Morris tribune., 1910-12-09
THE TIMBER LOT.
BY c. r. Barns, Minnesota Uni
Versity Farm.
4 X s+!s +++++i j

on so many old farms, though in con-
stantly diminishing numbers and with
| a constant shrinkage in dimensions,
for the sake of fuel supply; but an
ample slice of the farm, set aside In
perpetuity for the growing of timber
as it's exclusive crop-that is what is
meant by the timber lot"
The recent enormously high and
still advancing cost of lumber Of all
sorts-and the concurrent discoveries
made that many varieties of quick
growing lumber, heretofore rejected
as worthless, have positive values in
structural work and in the manufac-
ture of furniture, tools and bOxes-in-
dicate that almost every Minnesota
farm of eighty acres or more would be
made more valuable if from one-fifth
to one-quarter of its area should be
devoted to forestry, and planted with
mixture of quick-growing and SLOW
growing varieties adapted to the pre-
vailing climatic conditions By quick
growing" is meant a variety which
will reach maturity-that is, the size
at which it may be most advantage
ously converted into lumber-in from
thirty to thiTty-fve years; by SLOW
growing" a variety which will require
from fifty to eighty years, or more,
for it's most profitable development.
Some so-called hard wood trees are
found in both classes; the conifers are
found only in the slow growing class.
The discovery of high commercial
and manufacturing values in the tim.
Der of many quiek-growing trees
changes the character of the invest.
ment man makes in a timber lot. It
becomes not merely an investment for
pOSterity, something which, like life
policy, may afford competency to his
children long after he is gone, but an
endowment for his own old age also.
For, supposing he plants it with mix
ture of varieties when he is from thiT-
ty to forty years old, by the time he
is from sixty to seventy-fye the one
quarter of his farm which mas been
planted to trees will in all likelihood
be worth more than all the yest of it.
The quick-grOwing trees can then be
numbered, probably for a sum of mon
ey equal to that which would have
been netted from successive wheat
crops, on an equal area, for many
years; and the slOW-grOWing kinds can
be left as an inheritance, gradually &C
quiring an even greater value, for his
children. Meanwhile, another crop Of
trees can be started to take the place
of those numbered.
After the first five or ten years,
however, the forest, if properly cared
for, will afford annual returns in the
shape of fire-wood, poles, etc, derived
from necessary thinning and prunings.
Fruit and nut-bearing varieties, like
the wild cherry, Russian mulberry,
June berry, walnut, hickory, butternut
and beech, will add their contributions
to these returns, and NAPLES may be
tapped for sugar-making without ma
terially interfering with their develop
ment as timber trees. Add the value
of all these annual cuttings to the re-
ceipts from numbering, and the aggre-
gate for fifty-year period will very
from an equal acreage of wheat, on
an average Minnesota farm, at the
prices prevailing during the past quar-.
ter of a century.
Among the Quick-growing trees re.
ferred to as having recently been
found Unexpectedly available for lum.
Der are the willow, cottonwood, box
elder and catalpa
The slow-growing hardwoods-like
the oak, white and green ash, hard
maple, hickory, black cherry, black wal
nut, rock and white elm,-will, how.
ever, always retain superior value,
and are likely, "in the long rum" to
yield the largest returns. The prices
now quoted for some Of these woods
are almost fabulously high, and there
is apparently no chance that the fig
ures will decline.
1t is as certain as anything in earth
ly affairs can be, that the setting apart
of such a timber lot as is here advo-
Gated will considered from the view
point of it's own product alone, prove
about as advantageous a use of the
land as can be devised. But a further
advantage will accrue from the fact
that the remainder of the farm will
profit both from the presence of the
trees and from the concentration
thereon of all the labor now spread
over a wider area. For most of the
attention a forest tract requires can
usually be given at times when it is
not required in the cultivation and
gathering of the cereal and other
crops.
Nothing is here said about including
the pine in the list of trees for the
Timber Lot; because, first, the time
required for it's best development is
so excessively long as to make it's cul-
tivation more properly matter for
the state and for the undying corpora
tion, rather than for individuals. Sec
ond, although, like other trees, the
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