The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 18??-1935, 1907-08-23
DEMAND FOR PENCIL
WOOD ENORMOUS

WASHINGTON, d. c., Aug. 49,
The United States Forest Service, IL
reviewing the red cedar industry il
this country, points out how raising
this tree can be made quite profitable
| in the South.
Red cedar is tree of comparatively
moderate requirements as to soil anC
moisture, and while it grows better
under favorable conditions it is
hardy tree and is found naturally, and
can be planted, on the bluffs and
among the sand hills of the semi-arid
plains. Like most trees of simple re
quirements, red cedar grows slowly
and as is usual with slow-growing
cone-bearing trees. its wood is fine
grained and valuable. Indeed, nc
other American-grown wood has the
distinction of being regularly sold by
the pound, and very few are SO well
night indispensable for any purpose
as is red cedar for pencil wood.
Red cedar originally grew in quanti-
ties sufficient for numbering through
out the eastern portion of the United
States south Of the Ohio river, but
very much of it has now been cut and
marketed. 1t is no wonder, then, that
pencil manufacturers are deeply con-
cerned as to their future supply Of
pencil wood, as they observe the rapid
removal of the red cedar forests.
Enough cedar to fill daily. ten rooms
of the dimensions 10 to 20 feet each
is required for the 315,000000 pencils
manufactured Although the pencil
trade, by paying higher prices, Sc
cures the best product of the larger
trees, it is by no means the only
market. A red cedar post is excep-
tionally durable, and so much in de-
mand that many timber owners sell
their red cedar at post size, rather
than hold it twenty years longer when,
at an age of sixty years, an ordinary
stand of 100 trees per acre would yield
eight times as much for pencil wood.
In other words, it does not pay to in
vest money in growing 200 cedars to
the acre if the trees are cut at the
age of 40 years for posts, while it does
pay a sum equal to 81 cents forsevery
year of the investment period if the
same trees are allowed to reach 60
years and then sold for pencil wood. |
The annual profit from 800 trees per
acre cut at go years for pencil wood ,
would be 81 cents, and that from 400
trees per acre would be 81 cents.
AS tree for planting, red cedar has
generally been regarded as suitable
only for situations where more rapid
growing trees would not endure the
of soil or climate. In many
parts of the southeastern United
States, however, young red cedar can
either be pulled up in the clumps
where it has come up naturally or
hipped in at a cost not greater than
2 per thousand, red cedar can be
,lanted in the sod at cost of $4.S4
,er acre, spacing the trees 6 feet
part, making total of 1,210 trees per
Gre BY removing half of the trees
t the age of 25 years, to stimulated
rowth (thus securing second-class
osts to pay for the labor and three
ourths of the remainder at 40 years
when posts at 6cents each, stumpage,
ill yield $4,000 per acre., the stand ,
reduced to $50 trees per acre,
landing II feet apart. Assuming an
lterest rate of per cent. land at Sc
er acre, planting at $4.S4, annual
axes cents, and management
ents per acre, the following returns
err acre may be expected at the end
go years:
ross returns, including thin
nlngS .............s.. ..... SolV
otai expense NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS.. III t
ct prOnt .............. ........ 90
,terest on investment, 55 per cent L