50 FORKST VALUATION 







In the United States the cost of planting and seeding is very 

 variable. In the eastern states for conifers and most native hard- 

 woods it may be figured approximately : 



Cost of raising plants: three year seedlings $i per 1,000; four 

 year transplants, or 2-2 plants, $3 per 1,000; to set out either coni- 

 fers or hardwoods about $4 per 1,000. Since i.ooo per acre is quite 

 sufficient, the cost per acre is $5 to $7. To this must be added thirty 

 to fifty per cent for mishaps, bringing the cost per acre to $7 $10, 

 or about the same as the cost in Europe, where, however, much 

 denser planting is practiced. For oak and beech about two to five 

 bushels of seed per acre is used. With acorns at a dollar and a 

 half, a common price, the seeding costs about $10 or $12 per acre. 



These figures vary with site, labor, cost of seed, etc., and will 

 be high wherever conditions are adverse to forest growth and call 

 for extra effort. The experience of the United States Forest Ser- 

 vice though the most extensive in this country can not well be used 

 here, since the conditions under which most of this work has been 

 done so far are very difficult, particularly as regards site, accessi- 

 bility, cost of labor, and, in many localities, the work of seeding 

 suffered excessively through rodents, which make this method al- 

 most useless. Experience in district I, Montana, etc., indicates that 

 even here the cost of "effective" or successful planting is now close 

 to $11 per acre, and that much planting is done at about $7 per 

 acre, and seeding at about $2.50 per acre in conifers. But it should 

 be added here that seeding has generally been a failure in these 

 western forests and is largely abandoned. 



b. Natural reproduction. 



The cost of natural reproduction is assumed to be zero. This 

 is not true in most cases. If natural reproduction is slow it wastes 

 valuable time, years of rent are lost. If it produces a stand in 

 which a portion of the trees are of poor species and not wanted and 

 this condition requires the cutting out of material at a loss, this 

 expense may very well be charged to the form of reproduction. And 

 even where the natural reproduction is perfect as to species and time, 

 but produces dense thickets of stuff which cause extra expense by 

 early thinning or involve years of struggle and consequent loss of 

 growth, the method is certainly not without cost to the owner of the 

 forest. Unfortunately statistics on these points are still too im- 

 perfect to base general statements on. The universal adoption of 

 clear cutting and planting in pine and spruce in German and other 

 forests is the best wholesale evidence that natural reproduction in- 

 volves expense, or, what is the same thing, that artificial reproduc- 



