MILLIONS IN IT. 281 



natural course of events, produce during the next fifty years 

 one hundred cords of firewood to the acre, worth six dollars 

 a cord. This would make their total yield for the fifty years 

 $120,000,000. If they were planted with larch, their net 

 yield, according to my estimate, during the same time, would 

 be $1,045,660,000 ; but that we may judge how much such 

 an operation would add to the wealth of the community, we 

 must deduct from this amount the value of the wood which 

 we suppose would be produced naturally, or $120,000,000. 

 That sum beinsf subtracted, we have left as created wealth 

 the respectable sum of $925,000,000. 



There is no branch of agriculture at once so pleasant and 

 so productive of possible gains, as farming on paper. It is 

 a dangerous pastime, however, and often leads into grave 

 errors, and great dangers, as the agricultural population has 

 learned to its cost. In this case it will be well to be on the 

 safe side. The larch, in common with other plants, is liable 

 to disease ; it is preyed on by many insects, and our plantations 

 may be often injured by fire, bad management, and other 

 dangers now unforeseen. 



lu view of such chances, let us reduce the total yield of 

 our ten acres of larch a little more than one-half, and be 

 content with a profit of only six per cent, per annum on the 

 capital invested. 



Such a diminution of yield would reduce the amount I 

 suppose would spring, in the course of fifty years, from the 

 200,000 acres of larch, to $102,»30,000. 



If we we can add eight millions of dollars annually to the 

 net product of the agriculture of Massachusetts by replanting 

 a small portion of our nearly worthless lands with trees, the 

 mere material gain to our wealth is worth striving for. But 

 when we consider that this is an operation which will bring 

 benefits to the State far beyond any direct material gain, it 

 becomes the moral duty of every citizen to continue his eJfforts 

 in this direction, until every land-owner shall be convinced 

 that tree planting is a patriotic act, and that we owe it to our 

 descendants to leave the land at least as productive and pleasant 

 as we received it. It is within the power of many to give 

 direct assistance to such an undertaking. The wealthy and 

 powerful corporations depending on a supply of water for 



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