38 
PRICE INCREMENT 
Although on the Harvard Forest the rotation for oak is 
seventy years, yet there remains the question whether a 
holding over of the crop would not be justified owing to the 
increment in price from year to year. 
In order to answer this question, annual prices were ob- 
tained from both lumber dealers and local furniture manu- 
facturers. There was a wide divergence in the amount of 
increase from the year 1900. In Figure 6 is given the price 
increase taken from the books of a large furniture manu- 
facturer. Complete records had been kept for many years. 
There was a steady increase from 1900 to 1917. In the latter 
year the first effects of the Great War began to be felt in the 
local wood using industries. Prices from 1917 onwards 
mounted rapidly until in 1920 the apex was reached. These 
inflated values have not been inserted. The price quoted for 
1921 is a long way in advance of the 1917 price and this in 
spite of the fact that it is now some months since the great 
fall in prices. The price paid for oak to-day is also surprising 
since the output of the factories is small and they are working 
on short time. Even at the steady rate at which prices in- 
creased from 1900 to 1917, in a few years an almost prohibi- 
tive price would have been reached. This curve must surely 
bend over and a much slower rate of increase ensue. For the 
future, then, nothing can be learned from the study of the 
annual prices, except that the price increment cannot 
continue. 
