PRICING A FOREST

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXII, Issue 19365, 23 July 1925, Page 10

PRICING A FOREST

A COMPLICATED TASK Valuing standing timber is a more complicated task than is generally imagined. It is true that some valuers can estimate, within a negligible percentage, the market value of a wood by doing little more than walking through it. but these are men who have acquired that “feel” for timber which can be gained only by long and constant practice. The usual method is far more laborious (says ' the Daily Chronicle). A fairly representative plot of, say. half an acre is selected, and then, with the aid of a measuring strap, the girth of each tree at about breast height from the ground is noted. The valuer nevt determines the length of the tree. and,.after taking the quarter girth, from ■which is deducted onetwelfth for bark thickness, can mentally estimate its cubic contents. Still keeping a careful record of all details, he proceeds in the same manner with a second plot at some distance from the first, and in this way strikes an average for the whole area. The valuer now knows the exact bulk of timber with which he has to deal, but he cannot immediately determine his final figures by a consideration of the ruling market prices.

Other factors enter into this final reckoning. For example, the value of a wood depends very largely upon its “lie,” that is to say its position in relation to a main road or railway station. Again, the age and species of the trees must be taken into account.