422 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



broug-ht to their minds the comforts and cheerfulness of the ever- 

 greens around their native homes. 



The upbuilding of the finer and ennobling- qualities and their 

 influence upon the character will be of a more marked degree 

 where there are trees surrounding the home. 



The parents will go down their declining years looking back over 

 their lives with a greater degree of enjoyment and satisfaction. 



Young people growing up under these surroundings will look 

 back to the homes of their childhood with a greater degree of all 

 that makes the remembrance of home dear to them, and looking- 

 out over the great world, they will see more that tends to make life 

 worth living and have a stronger sympathy for humanity. 



PLAN FOR REFORESTATION OF WASTE LANDS 

 IN MINNESOTA. 



DR. C. A. SCHENCK, BILTMORE, N. C. 

 (From Annual Report, 1898, Minnesota State Fire Warden.) 



Gen. C. C. Andrews, Chief Fire Warden, St. Paul, Minn. 



Dear Sir: — Pursuant to your request,! beg to submit to you state- 

 ment of the possibilities of planting up large areas of otherwise 

 abandoned and barren land in the state of Minnesota. I have as- 

 sumed that an area of two million acres is to be planted up in the 

 course of the next eighty years, and that waste land may be 

 acquired for an amount corresponding to the arears of taxee 

 thereon due to counties and towns. 



EXPECTED EXPENSE OF AFFORESTATION PER ACRE. 



Strong white pine seedlings two years old. nursery grown, as will 

 be well adapted for the reforestation in question, can be raised at a 

 price not to exceed $1.25 per thousand. If raised on a large scale it 

 is not impossible that the price will be reduced to one-half of the 

 fig-ure given. 



Cleft planting — which means planting in small holes made with a 

 narrow and long spade — should cost not more than $1.00 per thous- 

 and for white pine seedlings two years old. 



Five thousand plants per acre will be ample and will allow of a 

 considerable death rate in early youth, as is sure to occur, and at the 

 same time will allow the selection of the fittest individuals to take 

 place from a large number of plants. 



Assuming that the figures above given are correct, the reforesta- 

 tion will cost $11.25 per acre, to which must be added the price of the 

 land, estimated to be 25 cents per acre, making a total of $11.50 per 

 acre. 



Figuring at 2 per cent compound interest and discounting $11.50 

 for eighty years, the figure $55.20 is reached as representing the cost 

 of the original plantation, with compound interest on it accumula- 

 ted, at the age of eighty years. 



In the meantime, taxes on the land, the cost of protection and ad- 

 ministration, which will certainly not amount to more than 5 cents 



