190] 



AMERICAN FORESTRY ASSOCIATION. 



119 



advantage to pile dead leaves and other 

 refuse around the base of the tree from 

 four to eight inches in height and to a dis- 

 tance of from two to three feet from the 

 trunk; by this means the rains of a trop- 

 ical summer are prevented from caking 

 the clayey soil into a hard impenetrable 

 mass and the worms, which are abundant, 

 are brought to the surface, thus allowing 

 the water to circulate freely through the 

 holes that they have made and thereby dis- 

 solve those mineral properties essential to 

 vegetable growth. 



Near Port Limon on the coast many 

 young rubber trees are grown merely for 

 exportation and with no idea of tapping. 

 These are grown among the cacao and 

 when about a year old, are cut off just 

 below the leaves, and the stems are packed 

 in boxes, the layers being separated by a 



little dry earth. The market for this 

 queer product is, I understand, Belgium 

 whence _tfiey are reshipped to the Con 



^ In the Talamanca district in southern 

 Costa Rica the Indians have gained very 

 favorable results by planting the trees in 

 the forests in close imitation of nature and 

 although they tax their vitality to the 

 utmost by constant and severe bleeding, 

 they are reported to derive a very respect- 

 able income from their venture. 



Although the Castilloa is inferior to the 

 //en/atreesoi the Amazon regions in mam- 

 respects, both in the quantity and quality 

 of the yield, yet I think we may safely 

 look for a steady increase in the rubber 

 trade in Costa Rica as the subject of cul- 

 tivation becomes better understood, and 

 the inhabitants learn to gather their prod- 

 uct systematically and economically. 



LAST ALLEGANY PINES. 



THE last clump of Pine trees, the rear 

 guard of the virgin forest that once 

 covered the hills and valleys of 

 Allegany County, N. Y., four hundred 

 and ninety trees in all, have been sold for 

 $7,500, probably the highest price ever 

 paid in the State for that number of Pine 

 trees on the stump. The trees have been 

 for many years one of the sights of South- 

 ern Allegany County, .and heretofore 

 Lucius and Ebenezer Norton, the owners, 

 have refused to put a price on them. 



The Pines are on the hillside, in the 

 town of Scio, seven miles east of Bolivar. 

 During the last winter one-third of the 

 trees have been cut away and the logs 

 hauled to the mills at Belmont and Wells- 

 ville. In all, it is expected that the 490 

 trees will cut 720,000 feet of lumber. The 

 price paid is over $153 tree. The largest 

 tree cut so far was over sixteen feet in cir- 

 cumference at the butt and the rings on the 

 stump showed it to be over 295 years 

 old. 



Clear pine lumber is now worth $70 for 

 each 1,000 feet: When the pioneers came 

 to Allegany County their greatest trouble 

 was to get rid of the pine forest and to get 



the land cleared. The virgin Pines were 

 cut down, rolled into heaps and burned. 

 The finest pine lands in the county for 

 years went begging for buyers at $r an 

 acre. That was before the canal and the 

 railroads came. During the last three 

 years, since the great jump in lumber 

 prices went into effect, every available 

 piece of timber land in the county has 

 been bought by the owners of portable 

 mills and the lumber marketed, so there is 

 to-day very little standing timber of any 

 kind in the county. The telegraph com- 

 panies have bought the Chestnut tor poles. 

 the railroads have bought the small Chest- 

 nut for fence posts and the Oak for ties. 

 and the Hemlock has been cut off for lum- 

 ber. In the oil-producing district lumber 

 has to be shipped in and even wood for 

 fuel is becoming scarce, while the price ol 

 heavy timbers for drilling rigs is advancing 

 steadily. The mangle roller mills are 

 working up all of the Maple that the forest 

 worms did not destroy, and in ten years 

 the farmer will wake up to the fact that he 

 must burn coal for fuel because there will 

 be nothing else to burn. The B 

 Express. 



