FOREST PLANTING IN EASTERN NEBRASKA. 125 



but the estimated cost is given below. The fuel wood would have a 

 stumpage value of at least $2 per cord were it cut and sold. However, 

 the wood is being consumed at home, thus saving the haulage, which 

 would be at least fifty cents per cord. In reckoning the returns, there- 

 fore, a stumpage value of $2.50 per cord is assumed. 



Preparation of ground $2 50 



Trees, 454, at $2.50 per thousand 1 14 



Planting 2 00 



Cultivation (cost paid by com crop). 



Total $5 64 



Interest on $5.64 for eighteen years, at 5 per cent, 



compounded 7 93 



Total cost with 5 per cent compound interest 



at the end of eighteen years $13 57 



48.2 cords, at $2.50 stumpage, farm value (value at 



end of eighteen years) $120 50 



Deducting the cost, $13.57, from the value, $120.50, leaves $106.93 as 

 the net value, which is equivalent to annual net income of 5 per cent 

 compound interest of $3.80 per acre. 



The plantation affords an excellent example of what can be done by 

 growing trees on land that is too wet for field crops. By planting it to 

 trees, it furnishes a continuous supply of fuel, affords protection to the 

 home, and yields a rental value above that of farm lands in the same 

 locality during the same time. If the spacing had been closer and the 

 plantation given good care, the returns would have been increased. The 

 yield table for cottonwood shows that this plantation has given an 

 annual yield of 2.7 cords per acre. Others made an equally good showing, 

 and two furnish much higher yields. 



HARDY CATALPA. 



A considerable amount of hardy catalpa and its hybrids has been 

 planted in southeastern Nebraska. The hardy kind succeeds well in 

 this part of the state, but most of the hybrid forms have failed, and 

 on this account catalpa is in ill repute with many people. A study of 

 the table, however, will prove that hardy catalpa will not only succeed, 

 but under right conditions will yield paying returns. Plantation 4 is 

 now being harvested. Six acres were cut clear the past two winters, 

 and the fence posts have yielded a gross return of $207 per acre. The 

 owner values the additional fuel wood at $5 per acre. The cost of 

 harvesting the crop was $25 per acre. The first-class posts sell for 14 

 cents, the second-class for 9 cents, the third-class, or stakes, for 4 cents. 

 The value of the fence posts in No. 12 is $332 per acre, and material 

 worth $52 per acre has been sold from this plantation in the past two 

 years, making its gross value $383 per acre, to say nothing of the large 

 number of posts that were previously cut from it. 



