CHIEF FIRE WARDEN. 55 



because the pine of Norway is the same as the Scotch 

 pine), and here and there a few white pines. The trees 

 are for the most part only about fifty years old, stand 

 pretty close and are earning fully five per cent interest 

 net by their growth. The proper thing to do with them 

 therefore is to let them remain about thirty years longer, 

 at the end of which time they will be from 12 to 15 inches 

 in diameter breast high and can then be cut and sold to 

 the best advantage. At that period they can be said to 

 have reached their fiscal age, because after trees are 

 eighty years old their growth is too slow to yield good 

 interest. As the soil is only fit for bearing pine these 

 trees when cut should be succeeded by another crop of 

 pine, and so on perpetually; and doubtless the best econ- 

 omy will be to cut them gradually, fifty acres or so a year, 

 and beginning always on the side opposite to the pre- 

 vailing winds so that the ground can become reseeded 

 from the adjoining trees and a new crop raised naturally. 

 If, however, a new crop does not start naturally, then 

 cutting must be followed either by sowing seeds in spots, 

 three to five feet apart over the ground, or by planting 

 seedlings or transplants about the same distance apart. 

 If young trees come up naturally from the seed as abun- 

 dantly as they should there will be about one thousand 

 trees on each acre when they are 40 years old; at which 

 age if a thinning is made by cutting and removing the 

 poor, deformed and diseased trees the rest will grow in a 

 more thrifty manner. 



Of course care must be taken that this perpetual forest 

 shall not be damaged by fire. A good plan for this object 

 would be to maintain a road around the forest. 



Managed according to forestry principles this 5oo-acre 

 tract of sandy non-agricultural land will perpetually yield 

 three per cent net compound interest annually on the 

 capital it represents. 



