208 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



sylvania plan of fire wardens appointed by the county commissioners of 

 each county, and the Canadian plan, where the lumbermen and the State 

 combine, half and half, during the dangerous season, and employ a fire patrol 

 to extinguish and warn against fires. It was optional with the Canadian 

 lumbermen to have the system or not, and it has worked so well that it is ex- 

 tremely popular. 



PROFITS IN TIMBER CULTURE. 



Under this title Hon. Martin Conrad, of Chicago, foreman of the largest 

 wagon works of that city, said : 



Five sorts of timber are foremost in the construction of wagons. 



First, White oak (including swamp white oak), maturing for wagon work 

 in eighty years or less ; 



Second, Shell-bark hickory, maturing or fit for use in thirty to fifty years; 



Third, White ash, now becoming very scarce, but very valuable, fit to use 

 in thirty years ; 



Fourth, The tulip tree, or whitewood, superior for carriage bodies, wagon 

 boxes, requiring sixty years or more to get fit to use ; 



Fifth, Red or Norway pine, requiring at least sixty years before it is profit- 

 able to cut for the bottoms of wagon boxes. 



In growing trees men forget that an acre of well grown timber, artificially 

 grown, is worth five times as much as one that has grown in a natural way. 



Mr. Conrad, after studying what has been done in a limited scale, esti- 

 mates that one good tree would grow to the rod, 160 to the acre, say 110 to 

 the acre after eighty years. 



We start with 2,700 to the acre, and thin them as they grow ; when eighty 

 years old each should make 500 feet of lumber, or 55,000 feet to the acre, 

 worth in Chicago now, $1,430, and in eighty years, no doubt, it will be worth 

 $50per 1,000, or $i,750. 



The cost of raising is much reduced by thinning, the tan bark, etc. 



A man need not wait eighty years to realize money on the timber, as young 

 timber can be sold with the land. It has a prospective value, as a pig, a colt 

 or calf. Young timber is on the line of a permanent improvement. 



Prof. Satterlee in discussing further the subject, spoke of the growing 

 of hoop-poles, saying that bitternut sprouts grow with surprising rapidity, 

 making a crop once in six years of considerable profit. 



The quality of timber as affected by rapidity of growth was illustrated by 

 Mr. E. R. Lake, clerk of the forestry commission. Second growth pine of 

 Massachusetts was very inferior to virgin forest pine of Michigan; while sec- 

 ond growth hickory of rapid development was far superior to that of slow 

 growth, thus making the point that slow growth in cone bearing trees is de- 

 sirable, while m deciduous trees we should stimulate rapid production of 

 wood. 



Dr. Beal showed the reason for this in the growth of cells. 



Dr. R. C. Kedzie, of the Agricultural College, gave an address, taking 

 for his text 



A W^ORD ABOUT WATER, 



in which he gave an account of a recent journey across the continent, andja 

 resume of his impressions concerning the relationship of rainfall to the de- 

 velopment of a region and the importance of employing every means in the 



