per cent or over) to be realized on different initial investments in 

 growing ash where the yields indicated in Table 15 are obtained and 

 where the stumpage is worth $5, $10, $15, or $20 per thousand 

 board feet. 



