QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS 



New Rochelle, N. Y. 

 Editor American Forestry. — I am contem- 

 plating the purchase of a ten-acre eucalyptus 

 grove in the vicinity of Clay, Sacramento 

 County, California. The price is $200 per 

 acre, 10 per cent down and the remainder in 

 monthly instalments of $20. The company 

 plants the trees and takes care of them for 

 ten years, when they are to be marketed. 

 Five hundred trees to the acre ; and no in- 

 terest on deferred payments nor taxes to be 

 paid by purchaser. The company estimates 

 that ten acres will produce 100,000 feet of 

 timber in ten years. Is this correct? Is 

 there a good market for eucalyptus at tlie 

 present time, and at what price does it sell 

 per M? Kindly give me your opinion as to 

 the desirability Of this purchase as an invest- 

 ment for a person of moderate means. 

 William C. Crosby 



Your letter to the Editor of American 

 Forestry has been referred by him to the 

 Forest Service for reply. For your informa- 

 tion on eucalyptus, I take pleasure in re- 

 questing the Division of Publications to send 

 you the following Forest Service publica.- 

 itons : Circular 59, a planting leaflet on 

 eucalyptus ; Circular 179, "The Utilization of 

 California Eucalyptus," and Bulletin 87, 

 "Eucalypts in Florida." 



Detailed information on the more im- 

 portant species which have been introduced 

 into this country can also be found in 

 Forest Service Bulletin 35, "Eucalypts Cul- 

 tivated in the United States," a copy of which 

 may be obtained from the Superintendent of 

 Documents, Washington, D. C, for $1 

 (stamps not accepted). There has also been 

 prepared by the Forest Service in co-oper- 

 ation with the California State Board of 

 Forestry a bulletin entitled "Yield from 

 Eucalyptus Plantations in California." which 

 can be obtained through Mr. G. M. Romans, 

 State Forester, Sacramento, Cal. I believe 

 these various publications will give you the 

 information you desire. 



I would call your particular attention to 

 the discussion on pages 31 to 33 of Bulletin 

 87, concerning the eucalyptus in Florida. 

 Whether the eucalyptus is planted in Florida, 

 California, or elsewhere in the United States, 

 our present knowledge of the timber pro- 

 duced by plantations in this country does not 

 justify a too sanguine estimate of returns 

 where it is proposed to produce material 

 other than fuel woods, which requires a 

 much longer period to reach marketable size. 

 While it is believed that a eucalyptus planta- 

 tion will yield under favorable conditions a 

 revenue equal to any forest plantation, it 

 remains to be proven whether in the produc- 



tion of large material it will yield the 

 phenomenal returns generally claimed for it. 



I regret to inform you that no provision 

 is made for the free distribution by the For- 

 est Service of forest tree seeds or seedlings. 

 I take pleasure, however, in inclosing a list 

 of dealers from whom the stock which you 

 desire can be obtained. 



Louis S. Murphy, 

 Acting in Charge of Forest Management 



in the East. 



Charleston, West Va. 



Editor American Forestry. — Can you give 

 me the following information, viz. : Have 

 you any record which shows how many mil- 

 lion feet of standing timber (board or cubic 

 measure) is computed to now be contained 

 within the limits of West Virginia? Also 

 what cut of timber ought to be annually made 

 in order to preserve these forests from year 

 to year, taking into consideration the felling 

 of timber and new growth? 



Wm. Seymour Edwards. 



Dear Sir : Your letter of October 5 to the 

 American Forestry Association has been re- 

 ferred to the Forest Service for reply. I take 

 pleasure in informing you that the only avail- 

 able records, as far as I know, of the standing 

 timber in West Virginia are to be found in 

 the report of the West Virginia Geological 

 Survey, Volume 5, 1911. According to this re- 

 port, the total area of virgin forest in West 

 Virginia is 1,574,295 acres. Of this area, 190,- 

 000 acres contain from 20 to 90 per cent of 

 spruce in Randolph, Pocahontas, Webster, 

 Pendleton, Greenbrier, and Tucker Counties, 

 with a few outlying patches in Grant and 

 Preston Counties. The quantity of standing 

 timber in these 190,000 acres is estimated at 

 1,500,000,000 feet of spruce, 1,000,000.000 feet 

 of hemlock and 1,500,000,000 feet of beech, 

 birch and maple. The forests of virgin hard- 

 wood contain about 12,000,000,000 feet of 

 timber, something as follows : White oak, 

 30 per cent; other oaks, 15 per cent; yellow 

 poplar, IS per cent; chestnut, 12 per cent; 

 maple, 5 per cent; beech, 5 per cent; bass- 

 wood, 5 per cent ; other hardwoods, 10 per 

 cent. 



In addition to the 1,574,295 acres of virgin 

 forest, there are 2,882,030 acres of cut-over 

 forest and 5,087,013 acres of farmers' wood- 

 lots. On these areas the stand of timber is 

 not definitely known. In some cases, many 

 woodlots have from 1,000 to 5,000 feet of 

 merchantable timber per acre. 



As the area occupied by growing timber 

 is not definitely known, the growth that 

 takes place over this area can not be ascer- 

 tained. From the report of the West Vir- 



745 



