GROWING PINE AT A PROFIT 



1045 



tracts, or by the selection of sample plots, and the results 

 in each case were reduced to terms of board measure. 



^'Vmong the plantations measured is one fifty-five years 

 old at Rehoboth, Mass., owned by Mrs. Clara I. Hub- 

 bard. It was planted by a ^fr. Cliristopher Carpenter, 

 and pasture trees were used, and spaced about eight tcj 

 ten feet. So regular was the growth found to be, and 

 so much care was originally exercised in lining up the 

 rows, that a slightly different method than that of sampk 

 plots was employed in measuring. Two rows of trees 

 through the tract were taken for heights and diameters, 

 and the contents in each case multiplied by the total num- 

 ber of rows. A sample plot was selected as a check on 

 this work and gave about the same average result. Sixty- 

 six rows, covering about seven acres, were found U> 

 contain 304.590 board feet, or about 43,500 board feet t^ 

 the acre. 



.\t South Lancaster, i\Iass., two plantations were 

 measured. The first, that of Air. Harold Parker, had 

 been investigated by the Government nearly ten years 

 ago and four sample plots laid out and the trees num 

 bered. A record of this data was loaned by the Depart- 

 ment of Forestry at Washington, and with the help of 

 this the amount of tree growth for the decade was deter- 

 mined. It v\'as found that the stand was making a 

 current annual gain of about 1,000 board feet to the acre. 



The other plantation at South Lancaster is mentioned 

 because, in this case, a thinning was made in 1908, being 

 practically the only stand on which work of this kind 

 was carried out. Fourteen thousand feet of box boards 

 and 40 cords of wood were removed. The dead branches, 

 so persistent on white pine, were knocked off from the 

 trunks of the trees in order to improve the appearance 

 of the grove. The planting was originally done in two 

 sections. The sixty-year-old growth measured 43,620 

 board feet, and the forty-one-year-old 26,000 board feet 

 to the acre. 



A summary of all the measurements made shows that 

 plantations 30 to 40 years old would yield, if cut, 21,910 

 board feet ; plantations 40 to 50 years old, 33,726 board 

 feet, and plantations 50 to 60 years old, 41,186 board feet 

 to the acre. These results compare very favorably with 

 native stands of white pine, measurements for which 

 have been carefully made for several years under State 

 Forester F. W. Rane, both in the field and at the mill 

 Assistant Forester H. O. Cook in 1914 compiled a table 

 of rotations for native pine for assistance to wood-lot 

 owners in applying the new forest taxation law. The 

 gross returns are represented by the stumpage value 

 obtained from a yield table made by measuring sample 

 plots in well-stocked stands in all parts of the state. On 

 comparison, the amounts given in this yield table are in 

 substantial agreement with the average shown by the 

 plantations. The stumpage rates chosen run from $6 to 

 $10, which are the rates of the present day, no allowance 

 being made for the future increase in lumber prices. By 



liMEKlOU VIEW OF I'L.WTATIOX 



Showing tlie regularity of planting and growth in trees which are now 

 iifty-five years old. It is estimated that the net profit of this white 

 pine if cut now would be at the rate of $140.25 an acre. 



substituting, therefore, the plantations for the native 

 stands, the profit or loss on the investment may be de- 

 termined from the time when the trees are old enough 

 to yield lumber to the time when they enter the period of 

 old age. The cost of the land is assumed to be the first 

 expense, and is placed at $5 per acre. The second is the 

 cost of planting, which is placed at $12 per acre and 

 includes both the raising of the seedlings at the nursery 

 and the final planting of them upon the land selected for 

 forest. The tax rate is placed at $20 per thousand. The 

 land pays taxes from the beginning, but the timber, if 

 classified under the new law, not until it is cut, when it 

 pays a product tax of 6 per cent. All of these expenses 

 are carried at 5 per cent compound interest to the end of 

 the rotation. 



At thirty-five years the interest on the land value 

 would be $22.56, the cost of planting plus interest would 

 be $66.18. taxes and interest would be $7.85, tax paid if 



