140 YEARBOOK OF THE DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



the State were now to begin to plant that land with pine at the rate of 37,500 acre? 

 per year the whole would in eighty years become a well-stocked normal forest, yield- 

 ing perpetually thereafter 675,000,000 feet B. M. annually. * * * Besides yield- 

 ing a splendid revenue from waste lands, which otherwise would every year become 

 more barren and useless, it would afford steady labor for thousands of people, and 

 among indirect benefits it would tend to beautify our landscape, modify the tempera- 

 ture, fertilize the soil, and replenish the water supply. * * * There are remain- 

 ing in Minnesota from 20 to 30 billion feet of pine, and this is now being cut at the 

 rate of 1^ billion feet per year, and the greater part shipped out of the State. Any- 

 one can judge for himself how long this main supply will last. The average value of 

 standing pine in Minnesota is now $4 per 1,000 feet B. M. This value has risen $1 

 per 1,000 feet within the past four years. * * * From these facts it is clear that 

 it would be wise economy for the State of Minnesota to at once begin to acquire pos- 

 session of the various tracts of waste land and plant them with pine. 



A preliminary survey of 1,000 acres in northern Minnesota has 

 already been made, the planting of which will follow as soon as 

 arrangements can be made for it. According to the plan now pro- 

 posed, this is to be only preliminary to much more extensive work. 

 A State forestry commission already exists. The next legislature will 

 consider .a bill to appropriate money for this commission and authorize 

 it to acquire for the State land suitable for forest purposes. If this 

 is done, active reforestation can be begun. 



The State of Michigan last year set aside a tract of 60,000 acres of 

 cut-over pine land for an attempt at systematic forestry. It is, first, 

 a problem of protection from fire, and after that of restocking. The 

 present growth, even where best, is scarcely more than enough to fur- 

 nish seed. Mr. Thomas H. Sherrard, who represented the Bureau of 

 Foresti*} 7 in a cooperative investigation of the tract last 3 r ear, has this 

 to say in regard to the practicability of planting : a 



Wherever protection is certain planting would become perfectly feasible. Where 

 planting is necessary these lands could be planted with pine at an average cost per 

 acre of not more than $8. This sum would cover the cost of raising seedlings in seed 

 beds, transplanting to the nursery, and the final transplanting of the 3-year-old seed- 

 lings at a distance of 6 by 6 feet. Thinning and tending are considered unnecessary. 

 The investment, at 3 per cent compound interest, would amount to $35 per acre at 

 the end of 50 years. The value of the product at the end of this period, roughly 

 estimated at 40 cords per acre, would be $120, assuming a stumpage price of $3 per 

 cord. This represents a net gain of $95, or $1.98 an acre per annum. This estimate 

 is for White Pine. The figures given are purposely conservative. 



THE MAIN AGRICULTURAL REGION. 



This includes the States of the Missouri, Mississippi, and Ohio val- 

 leys, between the White Pine belt on the north and the heavily for- 

 ested region on the south. From this great agricultural region the 

 most valuable timber has now largely been removed. What remains 

 is contained principally in wood lots belonging to individual farms. 

 The region also includes a very large area once reckoned as treeless, 



a Forestry and Irrigation, October, 1902. 



