The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-01-14
REPORT Is MADE
 ON COAL LANDS Values and Mining Methods Are Generally Discussed LEASING OF THE LANDS. Hqher Prices of Recent Years Have In No Way Decreased the Sales of
 Land That Bears Any
 Minerals.

Washington, January 13-(Special. )-The
 geological survey has issued the follow ing report on Values of the Public Coal Lands" Owing to it's connection with the
 forthcoming Balinger investigation, the report is of more than ordinary interest
 al this time. The report is as follows:
 What is being done with the 100000 or
 more acres of coal land in the west which still remain in the possession of the gov ernment? The total area of the western
 coal fields. according to the information
 of the United States geological survey, is 100000 acres. The annual report of the
 commissioner of the general land office for 1909 shows, however, that since the
 passage of the coal land law in 1873 only ,919 acres have been patented as coal lands. Large areas were legitimately &C., quired through railroad and other land grants and some had already passed into private ownership before the enactment of the coal land law, but the conclusion is forced that much of this great acreage, representing a resource of enormous value, was through either fraud or ig- i norance, acquired under other laws. What 1 the country should be interested in today is the question of the immediate status
 and administration of the 7oO0o,0 acres l of coal land yet remaining in the hands of the federal government Is it being
 carelessly administered and indiscrim-
 inately disposed of so as to fall into the
 hands of monopolistic syndicates, or has
 the government in Its present plan of
 classification and valuation adopted an
 adequate and comprehensive programme
 for protecting the interests of the peo- l pie? Under this plan, is fair money re- turn being made to the federal treas ury for the coal lands as now sold and
 on the other hand are the prices fixed such as to encourage mining development
 in the west. or are they prohibitive to the
 opening of new fields and new mines and l do they thus play into the hands of l those owning the remainder of the west
 ern coal lands? These questions and 1 other phases of the subject. of the coal
 deposits on the public lands are discussed l in United States Geological Sur ,ey Bulle- l tin 424, The Valuation of Coal Lands
 Stated in sentence the present scheme
 of classification and valuation by the gov ernment is based on selling coai land at l coal prices and fixing the price per acre 1 on an estimate of tonnage content and l quality of coal. An acre-foot of coal com prises approximately 175o tons; thus an
 acre underlain with a 12-foot coal bed contains 2l,000 tons The work of classi- 1 fication of the coal lands and determine 1 ton of the tonnage is one of purely geo. l logic scope: the valuation and sale is one 1 of administration The bulletin in ques- l ton contains two discussions, one on coal 1 land values by G. L. Ashley and the 1 other on depth and thickness of beds as factors in valuation. by c. A. Fisher. l Price at Which 1t Can Be Mined. , The fundamental premise of MT. Ash 1 ley's paper is that any 40 or f6o or 640-acre
 tract of coal land, as the case may be- 1 is worth today what it can be purchased 1 for and mined at a fair profit, allowing ] for operation. the cost of carrying until 1 mined out, taxes and contingencies. This l price is arrived at from study of the present sale price of private coal lands
 and the royalties charged by individual or
 state lessors. A table of royalties is given and discussed showing a present average l in the United States of about 10 cents a 1 ton, with a strong upward tendency. The commercial value of coal land is consid- 1 cred from three standpoints-the values
 placed on their coal lands by companies desiring to float bonds, the value at which coal lands are assessed by county
 assessors all over the country and the 1 prices at which coal lands are actually 1 sold in the principal coal fields. A typical
 example of bonded coal land is cited in which a value of 5000 an acre is placed ! on the land by the coal company. The
 assessed values of coal lands. 1t is shown 1 range from q to s6S0 acre for anthra- l cite coal, with assumed valuation of l from one to four times these amounts l The sale prices for bituminous coal lands 1 range from 50 cents for lands in unpros l pected territory to 5000 an acre for the l best coking coal land.
 Royalty System Used.
 Adopting the royalty charge as the best measure of the value of private coal lands now on the market and taking a 10-cent | royalty fair average with an assump- 1 ton that 20 years is. sufficient time to
 allow for the mining out of tract (which
 would give an average interest and tax 1 paying period of 10 years) the govern ] ments scale of cash prices for it's coal 1 lands has been figured out to correspond,
 making fair allowance for various con tingencies. This results in a one-fifth
 cash price of what the royalty would
 amount to. This may be stated hypothet- icaJly as follows: ,
 Purchase price per acre ... ...... ;. s10o co Interest on Slc0 at per cent for
 10 years. compounded annually. 97.00
 Allowance for taxes and contingent
 cies ... |. :. |. !. ...... ;. =. 5so -
 Cost of land at average time of
 mining U. .. ;. .. <. !. .. ,eso %
 mining ... =. =. ... .. 25o co l Resulting in total of ... ..., ... $500 %
 Or the estimated royalty return per acre.
 In other words. starting with an acre
 of coal land which will yield an esti-