tively wide variation in the extent of the increase in forest lands, but a very obvious increase none the less.
Public officials were also liberal with information. The secretary of the Forest Park Reservation Committee of New Jersey gives it as his opinion that
It is no overstatement to say that forest property in any part of New Jersey is worth at least double what it was worth ten years ago.
The acting state forester of Minnesota believes (January 3, 1913)
that the value of wild lands in the northern part of this state has advanced rapidly in the last ten or fifteen years. I believe that it is safe to say that this increase has been as much as from one hundred to one hundred and fifty per cent.
The Conservation Committee of the State of New York writes that
In 1890 a law was passed providing for the purchase of land for forest preservation purposes, not to exceed one dollar and a half per acre. The lumbermen that operated these lands and removed the spruce down to about twelve inches stump diameter, seemed to be anxious to sell their land at that time for this price. It has often been stated that property which the state acquired at that time for this price is worth from twenty-five to thirty dollars per acre at the present time.
Austin F. Hawes, the state forester of Vermont, believes that
It is safe to say that land covered with good timber has doubled in value within the last fifteen years.
The state forester of Kentucky writes that
Judging from the experience of Berea College, which owns about five thousand acres of timber land, on the average timber has more than doubled in value in the last ten years.
The State Board of Forestry of Wisconsin fully confirms the estimates made by private lumbermen from that section of the country. The state forester writes (March 4, 1913):
I believe that the following prices are approximately accurate for the state as a whole:
| Stumpage 20 Years Ago | Stumpage To-day | |||
| White pine | $3.00 | $10.00 | ||
| Norway pine | 1.00 | 8.00 | ||
| Hemlock | .50 | 3.00 | ||
| Birch | 2.00 | 6.00 | ||
| Basswood | 3.00 | 8.00 | ||
| Elm | 2.00 | 6.00 | ||
| Tamarack | .50 | 3.00 | ||
| Cedar | 1.00 | 3.00 | ||
| Spruce | 2.00 | 6.00 | ||
On specific tracts of pine I know of several instances where the stumpage has increased from $2.00 to $5.00 twenty years ago, up to from $15.00 to $20.00 to-day. Another specific tract of mixed timber was appraised and offered for sale by the state for $425, in 1902, but there was no bidder at this price. This winter we have sold the timber on this tract for $1,860.
