STUMPAGE PRICES 



205 



future trend of costs must be considered because no one is going 

 to make changes in stumpage prices for passing fluctuations in 

 costs. For example, a temporary increase in the price of corn 

 need not affect disadvantageously the price of pine stumpage 

 even tho corn is fed to both men and mules. There is a good 

 chance that by the time the lumber is ready for market the 

 price of corn may have changed again, and for the better. Yet, 

 on the other hand, the logger and sawmiU man must be on the 

 lookout for possible increases in costs so that they do not pay so 

 much for their logs that thdr margin is entirely wiped out by an 

 advance in food or labor. 



Of the factors that determine stumpage prices the costs of 

 hauling the logs and the lumber are the most important. The 

 other factors only vary within narrow limits. As a consequence 

 the stumpage price of any piece of timber is dependent primarily 

 upon its distance from a sawmiU and the length of freight haul 

 from the mill to a market. To illustrate take two such unlike 

 softwoods as second growth white pine and redwood. Of course, 

 the latter jdelds very much better grades than second growth 

 white pine because the pine has seldom been allowed to grow more 

 than 100 years while five times that would be nearer the average 

 age of the redwood which is now being cut. In fact second growth 

 pine yields no wide clear lumber. The percentages of the grades 

 obtained from each would be about aS follows: 



Nevertheless the average sale value for both at the mill has been 

 about $30 per M for the log run, with redwood averaging not more 

 than 20 per cent higher than the pine. In the same way the log- 

 ging costs did not vary greatly. Before the war $5 per M would 

 have covered all costs from stump to mill pond in either case. 



