295 



Deduct iuterest OQ cost, $60 per aero $144 00 



Taxes for forty years, $2 per acre 80 00 



$224 00 



Leaves clear profit for forty years 1, 064 00 



From one-balf acre of locusts we cut ia sixteen years — 



111 railroad ties, 30 cents each $33 30 



1 31 fence-posts, 22 cents each 28 82 



In thirty-two years, or next sixteen years, 387 railroad ties, 30 cents 116 10 



10 cords of firewood, valued at $3 per cord 30 00 



Estimated value of standing stock . 150 00 



Total products of half acre 358 22 



Deduct interest and taxes forty yeurs 112 00 



Clear profits 246 22 



The willow-plantation netted, gi'oss, per acre, for the seven different cuttings that 

 were made, the aggregate, $3,768, being the most profitable of any part of the plantation. 



Tlie plantation of pines on the comparatively cheap sandy land in Maryland, worth 

 $20 per acre, cut from twenty to twenty-five cords of wood in fourteen years after 

 I)lanting the seed, valued at $7 per cord delivered at the railroad station. This wood 

 is chiefly used for railroad and steamboat purposes, and is always in demand. 



The value of the wood product is not the only consideration in the pine crop. Tho 

 i)ine growth is a remarkable renovator of the soil. Comparatively valueless for agri- 

 cultural purposes at the time of planting, the land is found to be in a high condition 

 of fertility on the removal of the wood. From fifty to seventy-five bushels of corn per 

 acre is frequently grown among the stumps with necessarily imperfect tillage. 



Our most successful vineyards and peach-orchards follow a growth of pine. In the 

 county of Sussex in Delaware, near the Atlantic sea-board, and in the counties of Kent 

 and Talbot in Maryland, near the Chesapeake, are several of the finest vineyards in 

 the whole country ; and peach-trees attain a great age, and bear annual crops in 

 these counties when they follow a growth of pine. Neither the curculio stings the 

 young stoned fruit, nor does the borer injure the roots of tho trees planted where pine 

 recently stood. The plum, apricot, and nectarine succeed as well as the peach, so 

 long as the land is " new. " and although their exemption from injury by insects is, 

 by some, attributed to the salt atmosphere wafted from ocean and bay, we are satis- 

 fied, by a course of experiments, that the chief benefit is derived from the resinous 

 odors of the pine, for which the insects entertain a decided aversion. 



It is not easy to draw a comparison between the profits of general agriculture and 

 those of timber-planting, inasmuch as the former are realized annually, but the latter 

 at long intervals. We have kept an accurate account with our farm for the whole 

 period of our timber-planting, from which we present in the aggregate the following 

 figures, running through a period of forty years : 



Cr. by— 



G crops of wheat, average 22 bushels per acre, price average, $1.25 per bushel. $165 00 



6 crops of corn, average 48 bushels per acre, price average, 60 cents per bushel . 172 80 



12 crops of hay, average IJ tons per acre,price average, $17 per ton 2,25 00 



18 years' pasturage, at $7 per acre 112 00 



Forty years' total value farm products 674 80 



From which deduct interest on cost of land, $60 $144 CO 



Taxed for 40 years at $2 per acre 80 00 



224 00 



Leaving, without counting cost of labor and fertilizers 450 80 



We have, therefore, the average timber products per acre for forty years. .. $2, 058 00 

 Average agricultural products per acre for forty years 450 80 



Making the timber crop more than four time^ as valuable as the cereal and grass crops 

 for the same period, and leaving the land in a more healthy condition for orcharding 

 and general cropping. 



In the above comi^arisou of the respective profits of forest culture and 

 the ordinary i)roducts of agriculture, no allowance is made for com- 

 pound interest upon the receipts of the farm during the forty years of 

 forest growth, an item of considerable importance in the calculation. 

 4 



