i68 



TIMBER VALUATION 



Stump. . . 



Bole 



Limbs . . . 

 Branches 

 Bark 



Softwood 



Per cent 



5 

 60 



IS 

 10 



10 



100 



Hardwood 



Per cent 



5 

 4S 

 20 



IS 

 IS 



100 



It is readily seen that an operation which only takes out the butt 

 logs is utilizing a very small per cent of the whole tree. This 

 often falls as low as 30 per cent where transportation is expensive. 

 Reports on the value of a tract of timber should always take this 

 factor into consideration. It may well happen that a tract only 

 capable of turning out low grade lumber, posts and cordwood 

 may yield much more per acre, gross and, net, than a tract of high 

 quahty timber on which market conditions do not permit close 

 utilization. 



Sale Values. — The per cent of utilization is also a very impor- 

 tant factor in determining sale values per acre because a high 

 value per M may give no real notion of the returns to be expected 

 from a tract if only a small portion of the tree can be gotten to 

 the sawmill. In this discussion the value per acre will, therefore, 

 be taken as the criterion altho lumbermen are more accustomed 

 to think in terms of a thousand board feet than in terms of acres. 

 In other words the point of view assumed is that of the man who 

 wants to know how much a given tract will yield him rather than 

 that of the operator who is interested in turning out a certain 

 product. 



However, the determination of the sale value per M is, of 

 course, the first step in figuring sale values per acre. A list is 

 therefore given of these values for the important species at their 

 nearest market point. These points must necessarily vary 

 because there is no central market in which all kinds of lumber 

 compete on an equal footing. Western fir, for example, only 

 reaches the Atlantic Coast in the best grades while the lower 

 grades are widely used locally. Further it must be remembered 

 that the values given are averages for the log run. Grades can- 



