THE PLANTED FOREST FOR PROFIT. 289 



THE PLANTED FOREST FOR PROFIT. 



FRANK J. PHILLIPS, 



Professor of Forestry, University of Nebraska. 



Throughout the entire United States, forest planting is constantly 

 receiving more attention as an important factor in our future timber 

 supply. In the richest of all agricultural regions, such as is found in 

 Illinois, Iowa and eastern Nebraska, it is the farmer's woodlot which 

 must supply much of the local demand. In southern California, where 

 the remarkably fast-growing Eucalyptus trees reach a height of seventy- 

 five feet and a diameter of seven to eight inches in five to seven years, 

 we have the farmers' forests growing on land often valued at from $100 

 to $500 per acre and actually competing with citrous groves vineyards 

 and alfalfa fields as a "means of profit. In the New England states, where 

 agriculture has been pursued longer than in most other portions of the 

 United States and where poor farming methods have resulted in run- 

 down fields which are incapable of producing profitable agricultural 

 crops, the New Englander is wisely making a start at growing a farm 

 forest for future pulp and lumber supply, and not only making a sound 

 financial investment but also enriching the soil for succeeding forestal 

 crops. 



Other phases of the work are also becoming of great importance over 

 still more extensive areas than those which are at present characterized 

 by the planted woodlot. In some of the states which were once known 

 as the foremost timber-producing states in the Union, over one-half of 

 the area in actual timberland as well as the non-productive or barren 

 land which is capable only of producing a timber crop, is owned or 

 controlled by the state, the farmer or the small land owner. This is 

 contrary to the prevailing opinion that most of the standing forests, 

 cut-over areas, and waste lands are held by the large lumbermen. Nat- 

 urally, then, the broadest phases of forestry work in planting follow 

 two general lines of action; first, that of the state and national activity 

 over extensive areas held by the state and nation, and second, that of 

 the small landowner who is interested in the development of his own 

 possessions and of the local market. The state is also interested in 

 forestry for the small owner, since the farmers form the majority of its 

 citizens and are great consumers of wood. 



Exactly what areas can best be used for forest planting, what forest 

 trees to plant and along what lines the work should progress are 

 questions that are more important now than they have ever been before. 

 This is especially true in Nebraska and other prairie states, since these 

 states are at a considerable distance from the great forest centres and 

 naturally feel each advance in price more keenly than the timber-produc- 

 ing states. Moreover, the much-talked-of timber famine is bound to 

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