PLANTING IN FOREIGN COUNTRIES. 69 



CALCULATIONS OF COST OF GROWING PINE TIMBER. 



" Mr Sonson, a highly intelligent Norwegian gen- 

 tleman, who has made a large fortune in the timber 

 trade, informed me some time ago that, according to 

 a calculation which he had made, pine and spruce 

 timber actually costs and is worth much more than 

 the price at which it is sold. His theory is, that an 

 acre of grown timber is worth the sum that the low- 

 est or nominal price of wild land say, 1 an acre 

 would amount to as an invested capital, drawing 

 interest at the expiration of the period required for 

 timber to develop. In the report, ' Swedish Forest 

 Culture,' it was shown that in the northerly parts 

 of Sweden, two hundred years, and on poorer soils 

 three hundred years, are required for the growth of 

 pine timber. In the south part of the country one 

 hundred years are sufficient. It may be assumed 

 that one hundred and eighty years are required for 

 the growth of pine timber in the north-west part of 

 the United States. Now 1 invested at 5 per cent 

 interest per annum will double, say, in twenty years. 

 In forty years it will be 4 ; in sixty years, 8 ; in 

 eighty years, 16; in one hundred years, 32; in 

 one hundred and twenty years, 64; in one hundred 

 and forty years, 128; and in one hundred and 

 sixty years, 256. If a thing is worth what, under 

 favourable circumstances, it costs to produce it, then 

 this last - mentioned sum of 256 represents the 

 value of an acre of land originally bought at 1, at 

 the time pine timber will have come to maturity 

 upon it, and this without including the charges of 

 taxes on the land. These figures would seem to 

 show that the pine-forests of the United States are 



