The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1876-12-16


human race also.
As the disappearance Of our forests Is con-
stantly going on from year to year, with 4 cor
responding increasing demand for frewood and
timber, the time must come at no very distant
period when these islands will be entirely de-
nuded of forests. We have no coal-felds of our
own, and we shall be compelled to import not
only every stick of timber for the building and
repair Of vessels, but the means cooking our food.
1t is an ascertained fact that the eucalyptus,
perhaps the most valuable of all trees, thrives
well here, and that it hourishes amongst stones
and rocks and on old lava flows, where little else
Of value will grow. An acre planted with
eucalyptus FIVE by six feet apart, would contain
1852 trees. a second acre, were the trees
planted nine by ten feet, would contain 544
trees. In the first acre, in which the trees are
planted FIVE feet by six, they would in six years
grow to a height of from sixty to seventy feet,
with a diameter of from FIVE to eight inches.
Planting thus closely compels the trees in their
scramble for light to shoot upwards very rapidly,
and it soon becomes necessary to thin them out
by removing every alternate tree, which IN num-
bers would amount to 726, leaving the remainder
six feet by ten apart. The trees thus removed
would be useful as timber for the purposes of
the wheelwright and ship-carpenter, for fencing,
&C., and a valuation of fifty cents apiece even as
frewood would be very moderate. We will
estimate then the value of the first thinning
in the seventh year at 1868, leaving 726 trees
standing on our first acre. At the expiration OF
another five years q second thinning would be
imperative, taking alternate trees, 1863 in num-
Der, and leaving 1868 on the acre, ten by twelve
feet apart. The 1863 trees cut each seventy to
eighty feet in length with a diameter of from
twelve to fourteen inches, sold as frewood would,
at present prices OF the article, be worth certainly
not less than 50 apiece. while for shipbuilding
and spars they would be still more valuable.
So we may safely put down the value of the
second thinning in the twelfth year at $726.
There are now remaining 363 trees on this first
acre, which will of course need a third and last
thinning out when they become so close as to
injure their growth, so that the distance between
the trees eventually becomes twelve feet by
twenty.
Those trees planted on the second acre, nine
by ten feet, have not grown to the height of those
planted five by six feet, but while growing
upward have grown also in diameter, and in
nine to ten years need thinning out by removing
every other tree. These being from twelve to
fifteen inches in diameter and seventy feet high,
are of as much if not more value than those of
the second cutting, say 272 trees cut, realizing
1914, leaving 272 trees, ten feet by eighteen.
The whole number of trees remaining on the
two acres after the three cuttings would be
ABS, representing the capital realized from the
operation. In from ten to twenty years, these
trees being from 100 to $50 feet in high, with
iameters of from three to six feet, would be
worth on an average at the lowest estimate as
p~lanking for ships, keels, sternposts, spars and
masts, ten dollars apiece, or in the shipyards of
England or Scotland eight cents a foot. The
balance sheet for these two acres of eucalyptus
would stand as follows
EXPENSES.
Cost OF 20OO plants. %
Digging 2OOO holes at Z 40 %
Planting the same at 2 cents. 40 90
$500 90
From first thinning, 9Th 90
" second do 18th 7e 90
" third do 10th 54 90
1888 90
Value of 435 trees remaining at $40. .....-......435O 90
5sss 90
Deduct expenses. 800 90
Nett pr0nt. 10000 "