Obviously no certain answer can be printed here, not only because
no uniform stumpage prices or carrying charges can be predicted but
also because individuals may differ as to what profit is necessary
to make the investment "pay," so it will be necessary to analyze
the situation so each may select the premises which suit his own
case and judgment. The investment made by the holder of cut-over
land is of two kinds; that represented by the land which otherwise
he might sell, putting the proceeds at work in some other business,
and the annual carrying charges which otherwise he might also invest
differently. The sum obtainable by investing the money available
by sale after logging, adding to it yearly the sum required for
fire prevention and taxes, and compounding both at a satisfactory
interest for the entire period, is practically the cost of holding
the tract for any given number of years. By calculating this cost
upon a basis of one acre, and dividing it by the yield board measure
which the same period will produce, the cost per thousand feet of
growing a second crop is arrived at.

Against this may be set the gross return from the same expected
yield at any given stumpage rate. The yield at the end of a 50-year
investment will not be that of a 50-year forest, however, for although
the carrying cost begins at once, the new forest requires a few
years to become established. No exact figure can be set for this,
for some seed will sprout the first year and some blank spaces may
persist several years, but in the tables to follow five years has
been allowed for an average. Consequently, instead of calculating
on a 28 M yield as the return at the end of 50 years, as indicated
in the yield table on the preceding page, the 45-year yield of
20-1/2 M is used, and similarly for the other periods of 60, 70
and 80 years. These four rotations only will be considered here,
for in less than 50 years second growth will probably be too small
to be cut at the highest profit, while after 80 years the investment
compounds so heavily as to make it improbable that increasing stumpage
values will compensate.

Three interest rates have been used in the first table to follow:
4, 5 and 6 per cent, compound. Forest calculations at lower rates
are often seen, but it is not believed that less than 5 per cent
will be satisfactory to private owners and many will insist on 6
per cent. The fair standard is what the owner can make in other
busines