The Cook County herald. [volume] (Grand Marais, Minn.) 1893-1909, 1906-01-20
PRICES OF STUMPAGE.
Big Advance in Northwest During the
Past Twenty Years

but steady increase in prices during the |
last twenty years, as the timber has as
steadily disappeared. i
In Michigan the prices of pine stump.
age on an acre basis twenty years ago, as
taken from the files of lumber journals
of that date show that in 1866 white
pine was worth from 81 to $1.25 per
acre. In Wisconsin and Minnesota,
twenty years ago pine timber could be
bought for rs cents to 50 cents per
thousand feet.
Today, thousand: feet basis pine
commands from $40 to 1926 in Michigan
and from 81 to SIS In Minnesota and
Whconsin.
There are three controlling factors,
the lumbermen claim. regulating the
value of timber. These are location and
accessibility; quality and density of
growth. In some locations it is said
that the operator would have to pay an
extra dollar in order to conduct his op-
considered worth that much less. In
other traclsthe timber is faulty. or with
natural defects and in still other local.
tiles the timber is so scattered, both
conditions that must be consi dered in
arriving at value when a prospective
purchaser puts in his estimators.
From 1850 to 1860 it is said that white
pine was sold entirely by the acre and
between 1860 and 1870 the prices were
adjusted on a stumpage basis, running
from Is cents to IS cents per thousand
feet.
Between the years 1870 and 1879
prices grew stronger 80 that by 1880
they we're generally around the marks of
ST. and $3.50 per thousand feet. From
1879 to 1884 there was a marked stiffen-
ing in stumpage values and by 1885
]umbermen were paying from So to 81
per thousand. After that it was not
long before prices mounted steadily up
ward past the SIS, the SIS and the 81
marks. At the present time the price
is not narrowly circumscribed.. 1t is
said that sales of Minnesota pine have
been made as low as 81 and as high as
500 per thousand feet.
Attention has been called to the fact
that the difference between the present
prices and those obtained forty or fifty
years ago is not explained fully by price
pine that would today bring from So to
$40 per thousand feet could not have
been sold thirty years ago at any price.
In early days the lumbermen logged
only the first class timber as it was the
only kind saleable. At the present time
they log everything and scarcely leave
the leaves and tops.
Commenting on the variation of pric-
es the American lumberman says but
little pine is left IN either the upper or
lower peninsula of Michigan. Wiscon-
sin has yielded the greater portion Of it's
pine and Minnesota contributed more
than half the amount it contained orig
inally. :
Experienced lumbermen say that
tracts of pure white pine tim Der ace hard
to get at any figure nowadays, that
some of the stumpage sold contains
absut equal quantities of white pine,
Norway and tamarack, and prices vary
with the: proportion each timber bears
to the total amount. -. ~
"'The ratio Of increase in timber prices
has been greater in the past than seems
possible in the future" says the Lum-
f. Timber bought at So so au acre ten
years ago and sold. at $15, or valued at
that, shows a gain of cooper cent The
same ratio of increase on purchases
made today. would mean asprice of 800
per. acre in ten years. and not even. the
!: most optimistic timber holders. has set
the mark 50 high " lille the price per
acre probably will show a greater gain
during the next period just ended, the
percent age @of increase will be-. much
SINAI Her and the amounts n invested much.
greater. i. While future records ma nd.
probably will Esho Wz earn q as. large as.
those Of the past they Wil lrepr esen { 81
g i sma Ter per cen E. ot prof + soh the.
Ejgreaters amo omit. s. cap tal emf Dyed and.
rend er Il difficult for The man prZ con.
Germ of anal means to 4 secuFe d FOOT