34 



These results compare favorably with measurements made 

 by this office of healthy stands of native Massachusetts white 

 pine. No attempt has been made to show that planted pine, 

 untreated, would produce more. On only two of the planta- 

 tions was anything like a systematic thinning made (pages 18 and 

 31), and in no case were trees removed at an age when an 

 added amount of light would have given the remaining trees 

 the maximum amount of growth. The present method of plant- 

 ing calls for a 6 by 6 foot spacing, but with the idea that thin- 

 ning is to be done as the trees develop to prevent overcrowding, 

 to realize something in the way of an income on the plantation, 

 and to develop the best diameters and heights possible for the 

 final stand. 



In conclusion the reader is referred to the yield tables on pages 

 37 and 38, representing the financial rotations of white pine 

 plantations, the one under the present general system of taxing 

 forest land, and the other under the new forest taxation law 

 enacted in 1914. These tables are compiled by H. 0. Cook, 

 supplementary to the financial rotations in his bulletin on 

 "Forest Mensuration of the White Pine." The volume tables 

 used in this investigation were taken from the same bulletin. 



When we speak of the yield of a pine plantation we think 

 principally of the amount of lumber which can be cut from the 

 land. Now, while this is important, the real determining factor 

 as to whether a plantation is a success or not is the financial 

 profit that such a plantation will bring. As with any in- 

 vestment, it is not the amount of business done, but the 

 profits made which in the last analysis determine failure or 

 success. 



Timber crops are peculiar in that they cannot be harvested 

 except after a period of years, so that it is not alone 

 necessary to deduct actual expenses from gross returns in order 

 to determine net yield, but these expenses must be carried 

 from the date of their incurrence at some determined rate. As 

 most savings banks pay 4 per cent., we must use a rate better 

 than that, and have chosen 5 per cent. The net yield is in 

 this case, therefore, a speculative profit over and above 5 per 

 cent. 



The gross returns are in this case the stumpage value ob- 





