250 Forestry Quarterly. 



line out a few hundred of the different varieties of seedlings each 

 fall. We prefer not to cater to this trade, because in removing 

 small quantities of seedlings from the seed beds in the fall of the 

 year those trees adjacent to the ones removed are often spoiled or 

 injured and consequently in filling an order at that time of the 

 year for a thousand White Pine seedlings we would perhaps spoil 

 three or four hundred other trees to get them. This is the reason 

 for charging an advanced price in the fall. 



It would then appear that in putting us on record as charging 

 $8.00 per 1,000 for White Pine seedlings for forest planting, when 

 in reality our prices average less than 50 per cent, of that figure, 

 Mr. Curtis is doing us a gross injustice and is misleading the 

 public and legislators. 



I also wish to take exception to the statement he makes re- 

 garding the expense of raising two-year White Pine seedlings in 

 the United States. On a basis of actual cost per 1,000 plants, from 

 data gathered during an experience extending somewhat over half 

 a century on our grounds here, I know it to be an actual fact and 

 am also advised to that effect by other growers, that 90 cents 

 falls a long way short of covering the expense of raising White 

 Pine at the age of two years. It costs between 32 and 28 cents 

 alone to shade 1 ,000 plants and then you have to pay for seed ; for 

 preparing the beds and planting the seed ; for keeping them free 

 from weeds for two years ; for waging the continual warfare 

 against the birds and other animals, such as gophers and moles, 

 rabbits, etc., which at all times seek to destroy the tender young 

 seedlings. Added to that you must figure in the interest on your 

 investment and taxes on your land and many other items. 

 Although the gentleman may be very conscientious in making 

 the statement referred to above, still I think he is misinformed, or 

 inexperiencel, or, on the other hand he must be a propagator of 

 extraordinary ability. Many of the leading foresters in the 

 country, who have had experience in growing these seedlings, in 

 the east as well as the west, have told me their experience in 

 growing this material, and the figure most of them estimate as 

 their cost prices is in most cases from 150 to 200 per cent, above 

 what Mr. Curtis states. 



Regarding the planting which is being carried on in this country 

 at the present time, no doubt Mr. Curtis is aware of what is being 

 done in that line in New York and Connecticut, but I do not think 



