The Republican journal., 1906-05-17
TIMBER AS A FARM CROP.

"!he planting of trees has not appeal
ed IN large way to the American
people as practical or profitable thing.
because, primarily, of the slow growth
OF the tree; secondarily, because in a
large part of our country native trees
are more or less plentiful, or lumber.
fuel and fencing can be had for reason
able price, says Commercial West.
"The average American has not come
to seriously consider investing ANYTHING
for the coming generation that cannot
be pulled up and shipped to some new
location. Our population is not no.
madlc but it is by no means fixed. In
the west, especially, comparatively few
children live to middle age in the home
where they were born or even near it.
TO plant trees for ones children would
appeal to large percentage of the
western owners of land, but to plant
for the son of foreigner is not an at
tractive proposition. For this reason
chiefly the timber areas of our treeless
sections have increased with very slow
speed. In the past one hundred years,
it may safely be said, two hundred
acres of land have been denuded of tim
Der for every one acre planted
'In New England there are many eX-
timber and being unfit for tillage,
has been permitted to raise another
crop of timber-pine, spruce or harder
woods-and has proven to be in crop
period of fifty years worth more to the
farmers estate than the same number
of acres in crops. So plentiful are these
examples that there IS no question to-
day but that man can with certainty
provide handsome legacy for d child
by the growth of a forest crop of mer-
charitable timber for him. Crops of
white pine or spruce have been grown
in Maine that in fifty years have been
worth 5000 to 81 900 per acre. Nor has
the value of this crop all been deferred
to the time of harvesting. Twenty
acres of such a crop could well furnish
a family good fuel supply without at
all impairing the value of the general
crop. Nor does this take account of
the groves landscape, its flood-retard-
ing or wind-break value.
'All these lessons are yet to be learn
ed by all but very few Of the people
east of the Mississippi RIVER. In the
treeless regions west of the river there
has been more or less serious attempt
on the part OF many landowners to
plant trees by the acre. Many OF these
experiments are now Old enough to fur-
niSh some data as to what may be
reasonably expected from forest plant
ing and cultivation in the treeless and
more or less arid sections of the west
as well as in territory of good rainfall.
Nebraska has to-day about 300, 900 acres
of planted forest of varying ages and
fortunes.
Clifford Pinchott, chief of the United
States Forestry Service, states in
recent publication that at Urbana, ILL.,,
there is thlrty-fve-year old plantation
of European larch (tamarac) good for
posts, poles, ties, etc, that is now worth
1913 per acre; and another in south
western Minnesota tWentyone years
old, worth S471 per acre. In North Da-
kota he reports cottonwood planta-
ton twenty-three years old that has
grown 1886 worth of lumber and fuel
per acre; white willow plantation
twentv-one years old in eastern South
Dakota that is worth now $500 per acre;
a southeastern Nebraska catalpa plan
tation that yielded S2l3 worth of fine
posts per acre in fourteen years, and
another twenty years old at Quincy, ILL.,,
that is now worth $3.50 per acre. Some
of the southern railroads are making
plantations of catalpa along their right
of way and in larger areas plantations,
using the trees when of sufficient size
for ties and posts. The results in value
of crop per annum are surprising ana
instructive The examples cited above
are not rare. They represent many
successful plantations and an lndlctlon
of what any farmer may do with small
expense.
''The examples given show that the
land planted to trees as a crop PAID an
average of $40 to $40 per annum Tor
terms of years ranging from fourteen
to thirty-fve. There are few farms IN
these regions that will show a better
return per acre for this period from
their annual crops. In fact, the forests
records of profits are far beyond the
average of annual crops and are posi-
lively handsome. There is no doubt
but that the returns fourteen to thirty
five years from this date will be much
more handsome than those that can be
shown today. Fuel, fencing and ium-
Der must advance in value for many
wears TO come.-Bradstreets'