THE GARDENERS' MONTHLY 



[January, 



&c., costs considerable and actually stands us about 

 $^ per acre. 



" Then labor has advanced since three years ago, 

 so that we shall add ^5 per acre, thus making, in- 

 cluding breaking the raw prairie and everything 

 till the trees are delivered over, ^40 per acre, get- 

 ting the $s per acre at the time of breaking, $20 

 per acre when the trees are planted, and ^15 per 

 acre when they are delivered over. 



" When the trees are deli\ered o\er they are to 

 be four to six feet, but most of them are much 

 taller, and two to two and a half inches in diame- 

 ter at the butt, perfectly free from weeds, and not 

 the least particle of danger from fires, as the 

 catalpa leaves are very much like pumpkin leaves, 

 and rot down. They need no pruning as 100,000, 

 four years planted, ten to fifteen feet high, are now 

 shedding their under branches, or at least they are 

 dead and will soon shed oft". 



" I was to select land for another plantation when 

 I was out last month, but the land that could have 

 been bought three years ago at J(2.8o per acre, is 

 now worth $12 to #15 per acre, and on this account 

 he concluded not to purchase. This would not 

 make so much dift'erence as it appears to, as the 

 land will keep on increasing in value. 



" We think this a reasonable price, taking all the 

 risks and care ourselves, and if any railroad com- 

 panies or forest planting associations should under- 

 take it, it would certainly cost more. Of course 

 we would take the contract to plant without the 

 further care — that is, $20 an acre for the trees and 

 planting, or $25 if the prairie is unbroken." 



Now, one thing is clear from an effort like this 

 of Mr. Douglas, that he cannot continue to do, as 

 he is doing, unless some one sees that he has a 

 continuous succession of contracts. To get the 

 trees and to prepare the machinery for planting 

 some thousands of acres a year, and then have 

 two or three years of idleness — his young trees go 

 to the bonfire, and his whole machinery disorgan- 

 ized, will not do at all for cheap forestry planting. 

 He must charge more than it is worth for what he 

 does to cover the risk, or abandon the business. 

 It. ought to be the business of local or state agri- 

 cultural associations, or forestry conventions, to 

 look up railroad or mining companies, ship-build- 

 ing or large lumber interests of whatever class 

 they may be, show them that there is a way out of 

 their soon-to-be embarrassments, by profitably 

 planting more, and that a man like Douglas is 

 ready to do the job for them. If any legislation 

 is needed to encourage forestry planting, it is that 

 men like Douglas, who prepare millions of trees, 

 and men to plant them, should be reimbursed by a 

 bounty for the seasons when they fail to get any 

 contracts for their work, and have to let the trees 

 spoil and the labor machine rust for want of use. It 

 is in these directions, at any rate, it seems to us prac- 

 tical encouragement of forestry should take shape. 



M.\HOG.\NY IN San Domingo. — In consequence 

 of the demand for mahogany of late, it has been 

 feared lest the supplies should fall short ; we are 

 assured, however, in a report of the Vice-Consul 

 at Puerto Plato, San Domingo, that the diminution 

 in the e.xports of mahogany is by no means to be 

 attributed to a scarcity of the wood, for the forests 

 are apparently inexhaustible ; but it is to be ac- 

 counted for through the absence of suitable ton- 

 nage for charter in the neighboring colony of 

 St. Thomas throughout the year. 



The Census Forestry Report of Virgini.a. 

 AND West Virginia will now, we suppose, be 

 made as complete as those of any other of the 

 States. In our May number, page 67, we published 

 extracts from a letter from Prof. C. S. Sargent, 

 Special Forestry Agent of the Census, in which he 

 wrote us that for want of funds he feared he "must 

 defer indefinitely, if not abandon, the proposed in- 

 vestigation" of the forest resources of the Virginias. 

 We not only commented on the injustice that 

 would be done these states by such a treatment, 

 but went in person to Washington and laid this 

 matter first before Senator Davis, of West Virginia 

 (who has a business way of taking hold of all 

 matters that affect the development of the Virginias 

 that always leads to practical results), and then 

 with him before other Senators and Represen- 

 tatives from these States. In consequence, action 

 was taken that secured an appropriation, by means 

 of which a forestry report on the Virginias could 

 be made, and now Prof. S. P. Sharpies, the assist- 

 ant of Prof. Sargent, is in West Virginia and Vir- 

 ginia gathering the facts for this report ; he has 

 already visited the white pine and black spruce 

 region at the head of Greenbrier and Cheat rivers, 

 the great tulip-poplar, black walnut, white oak, &c., 

 country on Cabin creek and Big and Little Coal 

 rivers of the Kanawha, and on Guyandot waters 

 in Kanawha, Boone and Lincoln counties. West 

 Virginia, gathering additional information from 

 parties informed in such matters about the timber 

 resources of all the Great Kanawha basin. He 

 has also inspected portions of the Blue Ridge and 

 Piedmont regions of Virginia. At this writing, 

 Prof. S. is on the head-waters of the Potomac, 

 along the West Virginia Central & Pittsburg R. R., 

 looking into that finely timbered country. 



We anticipate valuable results from these explo- 

 rations, and hope Prof. Sharpies will be given 

 ample time to work up fully a report of the forest 

 resources of these States. Each of our railway 

 lines should see to it that he has opportunity to 

 visit its tributary forests. — T/ie Virginias. 



