THE growing of white pine, says the department of agri- 

 culture in a bulletin recently issued on the subject, is a 

 profitable undertaking at 6 per cent compound interest. 

 To bring in these returns, the trees may be cut when not 

 more than from 35 to 70 years old. 



The original white pine forests are approaching exhaus- 

 tion, according to the department, and with the growing scar- 

 city of large-sized, high-grade white pine lumber, lower grades 

 now find a ready market. Besides this, the tree grows rap- 

 idly, has a heavy yield, and is easy to manage. 



Second-growth white pine, 50 years old, on good soil, may 

 yield as much as 49,000 feet of lumber per acre. On medium 

 soil, stands of the same age 36,000 board feet, and even on 

 poor soil, 24,000 feet. White pine boxboard lumber, one of 

 the chief products of such stands, sells for from $12 to $18 a 

 thousand board feet. Material for making matches, another 

 product, sells for from $17 to $18 a thousand. Even larger 

 material, suitable for sashes and blinds, some of which may 

 be cut from a 50-year-old stand, brings from $30 to $35 a 

 thousand feet. Second-growth white pine, the kind that is 

 <'ound on thousands of abandoned fields and pastures in New 

 England, and that which has sprung up after lumbering in 

 many. places where the original white pine forests stood, has 

 a value today, says the department, that makes it well worth 

 the attention of the owner. 



Too often, caution the forest officers, the farmer or other 

 landowner sells second-growth white pine stumpage for less 

 than it is worth because he does not know how much lumber 

 the stand is actually capable of yielding, or else is ignorant 

 of the price the lumber and other products will bring. Too 

 often, also, the foresters say, the owner of second growth fails 

 to realize that perhaps by holding his pine trees for a few 

 years longer, or by thinning it properly at the right time, he 

 can obtain a great deal more and better timber, and conse- 



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