13 



Larch will produce posts and poles in a brief time if closely spaced. 

 It is, however, an intolerant tree, and will not endure mixing with 

 trees which have an equal or faster rate of growth. A plantation 

 in Kendall County was set with a mixture of larch, catalpa, and 

 white ash. At the end of twenty-two years but 14 per cent of the 

 larch had survived, although there were yet living 52 per cent of the 

 catalpa and 71 per cent of the ash. Because of this intolerance, pure 

 plantations of larch thin themselves enough to impair the crown 

 cover, and grass is common in the older plantations. Though grass 

 does not injure the larch as much as it does the walnut, it might be 

 worth .w^hile to underplant larch with some shade-enduring species, 

 such as sugar maple, at the time when the heaviest natural thinning 

 begins, and thus maintain better forest conditions. 



BLACK WALNUT. 



The prices assumed for the products of the black walnut planta- 

 tions are: Lumber, $20 per M board feet; first-class posts, 6 cents 

 each; second-class posts, 3 cents each; wood, $2 per cord. The 

 cost of establishing a walnut plantation is placed at $5 per acre. 

 This very low cost is assumed because the planting of black walnut 

 consists usually in dropping the nuts into a furrow and covering 

 them by means of a plow or by hand. 



It is true, of course, that most of the owners of walnut plantations 

 have no intention of cutting them for posts, yet the trees are value- 

 less for any other purpose until they reach lumber size, which will 

 require at least fifty years. Though most of the walnut plantations 

 were established without idea of financial gain, the best value possible 

 has been given them in order to compare them with plantations of 

 other species. 



The study strongly emphasizes two facts concerning the growth of 

 walnut in Illinois: (1) The walnut will grow well on prairie soil, 

 notwithstanding its preference for rich bottom lands, but the situation 

 must be w T ell drained. Insufficient drainage was the sole apparent 

 cause of the bad condition of many plantations. (2) The walnut is 

 intolerant, and although plantations which are closely enough spaced 

 preserve good forest conditions for the first twenty or thirty years, 

 the intolerance of the tree in time becomes so marked that the natural 

 thinning is great enough to break the crown cover. In consequence, 

 grass gets a foothold. While in some cases the presence of a heavy 

 sod does not appear to be detrimental to walnut, there are many 

 other cases in which it does appear to be decidedly detrimental. For 

 this reason all stock should be excluded from plantations, while 

 underbrush should be encouraged. Further, to secure proper forest 



[Cir. 81] 



