The Ward County independent. [volume] (Minot, Ward County, N.D.) 1902-1965, 1910-11-24
THE TIMBER LOT.
BY c. r. Barns, Minnesota Uni
versity Farm.
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for the sake of fuel supply; but an
ample slice of the farm, set aside in
perpetuity for the growing Of timber
as its 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-
dictate 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 quickgrowing and slow.
growing varieties adapted to the pre-
vailing climatic conditions. By quick
growing" is meant a variety which
will reach maturity-that is tho size
ut which 1t may be most advantage
ously converted into lumber-in from
thirty to thirty-five years; by "slow
growing variety which will require
from fifty to eighty years, or more,
for its 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 dis, overy Of high commercial
and manufacturing values in the tim
Der of many quick-growing trees
changes the character of the invest
ment a man makes in a timber lot. Il,
becomes not merely an Investment for
posterity, something which, like a life
policy, may afford a 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 thir-
! ty to forty years old. by the time he
Is from sixty to seventy-tve the one
quarter of his farm which has been
planted to trees will in all likelihood
be worth more than all the rest of it,
The quickgrowing 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.
| curing 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 Ave or ten years,
however, the forest. If properly cared
for, will afford annual returns in the
shape Of fre-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-maling 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 tiftyyear period will very
likely exceed what has been gained
from an equal acreage of wheat, on
an average Minnesota farm. at the
prices prevailing during the past quar-.
ter of century.
Among the qutck-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 !=5uloGsly high, ara there
is apparently no chance that the fig
ures will decline.
1t Is as certain as anything in earth
, 1y affairs can be, thai The setting apart
Of such a timber lot rs is here auvo-
Gated will, considered from the view
point Of its own product alone. prove
about as adyan tagcnUs Use Of tie
land as can be devised Bat fIrt her
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 forest tract requires can
usually be given at times when 1t 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 its best development is
so excessively long as to make It's cul-
t1vation more properly matter for
the state and for the undying corpora
ton, rather than for Individuals Sec
ond, although, like other trees, the
pine will grow better on good land
especially on a rich soil with a clay
subsoil-it has its natural home on
the comparatively poor land, not
adapted to agriculture, of which there
are such large areas in Northern Min
nesota east of the Red River country
The owners of good farm land