396 HORTICULTURE, FORESTRY, FLORICULTURE 



Lumber (board measure) : 



Hickory butts (bought by paper mill for cogs) feet 9,680 



Birch, sycamore, and second-cut hickory (sold to toy 



concern) do 11,822 



Ash do 957 



Walnut do 3,414 



Yellow poplar do 12,941 



Gum do 1,386 



Maple do 1,042 



Chestnut do 34,719 



Oak do 162,552 



Total 238,513 $ 6,522 



Eailroad ties number 9,345 5,282 



Switch timber linear measure 6,217 821 



Other materials 654 



Total $18,501 



Place and mill were then sold, the former at $4,623, the latter at $1,000 



making a total of $24,124 



Against an expense of 18,855 



Leaving a profit of $ 5,269 



Here was a tract of 43 acres of timber with a yield of less than 

 16,000 feet, B. M., per acre as ordinarily estimated; a stumpage of 

 about $5 per 1,000 feet, and a profit of over $100 per acre. While 

 it is not possible to repeat this everywhere, it goes far to explain 

 why good hard wood timber in eastern Pennsylvania and New Jersey 

 sells at $100 to $150 per acre when farm land does not bring one- 

 half as much, while only 30 years ago the case was exactly the re- 

 verse and the farms were rated by the amount of cleared land. It 

 also shows how, at least in a large part of the eastern United States, 

 woods may be exploited in a careful instead of a wasteful manner, 

 and how many a small holder, who can give the matter his personal 

 attention and do much of the work at odd times, may make his wood 

 lot a source of revenue. In this case the object of the purchasers was 

 simply to take from the ground and put into their pockets the 

 money value which had been accumulating in the wood for cen- 

 turies; and this they did without regard to what became of the 

 ground after the crop was harvested. It was a speculation. 



The farmer who owns his property not as a speculation but as 

 an investment should go to work very differently in exploiting his 

 wood lot. He should first determine whether his wood lot stands, 

 as it should, on the poorer portion of the farm the portion least 

 fitted for agricultural purposes by reason of its rocky condition, its 

 poor or thin soil, the steepness of its slope, or its location on a slope 

 or hilltop where it helps to regulate the waterflow and prevent the 

 washing of soil, etc. If it is so situated, and if therefore it is proper 

 policy to keep the ground for forest crops the only crops which can 

 be profitable in such situation then the cutting of the mature 

 virgin timber should proceed in such a manner as to secure a de- 

 sirable reproduction of the same, so that when the old crop is har- 

 vested a young crop is taking its place. (Y. B. 1896.) 



