26 



HARDWOOD RECORD 



Progress and Value of Tree Planting 



In every region of the United States there 

 is at least one ' forest tree, and generally 

 there are several which can' be planted with 

 a complete assurance of commercial success 

 if the plantation is properly established and 

 given proper care. The government has made 

 a very careful study of most of the .forest 

 plantations in the ITuited States. Its publi- 

 cations on tree planting may be had free of 

 charge upon application to the Forest Service 

 at Washington. The studies on which they 

 were based were made especially for the 

 benefit of farmers and other land owners, and 

 to prevent the waste of thousands of dol- 

 lars annually lost by planting the wrong for- 

 est trees or by improper, care of plantations. 



In a recent brochure it is stated by govern- 

 ment forestry authorities that reports from 

 all parts of the country show that the past 

 season has undoubtedly been characterized 

 by a more extensive planting of forest trees 

 than any previous year in. the history of 

 the United States. The work is progressing 

 very favorably in every state in the Union. 



The trees planted have been, mainly hard- 

 woods. Several large nurserymen, however, 

 report, greater 'sales of conifers for forest 

 plajiting than they have- ever made before. 

 In the middle West catalpa, black locust, 

 Osage orange and .Eussian mulberry were the 

 favorite trees; in the North and Northeast 

 preference was given to white pine, chestnut, 

 larch and spruce; in the South the native 

 conifers held the lead, and in California, 

 where the immense annual planting area has 

 been increased to at least five times its for- 

 mer size, eucalyptus had practically a mo- 

 nopoly. 



■ A few figures readily show the value of 

 forest planting from • a commercial stand- 

 point. In Pawnee county, Nebraska a 

 16-year-old catalpa plantation gave a net 

 return of $152.17 per acre at the time the 

 plantation was cut. This meant an annual 



profit of $G.24 per acre. A 10-year-old plan- 

 tation of the same species in Kansas showed 

 a net value of $197.55 per acre. Still another 

 plantation, in Nebraska, gave a net income 

 of $170.50 per acre when fourteen years old, 

 which amounts to an annual income of $8.69 

 per acre. Several equally striking cases could 

 be cited throughout the entire middle West, 

 and it is known that where the catalpa will 

 succeed no other tree will pay so well. Good 

 soil and moisture conditions are, however, 

 essential for success with this tree. 



Osage orange has been known to produce 

 as high as 2,640 first-class posts and 2,272 

 second-class posts per acre, and it is well un- 

 derstood that no posts are better than those 

 of Osage orange. Land producing such a 

 forest as this could hardly be put to a better 

 use, since timber is the easiest of all crops 

 to raise, and from now on will never go beg- 

 ging for a market. 



Eed cedar in plantations twenty-five years 

 old- has reached a value of $200.54 per acre. 

 European larch used for fence posts or tele- 

 phone posts reaches an average value of 

 $200 to $300. White pine plantations forty 

 years old have exceeded a value of $300 per 

 acre and it is known that the eucalyptus, even 

 when grown for fuel alone, can compete as to 

 profits with oranges. 



It does not take a lifetime to get results. 

 Catalpa often reaches a post size in from 

 eight to ten years, anS" will give-^ervieff as ■»" 

 post for from fifteen to forty years. Euca- 

 lyptus makes a hea\'y yield of fuel in seven 

 •years, and the crop should nearly always be 

 Cut before ten years. 



Erom the manner in which our natural tim- 

 ber has been cut it is clear that each region 

 will have to be made as nearly self-support- 

 ing in timber growth as possible. The les- 

 son of the past is that the right forest trees 

 grown in the right way will bring a big pjoflt. 



NeWs Miscellany. 



Forestry in the West Indies. 



In .iiivising that the tropical forests of the 

 West Indies contain many valuable woods, a few 

 of which are already familiar to commerce, but 

 many not yet known to our northern markets, 

 Consul W. W. Handley writes from Trinidad 

 that there are about forty species in the West 

 Indies which commend themselves as wood of 

 quality, which are likely to be heard o£ in the 

 future, yet few of the West Indian woods, other 

 than mahogany, cedar, fustic and logwood, are 

 now of much commercial importance in the 

 -Vnited States. No large logging industry, such 

 as e.xists in the United States and Canada, 

 seems practicable in the West Indies. It is very 

 expensive to haul timber from tlie forests to 

 the coasts, and it is not possible to use river 

 transport, because many of the timbers are too 

 heavy to float. Another obstacle is to be found 

 in the fact that the forests in the West- Indies 

 do not, with one or two possible exceptions, con- 

 sist almost entirely of one or two useful species, 

 such as is the case with forests in our north- 

 western states. As a rule the individuals of 

 any one useful species generally exist in an 



i.solated state, closely surrounded by single trees 

 of many other species, perhaps more or less 

 useless. 



