Forestry on the Plains. 1 55 



feet, all along from fifty cents to three dollars per thousand. Nursery groAvn, 

 range grades higher. Many millions are now planted annually. 



COST OF PLAXTING 



Depends much on circumstances, price of land, labor, varieties planted, 

 skill in planting, and many other minor details. Cottonwood seedlings can 

 be furnished in quantity, from fifty cents to one dollar per thousand. Box 

 elder and soft mai')le, from one to two dollars. Oaks, ash, walnut, hickory, 

 catapla and chestnut, from five to ten dollars. Robert Douglas & Son, Wau- 

 keegan, Illinois, are contractors for planting timber on the plains. From a 

 letter on the subject, I quote : 



" We plant this section for the railroad company. They pay the actual 

 cost of breaking and cross-plowing the prairie, which costs four dollars an 

 acre. We prepare the land, furnish the trees, plant them four by four feet, 

 and grow them till they are four to six feet high, and shade the ground till 

 they require no further care or cultivation, and are to deliver two thousand 

 trees, four to six feet high, on each acre, for which we receive thirty dollars 

 per acre. In taking contracts for the future we will charge five dollars per 

 acre for breaking and cross-plowing the land, as the cost of getting the teams 

 together, seeing that it is properly done, measuring for the different plow- 

 men, paying them, etc., costs considerable, and actually stands us about five 

 dollars per acre. 



" Then labor has advanced since three years ago, so that we shall add |5 per 

 acre, thus making, including breaking the raw prairie and everything, till the 

 trees are delivered over, $40 per acre, getting the |o per acre at the time of 

 breaking, $20 per acre when the trees are jilanted, and $15 per acre when 

 they are delivered over. 



" When the trees are delivered over they are to be four to six feet, but most 

 of them are much taller, and two to two and a half inches in diameter at the 

 butt, jx-rfectly free from weeds and not the least particle of danger from fires, 

 as the catalpa leaves are very much like pumi:)kin leaves, and rot down. 

 They need no pruning, as 100,000, four years planted, ten to fifteen feet high, 

 are now shedding their under branches, or at least they are dead and will 

 soon shed off. 



'• I was to select land for another plantation when I was out last month, but 

 the land that could have been bought three years ago at $2.80 per acre, is now 

 worth $12 to $15 per acre, and on this account, we concluded not to purchase. 

 This would not make so much difference as it appears to, as the land will 

 keep on increasing in value. 



" We think this a reasonable price, taking all the risks and care ourselves, 

 and if any railroad companies or forest planting associations should under- 

 take it, it would certainly cost more. Of course we would take the contract 

 to plant without the further care — that is, $20 an acre for the trees and plant- 

 ing, or $25 if the prairie is unbroken." 



This will afford an approximate estimate of cost where all is done by con- 



