PLANTING FORESTS IN KENTUCKY 



453 



of the white oak. Forty-five white oaks 

 of Hopkins county, grown on hills, in 

 the valleys, and on the slopes between, 

 were examined as to the ages when the 

 trees reached twelve inches diameter. 

 The average age was found to be 101 

 years. The average age when cut was 

 231 years, with average diameter of 

 thirty-one inches. The oldest tree when 

 cut was 325 years old, with a diameter 

 of forty-one inches, and was ninety-five 

 years growing to a diameter of twelve 

 inches. The youngest was 142 years 

 old when cut, with a diameter of twenty- 

 seven inches, and was seventy-five years 

 growing to twelve inches. 



Thirty-five of these trees were over 

 200 years old. Four of them were over 

 300 years old. From the facts collected 

 during these twenty years, I have made 

 a table of the time it takes certain trees, 

 in Kentucky, to grow to a diameter at 

 the stump of t\velve inches. This is not 

 an infallible table, but it is based on ac- 

 tual tree growth as observed in the for- 

 est ; and has no reference to isolated 

 growth, or to unusual conditions. The 

 pin oak will grow to twelve inches di- 

 ameter in forty years ; black locust in 

 forty-five years ; tulip in fifty years ; 

 black walnut in fifty-six years ; Texas 

 red oak in fifty-eight years ; sweet gum 

 in sixty-two years ; ash in seventy-two 

 years ; hickories in ninety years ; white 

 oak in loo years. 



The first tree planting was with the 

 black walnut, the nut of which was 

 planted in the autumn with the hull on, 

 when the nuts became mature. The 

 ground was prepared as for corn, and 

 the nuts planted four feet apart each 

 way, or 2,770 to the acre, being cov- 

 ered with soil from one-half to one inch 

 in depth. The land was cultivated for 

 three or four years the same as for 

 corn, and then blue grass sown, the idea 

 being that in ten or twelve years the 

 trees would be large enough to permit 

 pasturage. 



On the poorer of the thrown out 

 farm lands we plant black locust. This 

 tree, belonging to the pulse family (the 

 family of the clover and the peas), 

 draws its nitrogen from the air and 

 enriches the soils. We plant these trees 



seven or eight feet apart each way, and 

 cultivate as we do the walnuts. 



We also plant the catalpa speciosa, 

 a rapid growing tree from the Wabash 

 Valley. I have found this tree, grow- 

 ing from twenty-one inches to twenty- 

 four inches in diameter at the stump 

 in thirty-eight years. This catalpa, ac- 

 cording to authorities, makes the most 

 enduring fence posts, telegraph poles, 

 and railroad ties. It is planted spaced 

 seven or eight feet, and cultivated like 

 the walnuts for three or four years. 



The tulip tree, commonly called the 

 yellow poplar, is a most durable tree, 

 and should be planted on good land, the 

 trees ten feet apart each way, or 435 

 to the acre. 



Up to the present time, the above- 

 mentioned four varieties are the only 

 ones planted by us for the growing of 

 new forests. From the autumn of 1888 

 to the spring of 1909, inclusive, my 

 company has planted 430,000 black wal- 

 nuts on 162 acres ; 160,000 catalpa spe- 

 ciosa on 230 acres ; 200,000 black- 

 locust on 280 acres ; 10,000 tulip on 

 twenty acres ; and 850,000 black wal- 

 nuts in vacant places in the forest, 

 largely in bottom lands, a total planting 

 of 1,650,000 trees. 



As one of the most accomplished of 

 foresters, Dr. C. A. Schenck, of Bilt- 

 more, N. C., writes me : "If forestry 

 is a desirable industry, it is entitled to 

 the fostering care of the public. As an 

 industry, it stands unique, by the long 

 time required for the production of its 

 raw material, which exceeds the length 

 of production entailed in any other kind 

 of industry. This makes forestry im- 

 possible unless the people offer to the 

 corporation or private individual prac- 

 ticing forestry special aid and special 

 inducement and special privileges, simi- 

 lar to those which the people have given 

 for public purposes, as railroad and tel- 

 egraph companies, and other corpora- 

 tions acting for and in the people's com- 

 mon interest." 



In Europe, planted forests are esti- 

 mated to mature as follows : Spruce, 

 ninety years; pine, 100 years; fir, 120 

 years; beech, 120 years; and oak, 160 

 years. 



