PIITH NATIONAL CONSERVATION CONGRESS 375 



by increased stumpage values, nor is it always possible to increase the output in 

 order to take care of these charges, because the market will not absorb a greatly 

 increased production. 



STUMPAGE VAI,UES AND LUMBER PRICES. 



It is generally recogized that stumpage values never go down, whereas lumber 

 prices frequently do. At the present time, for example, the average prices for 

 coniferous lumber in ordinary grades are no higher — and in some cases they 

 are lower — ^than they were 25 years ago. At the same time stumpage values of 

 many woods are two or three times higher. This simply means that if an operat- 

 ing lumber concern buys stumpage today, there may not be enough margin between 

 the cost of production and the selling price to justify operating; although many 

 plants are kept running under these conditions because of the necessity of keep- 

 ing the organization together and of securing ready money with which to meet 

 current obligations. There can be no conservation under these conditions. High 

 stumpage and low lumber values mean quick liquidation where possible, and all 

 the attendant evils of over-productions, waste, and abandonment of the cut-over 

 areas to fire destruction and tax sale. 



In the Pacific Northwest, where there are large reserve supplies of timber, 

 it is freely said today that the millmen cannot afford to buy stumpage at present 

 prices, nor even to buy logs in the open market for manufacture into lumber. It 

 is also frequently said, and often without exaggeration, that most of the money 

 made in the lumber business is in selling stumpage which was bought at the lower 

 price of a few years ago. If these statements are true, it is very apparent that 

 long-time management, which must necessarily involve manufacturing, would not 

 be a profitable enterprise. 



In addition to the general conditions which influence private forestry, there 

 are many operating details which affect any variations from the usual practice. 

 The danger from fire is still a fundamental handicap in many regions, and fire 

 will always threaten the destruction of new growth, if not mature timber, in the 

 greater portion of the country. Even assuming that the fire hazard will be 

 reduced to a safe minimum, the operator in many regions still has no clear way 

 to practice the close utilization which is an essential of private forestry. It is 

 simply folly to bring material from the woods to the mill which cannot be sold 

 at a fair profit after being manufactured. It is practically certain that many mills 

 today are losing money on much of their low-grade material, merely because they 

 have not figured carefully enough on the relation between the cost of producing 

 low grades and the price received. 



LUMBERMEN NEED INSTRUCTION. 



If the evidence was all in, it would make convincing testimony as to why the 

 private timberland owners, as a class, cannot practice close utilization or indulge 

 to the full in intensive forestry methods. On the other hand, it is equally certain 

 that there are many cases where these same private owners do not do as much as 

 they could or should in applying the measures which will ultimately make private 



