21 



There is profit not only in growing white pine, but also Norway 

 spruce and many other kinds of wood. With permission of Mr. 

 George Aiken, manager of the Billings farm at Woodstock, Ver- 

 mont, we submit the following data in regard to profits derived 

 from growing Norway spruce on that farm. One acre was planted 

 with three-year-old Norway spruce, eight feet apart each way, 

 requiring 289 trees to the acre. The land was poor, sandy hill- 

 side, unfit for cultivation. In 1908, when the plantation was 

 thirty-two years old, or thirty-five years from seed, four average 

 sized trees were cut. Their measurements were as follows: 



No. i 72 ft. high, ii inch butt cut, 46^ ft. of logs 6" at top end 



" 2 S7 " IS ' 47i " 



3 63 " ' 14 ' 42 ' 



4 67 " ' 16 ' 40 ' 



Four trees produced one cord of pulp wood; or the acre, if cut, 

 would have yielded 172^ cords, which at the prices paid there at 

 the present time, $6.50 per cord, would give the income from this 

 acre $1,120.00 in thirty-two years. 



Placing the value of the land at $5.00 per acre, cost of trees and 

 planting at $5.00 additional, making a first cost of $10.00 per acre 

 computed at compound interest would amount to $65.50. To this 

 should be added the taxes for the thirty-two years $7.50, making 

 a total investment of $73.00, leaves a net income of $1,046.86, or 

 a yearly average of $36.72 per acre, from poor, wornout side hill 

 pasture land worth about fifty cents per annum for grazing. The 

 pulpwood cut here was sold to the International Paper Company, 

 who made it into paper at the Bellows Falls Mill. Mr. Edward 

 Barrett, superintendent of this mill, reports as follows: " The 

 Norway spruce test: One cord of rough wood, 71 sticks 4 feet long, 

 after preparing for grinder room, gave us 98 cubic feet. This made 

 1,828 pounds of dry woodpulp. The spruce worked nicely on the 

 paper machine, arid under the same conditions as our regular 

 spruce, gave us a higher test for strength and a brighter shade, 

 with the same amount of color." 