Such conditions stand in the way of a steady 

 supply of any particular timber, without which 

 it is almost impossible to establish a market. 

 This difficulty in flnding a market for a new 

 kind of wood is that the bulk of the timber 

 trade is limited to a few kinds which every 

 manufacturer keeps in stock. It is more to 

 the interest of the trader to limit his purchases 

 to a few kinds of wood which he can stock 

 largely, and thus buy to a better advantage, 

 than to use a large number of woods which must 

 be purchased in small lots. Hence, fresh arri- 

 vals stand little chance of obtaining a footing 

 unless they show tieculiar merits. Any wood 

 which resembles in some way the staple timber 

 and will pass under the same name will be 

 readily bought on trial and, if useful, probably 

 adopted. Thus various similar looking woods 

 are sold as cedars, mahoganies or ebonies, and 

 their sole claim to their trade names is often their 

 resemblance in color and grain to better known 

 woods. 



It does not seam probable that, in the near 

 future at auy rate, there will be extensive plant- 

 ing in the West Indies of timber woods in uni- 

 form groves of one or two species, for the hard 

 and heavy woods are usually of very slow 

 growth and the lighter and quicker growing 

 timbers could not be grown as cheaply as the 

 pine or spruce of otir own forests. If there 

 is any tree planting to be done in the West In- 

 dies in the future it will probably be confined to 

 trees which yield valuable products, such as 

 rubber, logwood, balata and fustic. 



Of the many useful woods that are found in 

 .Tamaica the most important are cedar, mahog- 

 any, logwood and fustic. Very little of the 

 first two are now exported, though the value of 

 the exports of dyewoods and logwood extract 

 for the last ten years has averaged $811.1)15. In 

 this island there arc many valualjle woods, Init 

 the export is practically confined to cedar, which 

 is shipped to Germany for use in the manufac- 

 ture of cigar boxes. Formerly mora was also 

 exported. The output of timber from Trinidad 

 has shown considerable fluctuations. Last year 

 the value of the exports reached ifG9.3T4. The 

 chief forest product of British Guiana is balata. 

 the export of which amounted in 1900 to 517.- 

 335 ' pounds, valued at .$181,848. Greenheart 

 and mora timbers were exported to the value of 

 .$114,704. The other forest products exported 

 consisted of ordinary lumber, firewood, shingles, 

 hardwood posts, sleepers, etc. A large part of 

 the country is covered with forests containing 



In this island, where the forests are in charge 

 of an experienced Indian forest officer, the gov- 

 ernment has realized the necessity of having a 

 forest policy. This includes the reservation "t 

 certain areas of land from sale and their man- 

 agement- as forests for the protection of the 

 climate, the regulation -of the , water, supply in 

 the rivers, the prevention of landslips and floods 

 and the production of timlier and other forest 

 products. 



National Forests. 



The Forest Service is. out with a little annual 

 entitled "The Use of the National Forests," 

 which explains many points not clear in the 

 minds of a great many people, who do not know 

 ^ the true purpose and use of the national re- 

 serves, much as they have heard about them on 

 every side. The special interest of the manual 

 lies in its showing that the policy of the gov- 

 ernment, both in principle and practice, is for 

 the benefit of every citizen of the country. 

 There is still a tendency to think of the "pre- 

 serves" as closed to use, and to leave tlie public 

 lands exposed to unregulated individual ex- 

 ploitation. Where these misapprehensions pre- 

 vail this little book goes far to correct ■ them. 

 It was written by F. E. Olmsted, whose intimate 

 knowledge of conditions in the West and the 

 policy under which the national forests are 

 managed especially fit him to deal with the 

 subject, 



Business Humming, 



The Williamson Veneer Company, situated cor- 

 ner of East Baltimore and Eighth streets, Iligh- 

 landtown, a suburb of Baltimore, was incorpo- 

 rated about seven years ago, though the business 

 extends further hack. This plant is one of the 

 most complete of its kind in the country and 

 is furnished with all the latest machinery requi- 

 site for a business so extensive. 



ilr. Williamson reports business moving along 

 in fine style, which assertion is verified by the 

 steady buzz and hum of machinery and the no- 

 ticeable activity of the large gang of men em- 

 ployed in transferring the immense logs from 

 the nearby railroad tracks to their convenient 

 positions close to the mill. 



New lumber Directory. 



Polk's Lumber Directory of the United States, 

 third revised edition, is now being distributed 

 to subscribers. It is nearly fifty per cent larger 

 than the second edition, and the information 

 contained in it is as ifearly accurate and up- 

 to-date as it is possible to secure. The publish- 

 ers do not claim that their directory is abso- 

 lutely free from error, but that it is an ex- 

 tremely valuable work of reference. The hook 

 contains 1,G14 pages and is devoted to miscel- 

 laneous information : national, state and local 



