416 



profits can be approximate only. An authority estimates the cost 

 of growing an acre up to eight years to be $75 and by some the 

 cost is put at a lower figure. The following estimate is from bulletin 

 108 of the Kansas Experiment Station: "Careful estimates based 

 on the Yaggy forest give total cost of growing and marketing timber 

 on one acre for ten years as $51.70; gross value of product in ten 

 years, $267.15 ; net profit $215.45 ; net profit, less six per cent com- 

 pound interest on expendtitures, $197.55 per acre ; net annual profit 

 for first ten years, $19.75; owner's estimate of present gross value 

 of product (three years later than above valuation) $400 per acre; 

 annual income of plantation at present as estimated by owner, $50 

 per acre." 



The demand for catalpa timber is rapidly increasing. Rail- 

 roads are in special need of tie timber. White oak, the best tie 

 timber hitherto used is nearing exhaustion. The expense of chem- 

 ically treating cheap ties of perishable wood is great. Metallic ties 

 are out of the question on American road-beds. A strong demand 

 exists for durable tie timber to replace oak. In 1900 there were 

 535,668,000 ties in track in the United States. Renewals in that 

 year, 48,000,000, worth, at forty cents apiece, $19,200,000 nine 

 per cent of the total in track. If laid with catalpa ties, annual 

 renewals would not exceed four per cent, counting life of catalpa 

 ties at but fifteen years; they have been known to last twenty years. 

 Annual saving of expense of renewals thus affected, estimating the 

 cost of catalpa ties also at forty cents apiece, $10,600,000. 



The durable quality of catalpa renders it also especially valu- 

 able for fence-posts and for telephone and telegraph poles. Its 

 value for post timber lies not only in its resistance to decay, but 

 also in its not checking or splitting with age. (Ohio E. S. B. 149; 

 Kas. E. S. B. 108.) 



THE BASKET WILLOW. 



The growing of basket willows was introduced into the United 

 States some sixty years ago by German immigrants who settled in 

 New York and Pennsylvania. The industry was soon extended to 

 Maryland and westward to Missouri and Iowa; it is now rapidly 

 spreading over the nonarid regions of the far West. This industry, 

 which has been languishing for a number of years, has recently 

 taken a sudden leap and shows enormous possibilities. This is due 

 entirely to improved methods of culture and to the introduction of 

 new and choice varieties of basket willows. The cost of production 

 in the United States has been greatly reduced, while the quality of 

 the rods has been improved. These results have brought a better- 

 ment of the condition of both the grower and the manufacturer. 



Great care should be taken in the selection of the soil and 

 the location of the holt. Rich, permanently moist, sandy loam 

 gives best returns, though ordinary moist sandy land often yields 

 profitable crops of willows. Poor soils produce paying crops where 

 there is a market for short rods. Avoid land on which water is 

 stagnant during the summer. If by drainage the water level on 

 such land can be lowered at least 6 feet below the surface, the situa- 



