286 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



the wood now standing is that of an expert in such matters, 

 and the whole crop could be sold at the price he has fixed. 



Nothing is credited for the increased fertility of the soil, 

 enriched during more than half a century by an annual de- 

 posit of leaves, or for the present permanent wood-bearing 

 condition of the land, which will enable it to produce trees 

 indefinitely, without further care or expense. These are sub- 

 stantial and important benefits, resulting from Mr. Allen's 

 experiment, but they are omitted, because it is impossible to 

 represent their actual value in dollars and cents. 



Actual Profit of a Plantation of Forty Acres, made in Smithfield, K.L, by 

 Zachariah Allen, Esq., in the year 1820. 



Dr. 



Forty acres of land, valued at fifteen dollars per acre . 



Expenses of planting 



Interest on investment as above, fifty-seven years, at six per 

 cent 



Taxes (town, road, and school), building and repair of 

 walls, during fifty-seven years 



Interest on above item at the average time of half of fifty- 

 seven years, or twenty-eight years and a half, at six per cent, 



$3,804 83 



Ck. 



Land at original valuation $600 00 



1820 to 1824, sale of small wood 60 00 



1827 and 1828, sale of small wood 50 14 



1831, sale of poles 6 26 



1855 to 1861, sale of fire-wood to Dexter Lime Rock Company, 899 37 



1862 and 1803, sale of fence-posts 42 08 



1864, sale to U. S. Government of locust timber . . . 55 00 



1864, sale of locust posts 35 00 



1871 and 1872, sale of four hundred and ninety-five cords of 

 fire-wood to Dexter Lime Rock Company, at $3.25 per cord, 



standing 1,608 75 



Interest on sales of wood, at six per cent . . . . 2,190 86 

 Dec. 31, 1877, value of wood growing on the forty acres, and 

 estimated by an expert to be three hundred and twenty 



cords, worth $2.50 per cord, standing 800 00 



p;348"06 



3.804 83 



Profit $2,543 23 



Equal to 6-^-^^ per cent per annum on the original invest- 

 ment for the whole period of fifty-seven years. 



