COMMERCIAL FORESTRY 



further every reasonable and commendable pro- 

 ject. These men, I am confident, will be the 

 men of the future, to be relied upon to do things 

 in forestry. The fact that forest products are 

 valuable and likely to increase rather than dimin- 

 ish, it being an easy matter to demonstrate, 

 even at present prices, that reforestation and 

 better forestry management will pay, gives life 

 and interest to the undertaking. 



Go into any rural section, or city, for that mat- 

 ter, in Massachusetts to-day and discuss modern 

 forestry intelligently, beginning with the collecting 

 of the seed, time of year to gather them, when to 

 plant, how to care for the seedling, distance apart 

 to set for results, when to thin and whether to 

 prune, number of years to maturity, the kind of 

 soils for different species, probable returns upon 

 the investment, etc., and there is little trouble in 

 interesting our people. 



For the rest of my time to-day I want to give 

 some forestry data likely to be of interest. Any 

 data given upon forestry is, generally speaking, 

 only suggestive ; but if the basis of estimating is 

 also given, comparative adaptations can be made 

 where conditions vary. 



In giving the following estimates, I have taken 

 precaution to be conservative. It is better, it is 

 thought, to give the data as it really exists, although 

 the picture may not be as attractive. The rate of 

 interest, the price of land and the assessed valua- 

 tion upon the increment growth are all variable 

 and elastic factors for basing computations. 



