34 BULLETIN 1496, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 
An owner of a jack-pine tract of, say, 40,000 acres, wishes to devote 
his land continuously to growing jack pine. What are the elements 
of cost and the basis for figuring the possible returns from such an 
enterprise ? 
Jack pine in 40 years, with only protection of the growing stands 
from fire, will produce on an average about 20 cords per acre, in- 
cluding good, medium, and poor soils. Let us assume that the owner 
logs every year 1,000 acres. In 40 years he will, therefore, cut over 
the entire tract. At the end of the 40 years, the first 1,000 acres, 
which he logged, say, this winter, will, if the land is given fire pro- 
tection, be ready to cut again, and the same will be true of every 
successive 1,000 acres logged. 
The average stumpage price of jack pine at present is $1 a cord. 
The returns from the 1,000 acres, if the average stand of the tract 
logged is 20 cords, would represent an annual gross income of $20,000 
for : stumpage alone, or on an acre basis, $20. 
The cost involved in producing continuously this gross income is 
the protection of the entire 40,000 acres from fire, or, for every acre 
cut, 40 acres protected. Assuming 10 cents per acre as the cost of fire 
protection, the owner will have to spend every year out of every $20 
gross income per acre $4 for protecting 40 acres from fire; for the 
40,000 acres, $4,000. In addition, of course, there will be the annual 
taxes to pay on the entire tract out of the income for the 1,000 acres 
cut, or on 40 acres from the income from 1 acre cut. The taxes vary 
all the way from 10 cents to 35 cents per acre for cut-over land. 
Assuming 15 cents per acre as the usual annual tax on jack-pine land, 
that would mean $6,000 on the entire tract, or $6 on 40 acres. There 
will be in addition the cost of slash disposal, amounting to 1714 cents 
per cord. This item is charged to logging cost in assuming a stump- 
age value of $1 a cord. The value of jack-pine land is at most $1 
per acre, which must be considered as a permanent investment, and 
only the annual interest of, say, 4 per cent must be charged against 
ihe, annual gross income. The total computation, then, is as in 
Table 6. 
TABLE 6.—Annual costs and returns; 40,000 acres of jack pine under crude 
forestry; 20 cords per acre on 1,000 acres cut annually over 40 years 
| | 
Item Costs Returns 
SS SH a ee ee a) ee iar See 
20,000 cords cut annually on.1,000 acres, at $i. 2 =. 2a a tS tae Fa ee ee $20, 000. 00 
Fire protection, at 10 cents per acre, 40,000 acres_________________----__----_- $4, 000. 00 
Waxes, at [bjcents periacke =i.) 4. SR eae eer ee Ae eee 28. ee eee eres oer 6, 000. 00 
Interest at 4 per cent on land valued at $1 per acre__________________--_____- 1, 600. 00 
Annual costof carrying 40;000 acres ©.) ee. 2 ee se eee | 11,600.00 
Net return on 40,000 acres.222.-322 2 ee ee a ee ee ee eee 8, 400. 00 
Net return: per acre Guts .250 222-25 = se BARE oe Rs oe ee 8 Es Se oe ee eee 8. 40 
Net return per atre owned. 222224). ELE RSE ee  ea soe ge he See eee .21 
The growth removed from an acre of mature timber represents the 
annual growth of 1 acre for 40 years or the growth of one year on 
40 acres. By protecting from fire 40 acres the owner secured the 
growth which he removed from 1 acre of mature timber. His assets, 
therefore, are not destroyed but simply reinvested, and the profit of 
