Bismarck tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, D.T. [N.D.]) 1878-1884, 1880-10-08
VALUE OF TREE PLANTING

1T rs THE MOST VALUABLE IN.
VEsTMENT FOE FA RMERs.
How Much It Costs to Plant an Acre
Of Trees and the Increase in Val.
ne in Ten Years---An Im-
portant Suggestion.
Editor Tribune: 5.-s. srsg.-z
THE TREE AREA.
BISMARCK, D. T.. Oct. 1st.-Since my
arrival IN your bustling and prosperous
town, many parties holding claims under
the Timber Culture Act, have expressed
grave doubts whether it would ever pay
to plant and cultivate as the law requires
some even expressing the opinion that
they had better abandon their claims or
else change them to homesteads or pre-
emptions. For the general good of the
country, and the particular good of such
parties, allow me to commence by saying
in plain language, that forest tree plant
ing, properly conducted, is the only leg
itimate business that will beat money at
interest. The most reliable statistics at
my command place the timber area of
this territory at from four to seven per.
cent. of the entire area. These timbered
tracts arc chiefly, if not wholly confined
to the river bottoms, cooleys, and mar.
gins Of lakes. The great agricultural
area the tracts of ground where people
must live, where the crops are grown and
from whose settlement and cultivation
depend almost wholly the prosperity Of
your people, your railroads. and the 1u-
lure of Dakota, are practically destitute
of Timber. Scientists inform us that a
permanently productive and prosperous
country should have from s. @aa
TWENTY TO TWENTY-FIVE PER. CENT.
its whole area covered with forest. The
equalization of rainfalls--the arrest Of
too much evaporation, the modification Of
the climate generally by extensive forest
tree planting, all imperiously demand it.
Between Bismarck and Fargo. each side
of the Northern Pacific railroad, are
whole counties so nearly destitute Of TIM.
Der that if as densely settled as many of
the older counties of Minnesota, would
not furnish frewood enough TO last twen-
ty-four hours, and this IS a fair sample of
the whole territory. These treeless coun.
ties must of necessity be converted into
fruitful fields and permanent homes for
million people. They must have wood
and timber for fuel and shelter for all
time, The demand, great to begin with,
will continue to increase with the growth
and prosperity of the country. In my
own field of operations l am planting,
cultivating and protecting tree claims till
the. time for securing title has come
around, for $40 per acre. The. average
farmer can do 1t without the outlay of a
dollar in money. But admit for the sake
OF argument that his time is money, and
look at the results. He plants as the law
requires, not less than four feet apart
each way. This requires N !
273O TREES PER ACRE. v.e ~.
If he plants only cottonwood the cheap
est to get, the most rapid grower and re-
quiring shorter period OF cultivation
than any other variety, he can within sew
en- years from time of planting, thin out
enough for fuel and fencing to more than
pay the total expenses of that time. He
should then have not less than twelve
hundred thrifty, sturdy trees from twenty
to thirty feet high, and from four to eight
he can gradually thin out the forest, and
in so doing will have all annual revenue
from the sale thereof to more than pay
his necessary store bills. Say he does
this for ten years, more gradually thin
ming out the forest till lie reduces the
number down to three hundred per acre,
which three hundred per acre is about
right for permanent stand. Here after
seventeen years, all expenses paid within
the first seven years, an annual income
SUE for ten years more, we find him the
owner Of a handsome grove of timber,
each tree good for from three fourths Of
cord to a cord and quarter. Say they
average q cord per tree, and the thing fig
ures up 300 per acre, which 1T only u dol
lar Il cord on the stump is $500 per acre
tor the stumpagc. 2 You can do this. You
can do 1t with more certainty than you
can raise fifteen bushels Of wheat per acre
for fifteen or orseventeen successive years.
THIRTY. FIVE YEARS. EXPERIENCE =
in forest tree planting on the northwest:
ern prairics justifics me IN saying that no
crop, usually grown by the farmer, is us
sure to grow, and to pay Wei, as Il crop Of
forest trees. Il have selected the cotton
wood as an. example, on account Of your
locality, which is SO abundantIy supplied
with young trees Of This variety, and Of
Just the proper age and size for trans
planting tba the poorest man, can, with
out money: accomplish the results above.
written. More valuable varieties pay far
better. Away down thisvalley, in Mono
Ma county, Iowa, Judge G. z. Whiting has
a crop OF black-walnuts growing, that
will yield his children more than $1,000
per acre. and that within twenty-five
years. Cottonwood trees that I planted
in Minnesota in 1853 stand from seventy
10 eighty feet high s:d thirty to forty
inches in diamerter good for two cords
per tree, and now worth on the stump 50
per cord. Aside from the mcrccnary con-
siderations each of us owes something to