SUGAR PINE. 23 
STUMPAGE PRICES. 
Theoretically the stumpage value of a given body of timber is 
that portion of the difference between the cost of operating and the 
selling value of the manufactured product remaining after a reason- 
able profit has been deducted for the operator. National Forest 
stumpage is appraised on this basis. Thus stumpage values increase 
or decrease directly as the selling value of the product, and inversely 
as the cost of operation. Stumpage values, however, trend steadily 
upward with much less fluctuation than there is in lumber prices. 
Generally speaking, the value of the stumpage on different tracts in 
the same general locality varies with the kind and quality of timber, 
ease of logging, and general accessibility of the tract to the market. 
The value of private stumpage is materially affected by carrying 
and holding charges, which consist of the cost of fire protection, 
taxes, and interest. With interest at 6 per cent, the total annual 
carrying cost is probably about 8 per cent of the value. This annual 
cost must be compounded; therefore, stumpage must double in value 
about every decade in order to make the holding of it profitabie. 
{t is only in comparatively recent years that separate stumpage 
values have been placed on sugar pine as distinguished from yellow 
pine. The bulk of the pine timberlands in California in private 
ownership were acquired from the Government under the timber and 
stone act at $2.50 per acre. These claims were ultimately disposed 
of to speculators upon an acreage basis which meant anywhere from 
10 cents to 20 cents per 1,000 feet board measure. Especially acces- 
sible or well-located tracts brought from 30 cents to 50 cents per 
1,000 feet. This condition existed until the latter part of the nineties, 
when more extensive operations brought about a rise m stumpage 
values. Accessible sugar-pine stumpage in 1900 and 1901 was worth 
about $1. By 1904 and 1905 private sugar pine stumpage was sold 
at from 75 cents and $1 in Siskiyou County and the northern Sierras 
to $1.50 and $1.75 in the southern Sierras. During 1905 considerable 
_ sugar pine was sold from the National Forests in the southern Sierras 
at $2 per 1,000 feet. These same sales included yellow pine at $1.50, 
white fir at 75 cents, and incense cedar at 50 cents. 
The value of privately owned stumpage has increased still further. 
Sales are now made on the basis of board-measure estimates or actual 
scale. However, i most transactions sugar pine and yellow pine are 
meluded at the same rate, and in many cases a flat rate is still made 
covering all species. For well-located timber this flat rate is in the 
neighborhood of $1.75 to $2.25 per 1,000 feet; or sometimes $2.50 
per 1,000 feet if the proportion cf inferior species is ight. Assigning 
to sugar pine its proper share of this average price would make it 
worth from $3 to $4 per 1,000 feet. Timber less advantageously 
located is sold at an average rate of $1.25 to $1.50 per 1,000 feet. 
