Growing Pine at a Profit 



A PINE seed, planted and grown under average con- 

 / \ ditions, will produce, in fifty years, a tree one foot 

 * or more in diameter. Waste land in the state of 

 Massachusetts, if reforested this year with four-year-old 

 pine transplants, would yield $370,000,000 worth of lum- 

 ber in 1965. Deductng from the cost of planting and 

 care, the interest on the investment and the taxes for the 

 fifty years, would leave a net profit of $140,000,000. This 

 calculation assumes that there are 1,000,000 acres of 

 waste land, and that the cost of planting would be $12 

 per acre, that the land is registered under the new forest 

 taxation law a law similar to those now in force in 

 New York, Pennsylvania, Connecticut and \'ermont 

 and that lumber will be worth as much fifty years hence 

 as it is today. 



Fifty years is a long time to wait for returns on an 

 investment ; especially so when the expected results of 



By J. R. Simmons 

 Assistant State Forester of Massachusetts 



the planter are based upon a theory or upon the experi- 

 ence of a state or national government. One of the 

 greatest hindrances to the work of private forest build- 

 ing has been the lack of any record of individual suc- 

 cess. It is not, however, necessary to wait so long. The 

 fiftv-year period was referred to merely because the 

 maximum profit is gained in that time. Forest stands 

 now in existence demonstrate that up to fifty years the 

 trees grow faster than the interest on the investment. 

 The turning point comes with the retarded growth of the 

 pine. 



Looking back a period of years it is found that there 

 was as much interest in forest planting in the Eastern 

 states between 1820 and 1880 as there is today, with the 

 result that large plantations were made by private indi- 

 viduals and some few by corporations. Seedlings were 

 usually dug up from fields surrounding old seed pines 



FORTY-ONE-YEAR-OLD WHITE PINE PLANTATION 



Tfaii 



picture was taken after the stand had been properly thinned according to the most approved forestry methods and is a striking 

 illustration of what might be accomplished with much of the non- agricultural land in Massachusetts if it were planted with white pine 

 and protected from fire, insects and disease. The stand is near South Lancaster. Mass., and is owned by Mr. Harold Parker. 



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