42 FOREST VALUATION 



general experience of France with its non-paying coppice woods 

 on relatively valuable sites clearly proves this. 



The regular timber forest with rotations over sixty years alone 

 makes a satisfactory Yr. 



e. Up to reasonable limits the final cut varies almost directly 

 with the length of the rotation. German experience indicates that 

 for pine, spruce, fir and beech a one hundred and forty year rotation 

 produces as high a Yr as is likely to be produced by any higher rota- 

 tion. The difficulty of keeping the stand intact and growing is 

 very great and generally demands the cut before one hundred and 

 forty. 



While the effects of the methods of treatment, silviculture, on 

 Yr are quite well understood and fully recognized, their estimate in 

 dollars and cents is not easy. This is especially true of the eflfects 

 of thinning, and it is one of the important tasks of the forest ex- 

 periment stations today, to gather reliable data based on careful ex- 

 periment. Schwappach has made an effort to estimate the effects 

 of thinnings in beech and spruce, and to a less extent in pine, but 

 these efforts are still tentative. That a full and clear appreciation 

 of these facts really constitutes the most important part of a for- 

 ester's judgment regarding his business, is self-evident. 



f. The market with its prices and grading determines the value 

 of the crop when once it is produced. In the United States the 

 market is irregular, uncertain and localized ; it is excellent in New 

 York, Boston, Chicago, etc., but poor in the forest districts. Most 

 of the timber has to be transported over long distances and the price 

 at the mill and in the forest is low as a result. Cypress goes from 

 the Gulf to the northern states and east ; red fir, sugar pine and red- 

 wood are railroaded clear across the continent. 



A good telephone pole or a i,ooo feet of good pine retail for 

 as much money in the towns of southern Michigan, Ohio or Indiana 

 as they do in Germany. But an enormous supply of merchantable 

 or mature stuff ready for the ax encourages destructive competi- 

 tion among manufacturers so that while good quality pine is retailed 

 in Michigan as high as one hundred dollars per thousand feet it may 

 be sold by the manufacturer in California or Oregon for less than 

 cost of production, leaving no Yr at all for the stand in the forest. 



These conditions are rapidly changing and the value of the stand 

 in the United States as in Germany will be determined largely by 

 the cost of growing the timber. 



As it is, the stumpage price or unit price of Yr has increased 

 rapidly being now more than one hundred per cent greater than 

 twenty-five years ago. 



