FARMEES' INSTITUTES, 



VALUE OF PINE STUMP LAND. 



Before settling for the regular program of the afternoon session a short dis- 

 cussion on this subject took place. 



President E. Willits : I am told that there are many thousand acres of pine- 

 land north of here which, when stripped of their pine will not be worth their 

 taxes. Is this true? If so, is there no remedy? Next year we purpose to hold 

 at least two Institutes in these regions. Possibly this land may not have native- 

 fertility and yet be amenable to the influences of fertilizers, or it may be redeem- 

 able by grasses and be available for pasture or dairy purposes. 



Will some one enlighten us on this subject? 



Hon. C. U. Morse: I have fifteen acres of pine stumps which yielded 100,000' 

 feet of pine per acre. I cleared and began cropping tlie piece twelve years 



ago. 



The first crop was wheat — only ten bushels per acre. 



The second crop was wheat, self sown, but with a little manure was somewhat 

 better than the first. 



I have taken twenty-two and one-half bushels of wheat per acre from among 

 those stumps. 



Two years ago the field was in clover and two hundred sheep and sixteen, 

 head of cattle made very little impression upon it. 



Last year I took 75 bushels of corn per acre from among those same stumps.. 



That land is very far from worthless. It needs culture and manure, but 

 chiefly it ne>ds to be freeed from the stumps. 



Pres. Willits: What is the soil? 



C. H. Morse: Sandy, mixed with gravel, with no clay subsoil. 



Pres. Willits: Have you travelled through lands that are called worthless- 

 pine lands? 



H. Morse: Yes, I have, and I think they are a good deal the same as- 

 these I have described. 



Pres. Willits: They tell me that there are large tracts which will only yield. 

 two or three crops and after that must be abandoned? 



C. H. Morse: Across the fence from me are lands originally like mine,, 

 which have been cropped to death, and which now will not raise white beans ;. 

 and yet if the stumps were out of it I would as lief farm on that soil as on any 

 other. 



Dr. Beal: What is the cost of stumping such land? 



C. H. Morse: I do not know. Dynamite is of no use in sand; but the stumps 

 are worth almost what it costs to get them out for fencing because they will 

 last forever, as the small boy said he knew to be the case, as his father had 

 tried it twice. 



Query: Would $35 per rod build that fence? 



C. H. Morse: I would give |1 per stump to get them out and it would cost 

 all that tlie land is worth. 



H. L. Holcomb : The white sands are really worthless unless for the growth 

 of some kinds of timber. After the pine is cut it comes up first to briars and 

 then to poplar. 



But all pine land is not of that kind by any means. I cut some pine near 

 Edmore, put the land into wheat and got twenty-four bushels per acre. I have- 

 now one hundred and twenty acres of that land from which I took three sue- 



