i8o 



THE GARDENERS' MONTHLY 



[June, 



there is a long report on Forestry in the Dominion. 

 But as the greater part is devoted to showing the 

 "influence on climate" while we are looking alter 

 the influence on one's bank account, we will let 

 that go. The last page is devoted to "estimated" 

 profits on loo acres of forest planting in Canada. 

 No one has planted loo acres but this estimate is 

 given to induce some one to do so. 



The writer believes some profit can be had 

 from trimmings at 15 years old, and so on till 50 

 years, when the gross revenue from the 100 acres 

 is to be $80,000. The cost of trees and planting he 

 puts at $32 per acre ; and places the cost of care 

 and expenses for the first 15 years at about $36 

 per acre. He puts the whole cash expenditure at 

 $20,000 and the "clear revenue" therefore, at the 

 end of 50 years, i!6o,ooo. 



Now this is no great showing, only $12 per acre 

 a year. In his statement there is nothing allowed 

 for the original cost of the ground. It is surely 

 worth something. If one has a tract of land for 

 fifty years, and has it in condition for agricultural 

 uses as this is required to be before the planting of 

 the forest, the annual rental of the land per acre 

 would probably be much above $12 an acre. 

 Certainly we may set it down that the average 

 rental of the land for that period would be that. 

 There would be this income without any crop at 

 all, the tenant making his living. $25 per year at 

 least should be the average product of land of this 

 kind. Unless some better showing than this can 

 be made for forest planting, we tear no new 

 forests would be put out. The trouble is that 

 American writers on forestry take their figures 

 from European and especially Scotch works. 

 None of these experiences are of any use in our 

 country, and even there it has been shown by 

 actual experience, that none of their forest 

 plantings have been profitable. They all keep an 

 eye on the profits from "thinnings," forgetting that 

 this fills the forest with dead brush inviting forest 

 fires, and sprouts from the "thinned" trees 

 leaving the remaining living ones to struggle with 

 the sprouting enemy. If a practical common 

 sense American or one with American experience 

 had to run a forest, he would double these profits 

 in the time given. 



An Apiul Forest Fire. — The dead brush left 

 from former thinnings, and allowed to rot and dry 

 in the New Jersey forests, caught fire in April this 

 year and hundreds of acres and thousands of dol- 

 lars of valuable property were destroyed. And yet 

 people are asking " how to preserve our forests ?" 



In former times when a man died from apoplexy, 

 heart disease, or any other sudden affliction, the 

 verdict of the twelve men, honest and true, would 

 be " died from the visitation of God." The modern 

 verdict on these forest fires might be " fired by the 

 hand of Providence," for all the steps the com- 

 munity takes to perceive and prevent the real 

 cause, namely, the scandalous prevalence of dead 

 underbrush. 



SCRAPS AND QUERIES. 



Silk Culture. — "J. S. j.," Earlham, Madison 

 Co., Iowa, writes: "Will you be so kind as to 

 tell where I can get full descriptions about silk 

 worms, and silk culture ?" 



[Address Woman's Silk Culture Association, of 

 Philadelphia. That Society issues a free circular. 

 —Ed. G. M.] 



The Tulip Tree in Florida. — Mr. Thos. 

 Roberts, Green Cove Springs, Florida, says: "In 

 order to demonstrate the inaccuracy of your cor- 

 respondent in the Gardeners' Monthly of Feb- 

 ruary, as to the ' Liriodendron tulipifera' not 

 growing here, I mail you with this a small twig, 

 having on it a fully opened flower. The tree is 

 found here, quite plentifully, along the banks of 

 our water-courses." 



Forest Culture. — " F.," Lincoln, Nebraska: 

 " 1 am always particularly interested in the forestry 

 column of the Gardeners' Monthly, and note 

 that you lay stress on the difference between 

 American forest culture, and that recommended 

 in English works. I am inclined to venture largely 

 on Forest culture. In what respect do you consider 

 English practice defective ?" 



[Chiefly in their oversight that time is money. 

 If we can get a tree in twenty-five years as large 

 as by some other plan it would take fifty years to 

 grow, it is a big saving. The European forester 

 would plant trees, say six feet apart, and in two or 

 three years the whole becomes a struggling mass 

 of vegetation. To correct this he cuts out every 

 other one for hoop poles, the proceeds in that land 

 of cheap labor yielding a profit. In a few years 

 he thins again, the produce being sold for hoop 

 poles or something of that sort ; and so he keeps 

 on thinning, till when the trees are fifty years old 

 he has timber to cut. All the guess-work figures 

 in the English forestry works show large profits by 

 this method, but the actual figures from those who 

 have tried, show large losses. We have to remem- 

 ber that the trees thinned out are not grubbed out, 



