30 REPORT ON FOREST TREES. 



the cost, we assume the work to be well done ; for, unless it be so, 

 it had better not be attempted. Merely putting an acorn in the 

 ground, or any number of acorns, is not forest planting. They will 

 germinate, undoubtedly, but they will remain of no value after they 

 have come up for many years, unless something more is done. It 

 would be as unwise to plant a field of acorns, without preparing that 

 field, as to sow corn or potatoes without ploughing, manuring and af- 

 ter cultivating the ground. We shall, in another place, speak more 

 particularly of this ; we speak of it now, lest our estimates should 

 appear high. So in calculating the value of the product, we assume 

 a rapid production, such as care and cultivation alone will give, and 

 not such as springs up from unassisted nature. We will now sup- 

 pose that a farmer has a ten acre lot upon his farm, which has run to 

 waste, or for which he has no profitable use. We offer to his con- 

 sideration, as the most productive employment of this lot, its conver- 

 sion to a wood lot ; and as an inducement for him to attempt it, we 

 state to him the cost of an oak plantation, and its profit and loss for 

 forty years, as follows: 



Cost of planting, including ploughing, harrowing, mar 

 nuring and keeping fence or wall in order, at $25 

 per acre, |250 00 



Thinning, pruning and weeding, for ten years, at |3 

 'per acre, annually, 300 00 



Interest for ten years, assuming the land to be worth 



$15 per acre, 270 00 



Whole cost at the end of ten years, 820 00 



For the next ten years, the thinnings will fully pay for 

 the cutting and other slight attention. We will 

 therefore add to the above, at the end of the 2d ten 

 years, interest upon interest. &c., &,c., 492 00 



$1312 00 



At the end of twenty years, if the labor which has 

 been charged for, has been faithfully performed, 

 there will remain, say 1000 trees to an acre, of the 

 average height of 30 feet, worth at least 30 cents 



