148 



Canadian Forestry Journal, October, 1813 



increasing annually by $48. The loans 

 will then in the twenty-fifth j'ear have ac- 

 cumulated to $55,000 and the interest ac- 

 cumulations to $26,870 or $1,075 per year, 

 and the highest last annual charge $1,650, 

 amounts not difficult to raise. After the 

 planting is finished the annual interest 

 charge remains stable at $1,650. Now 

 each year 200 acres may be thinned and 

 every five years the thinning repeated. A 

 net result of $2 per acre for the first thin- 

 ning (at that time wood prices will be 

 higher) $3 for the second, and $3.50 for 

 every subsequent thinning would be a rea- 

 sonable assumption. In other words for 

 the first five years after loans and plant- 

 ing have been completed the interest 

 charges are met to the extent of $400, in 

 the second quinquennium to the extent of 

 $700 and in the third quinquennium a sur- 

 plus begins to appear. Now arrangements 

 for refunding the load may be made at 

 once, or else merely interest may be con- 

 tinued to be paid out of returns for thin- 

 nings, the town receiving small incomes 

 until the sixtieth year, when the first 200 

 acres may come to harvest yielding not 

 less than"^ $120,000 (likely much more at 

 that time) wiping out the loan and leaving 

 a property worth several million dollars 

 producing annual revenue. 



'AH that the state has done is to lend 

 its credit, not one cent is given in charity, 

 and the town has made no expenditure ex- 

 cept for the care of the property. 



* That these calculations are not chimeri- 

 cal may be learned from the experiences of 

 France. 



* Here the state reforested during the 

 last century 200,000 acres of sand dunes 

 at a cost of $2,000,000. Of this 75,000 

 acres were sold reimbursing the total cost 

 of the 200,000 acres and $140,000 to boot, 

 and leaving a property now valued at 

 $10,000,000. 



'In the Landes the state, municipality, 

 and private owners planted nearly 1,- 

 750,000 acres at a cost of $10,000,000, the 

 value of the recovered properties being 

 now placed at $100,000,000 based on their 

 annual production. 



* Some 200,000 acres of poor land, un- 

 healthy useless waste, in La Sologne was 

 planted by a private association at a cost 

 of $5 per acre. These lands which fifty 

 years ago could not be sold at $4 per acre 

 now bring in over $3 per acre annual 

 revenue, being valued at $18,000,000. 



' These are actual results achieved and 

 not fancies or forecasts. ' 



Dr. Fernow went on to apply this to 

 larger areas. In New England he esti- 

 mated there were five million acres im- 

 mediately ready for planting. This on a 

 twenty-five year campaign would necessi- 

 tate planting 200,000 acres per year. Some 

 planting was now being done but in the 

 face of these figures did present work not 

 look amateurish and inadequate? 



Such an area (which was twice the for- 

 est area of Bavaria and Baden combined, 

 producing $10,000,000) planted with white 

 pine at $10 per acre and properly man- 

 aged would produce annually its 2,000,000 

 M feet of lumber worth even at present 

 ptumpage prices $20,000,000 and be an 

 ample supply for any population that 

 might then be located in New England. 



Finally Dr. Fernow applied his figures 

 to the United States and pointed out that 

 now the federal government wa^ giving 

 aid to reclamation schemes, good roads, 

 waterways, etc., it would not be out of the 

 way to include reforestation in this list. 



In 1970, by which time the most ad-' 

 vanced of the forests planted now would 

 begin to mature, Dr. Fernow estimated 

 that the population of the United States 

 would have become 225,000,000, and as- 

 suming that the per capita use of timber 

 had decreased to that of England, 14 cubic 

 feet per year, this would require the cut 

 of close to 1,000,000 acres per year of first 

 class forest growing for sixty years at the 

 rate of four hundred feet B M per year. 

 To keep up a continuous supply 60 million 

 acres must be in that producing condition. 

 The probability was that not less than 

 100 million acres would be required to sat- 

 isfy all needs for wood materials. 



Since less than $20 per acre would be 

 required for planting and interest account, 

 an annual loan of $20,000,000 for sixty 

 years, — two dreadnoughts a year — would 

 be ample provision. Dr. Fernow 's con- 

 cluding summary of his plan was as fol- 

 lows: 



(1) Each state to ascertain its quota 

 of planting area, classified for systematic 

 procedure in its recovery. 



(2) A co-operative financial arrange- 

 ment by which municipalities may secure 

 the credit of the state, and states the 

 credit of the federal government for the 

 purpose of acquiring and recovering their 

 quota. 



(3) State planting to be done on a large 

 scale. 



'If I have not developed a very definite 

 and adequate plan to meet our need for 

 wood and timber in the future I hope I 

 have at least opened up a line of thought 

 which mav tend to its formulation. ' 



ME. MALLOCH'S POEMS. 



Some requests have been made for in- 

 formation in regard to Douglas Malloch 's 

 new book of poems * The Woods ' which 

 was reviewed in the September number 

 of The Vnundian Forestry Journal. Mr. 

 Malloch ia the Associate Editor of the 

 American Lumberman, 431 South Dear- 

 born St., Chicago, 111. The American Lun\- 

 berman Co. are the publishers of the book, 

 and inquiries in regard to it may be ad- 

 dressed to them. 



