ILLINOIS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETV. ^[5 



i 

 beef-raising; and quiic likely the shellt-r these trees would furnish his 

 cattle in suniiner and winter would actually augment his profits on beef. 

 But not one farmer in ten is likely very soon to plant even that much of 

 his land in trees. A few, therefore, might plant fit'ty or one hundred 

 acres to great advantage, looking soleh' to the sale of his crop for the 

 profit. 



The most common, in fact the only objection assigned is, that they 

 have to wait too long for return of ca])ital and |)av for labor e.vpended. 

 This would be a valid objection to one who could not reasonably expect 

 to make a living off the balant:e of his land not planted in trees; but to 

 one who has enough left to make a li\ing, or who has other sources from 

 which to draw, the objection is not good. Everv dollar a prudent, eco- 

 nomical man makes, over the amount necessarily consumed by himself 

 and family, is only so much yearly augmentation of his wealth, whatever 

 shape it mav assume, whether in land, stock, utensils, household furni- 

 ture or biink slock. Thus every year he is laying up his surplus earnings 

 for the future, which he rarely expends, and never aims to pan with 

 until he leaves it as a legacy to his heirs. In the choice of means, then, 

 that which would bring him the greatest amount in the end, with the 

 least toil and mental care, it would be wisdom to adopt. 



I am well aware that any calculation we may make for years to come 

 may prove to be uncertain. So it is with everything else. But we can ap- 

 proach this more nearly than we can in any other business, particularly 

 that of raising corn. There is much more certainty that timber will 

 command a remunerating price in ten or fifty years hence than that 

 corn will ; for the profit on corn de])ends very much on the demand for 

 whisky, which w^e all wish to see diminish as fast as possible. When we 

 cease to use whisky, a tithe of the corn now raised will glut the market. 



There are many kinds of trees that can be planted, from which we 

 may expect profitable returns; but I feel well assured that the European 

 Larch is the most profitable for fence posts or fence boards, or railroad- 

 ties. Of course, as soon as they are large enough they can be used for 

 almost any kind of building purposes. In planting them it is probable that 

 lour teet apart each way wcjuld be the proper distance, or about twenty- 

 seven hundred to the acre. The plants, two to three years old, cost say 

 from eight to fifteen dollars per thousand. Two dollars per thousand 

 will be a sufficiently high estimate for planting the trees. With this data 

 any farmer can estimate the cost of planting per acre, as all are familiar 

 with preparing ground for corn and cultivating it, which must be very 

 nearly the same as that for these trees. 



Any one who takes the pains will readily see that the expense of 

 fifty acres of larch for the first ten years, including interest on land worth 

 fifty dollars per acre, cost of plants, preparing the ground, planting, and 

 cultivating two or three years, with ten per cent, compound interest -^n 

 each investment, will amount to about five thousand dollars. At that 

 time three-fourths of the trees should be thinned out, leaving them eight 

 feet apart. These, if worth fifteen cents each, will amount to over fif- 



