Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1892-05-13
PROFIT IN FORESTS.
ONE WAY OF MAKING WORN OUT
FARMS PAY FOR THEMSELVES.

The Feasibility of Planting abandoned"
Acres to Different Kinds of Salable
Wood-Most Trees Require Many Years
to Mature, but Some May Be Cut Early.
A good many people who would like to
live on farms of their own in summer
months are deferred from purchasing forty
Oh eighty acres by the fact that there seems
to be no way of getting any interest out of
the capital invested. A good deal has
been said recently about the abandoned"
farms of New England, and the low prices
at which they have been and are offered
for sale have attracted many longing eyes
from the city's hot shops and close count
ing rooms.
.sIf could see any way of making even
the interest out of one,'' said a New York
commission merchant the other day, 'I'd
buy fifty acre farm, repair the old house
on it or build plain one and turn my
family loose there every summer. There
would be no need then of keeping the
children well dressed, as one has to do
even in country hotel or boarding house,
and no bills to pay, except for food and a
servant or two. But the very fact that
these farms are cheap is due entirely to the
poor quality of the soil. If farmers could
make wheat and oats and stock pay well
on these lands they would not abandon
them. / have no time to farm any way,
and to employ others to do it for me would
be throwing away money, if the soil was
as rich as the Mississippi bottoms"
Snow, what this man Grants" said an
enthusiastic student Of forestry, sis knowl-
edge of some crop which, once planted
will take care of itself for hundred years:
pay him some interest on his money while
it is coming to maturity, if he gets his
land cheap to begin with; and at the end
of forty years be worth more than fifty of
the original farms. Such a crop is to be
found in forest trees.''
Forest trees!" exclaims the New York
er. "Do you take me for a Methuselah?
Before fifty years are over will be en-
gagged in other pursuits than money max
ing, theologians tell me'
'You don't need to wait fifty years." is
the answer of the forestry enthusiast
''They don't wait that long out west, where
forestry is being carried on to some extent
already. There man plants his prairie
wood lot with various kinds of trees, some
Of them quick growing varieties, others of
the slower sort. He plants them close to-
gether for several reasons. One reason is
that the trees may force their way sky
ward before spreading out, Forest trees
are mastlike in their proportions generally.
Each seeks to spread its foliage in the sun
light above it's fellow. Plant the same
kind of tree in an open field and it spreads
it's branches out from the first. Sunlight
is all around it and there is no reason for
exertion, This tree is more symmetrical,
on the whole, but not nearly SO valuable
for timber as the long, bare trunk of the
forest tree.
Another reason for planting them close
together is that they may be thinned out
with profit as they grow. In few years
the owner begins to cut out his small trees
and sell them, to be made up into barrel
hoops. AS they grow larger, they are in
demand for hop poles. Larger still, they
make fence posts and are wanted for wood
pulp in the paper mills, and then the re-
mainder are far enough apart to be let
alone to grow into stout timber. This crop
of small stuff, for hoops, poles, etc, does
not cease at any time. 1t keeps coming
up, year after year, among the bigger
trees.
1.-The secret is to make the right choice
of trees. Probably the most valuable sort
are black walnut, wild red cherry and
white ash There will always be de-
mand for these woods in the manufactures
and the supply grows steadily less. The
other day man bought a tract of forest
land in one of the southern states and sold
one big "curle1' walnut tree on it for al
most half as much as he paid for the place.
IoJ1 IL
price at present for a big black walnut
tree of the ordinary variety. In parts of
Illinois the early settlers cut up black wal
nut for fence rails. Some years afterward,
when the rails had rotted away, the farm
ers were grubbing up the stumps and sell
ing the gnarled roots at a handsome profit.
A farmer in this or a neighboring state
who has many wild cherry trees on his
land need not worry much over grain and
root crops. Spectators will come out
from this city and pay well for the priv
ilege of cutting his trees for him and car
rying them away.
$50 that it takes no argument to prove
that fifty acres of such wood is a fortune
in itself, equal to life insurance policy for
the owners children and source of con-
stand pleasure, some profit and little ex-
pense to him while he lives. 1t can be
realized on, too, at any time after the trees
begin to approach maturity. Hickory and
butternut are both valuable woods, and
the nuts from these trees are always sala,
ble
1.-THE demand for Christmas trees also
grows yearly. Canadian forests are now
being drawn on for New York's supply.
"On George Vanderbilt's purchased place
in North Carolina forestry is going to be
carried on in large and intelligent way.
He possesses an advantage over prairie
farmers in having large part of his tract
covered with trees already, but he proposes
to show that, contrary to the accepted idea
Of treating woodland, it is not necessary in
order to make money out of it to destroy
the forest New York Tribune