Silviculture Treatment of Abandoned Pastures. 259 



was thirty-eight. Measurements of six of these sprouts showed 

 an average height of 28 feet and an average diameter of 4 inches. 

 The average crown space was 40 square feet, so that 1,100 sprouts 

 per acre would be possible. The yield was estimated to be nine 

 cords per acre for full density. This was in a dense stand and on 

 good soil. These few measurements are, of course, scarcely con- 

 clusive evidence of the average rate of growth of Gray Birch, but 

 they corroborate the ocular estimates that the short, quickly taper- 

 ing, early maturing trees do not make rapid volume growth. 



Birch cord-wood is worth $5.00 a cord, and an allowance of 

 $2.00 a cord for cutting and hauHng leaves $3.00 a cord, or say 

 $30.00 for ten cords per acre as the net yield of forty years. In- 

 terest at 4 per cent, and taxes on land worth $4.00 (fairly cheap 

 for the region) per acre would compound in forty years to about 

 $27.00. In other words, natural reforestation by Birch is 

 financially a flat failure. 



Nearly the same treatment is suggested for Birch as for Red 

 Cedar. Birch one or two inches in diameter can be cut and piled 

 for $4.00 an acre, or by two days' labor. As with Red Cedar, 

 after Birch becomes about two inches in diameter, it is better not 

 to cut it until it is large enough for cordwood, not only on ac- 

 count of the expense of chopping these larger trees, but also be- 

 cause the crop of Birch cordwood, small as it is, is only twenty 

 years distant and its sacrifice would not be counterbalanced by the 

 profits from a plantation. 



An advantage of planting on land stocked with inferior species, 

 like Birch and Cedar, is that these forest weeds serve as nurse 

 trees. Planting of forest trees in the open necessitates use of well 

 developed transplants at least three years old, if the plantation is 

 to survive the climatic adversities of the first few seasons. The 

 cost of such planting is generally estimated to be about $7.00 per 

 acre. The shelter afforded by nurse trees permits the use of 

 one year old seedling stock. This can be raised in seed beds at a 

 cost of from 35 cents to 50 cents per thousand. As allowance 

 should be made for the death of one-third of these delicate plants, 

 the plantation should be spaced 5x5 feet (or 1,700 plants per 

 acre), instead of 6x6 (or 1,200 plants per acre) as usual. A man 

 can plant out two or three thousand seedlings per day with a 

 dibble, so that at $2.00 a day the cost of planting, the total cost per 

 acre — 1,700 plants — for stock and planting, should not be more 



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