Forest Planting as an Investment 539 



capital appears to remain low. In other words, if soil value in 

 Prussia had not been increased in the calculation during the 

 past fifty or sixty years the forests would now show an earning 

 capacity of possibly 8 or 9 instead of the present 2 to 4 per cent. 



In figuring interest from plantations in New England we have 

 a decided advantage over Europe in our low value of forest soil, 

 viz., from one to five dollars per acre. This value combined 

 with the cost of planting brings the cost of the established forest 

 usually well under twenty dollars per acre or but one-fourth to 

 one-half the cost in Europe. Because of this great difference 

 in soil value in Europe as compared with New England our 

 products from plantations may sell for less than one half that 

 in Europe and still we are able to earn a much greater interest 

 on the investment. The income from a forest plantation as an 

 investment is determined primarily by the initial cost, i.e., the 

 cost of the forest soil and the cost of planting. If our initial 

 investment is too high, no forest is capable of earning an ac- 

 ceptable rate of interest. Even under the most favorable con- 

 ditions of private planting as an investment in New England it is 

 my belief that the initial cost should not exceed twenty dollars 

 per acre. 



In private forestry the great indirect value of the forest or 

 the benefit which comes to the entire community disappears as 

 an incentive for planting waste and idle land. Here the incentive 

 for planting and managing a forest is based entirely upon the 

 income in dollars and cents which the investment in the land, the 

 cost of planting and the cost of maintenance will return. 



New England has many examples of plantations made thirty- 

 five or more years ago, which have already been cut and have 

 returned 6% compound interest or more on the investment. 

 Many other plantations have been measured in recent years and 

 the growth shows an equally large earning capacity. The same 

 earning capacity is shown in thirty-five to seventy-year-old fully 

 stocked second growth stands, which are no more productive and 

 usually less so than well-established plantations. 



Dwellig, of Alassachusetts, reports the cutting of 200 cords of 

 White pine from two acres of fifty years' second growth. Stock- 

 bridge, of Massachusetts, reports the cutting of one hundred 

 thousand feet of five-eighths-inch box boards from two acres of 



