J24 



FORESTRY AND IRRIGATION. 



March, 



The cost of planting is difficult to 

 ascertain exactly, as no records were 

 made, and information rested merely 

 upon the memory of those who did the 

 planting. The value of labor is, and 

 probably was at that time, $1.50 per 

 da}^ and that of a horse fifty or seventy- 

 five cents. The cost of planting would 

 thus appear to be considerable, in view 

 of the fact that only about one hundred 

 trees were planted by each man per day; 

 but the work was often done at odd 

 times, which would otherwise have been 

 wasted. No cash expenditure was in- 

 curred for labor, and none of the plan- 

 tations have received any attention 

 since their establishment. 



The present condition of these planta- 

 tions is shown in the accompanying 

 photographs. There are numerous 

 "blanks." Grass is growing every- 

 where between the rows, except in small 

 spots. There has been no lateral crowd- 

 ing, and the trees are therefore spread- 

 ing and low-branched. On the steep 

 slopes the leaf cover and root growth 

 have been entirely insufficient to prevent 

 washing of the soil. Nevertheless the 

 owners seem to be satisfied with the re- 

 sults, and the writer was told that a 

 farm containing one of these future sugar 

 orchards about four acres in extent had 



recently been sold for $200 more than it 

 would have brought without the maples. 



On the Frederick Billings estate, in 

 Woodstock, the town adjoining Pomfret 

 on the south, several maple plantations 

 of a slightly different character were 

 made about twenty years ago, the largest 

 being ten acres in extent. The stock 

 used consisted of plants one foot high, 

 secured in the neighboring woods, and 

 set from thirteen to twenty-one feet 

 apart each way in a piece of good hay 

 land on a northeast slope, well protected 

 on the south and west by high timber. 

 The cost of this planting was $2 per 

 acre. After the planting the grass was 

 cut on the plantation to the value of $10 

 an acre per annum for ten j-ears, since 

 which time the grass crop has decreased, 

 until at the present time it barely pays 

 the expense of cutting. 



The trees are for the most part stag- 

 headed, sun-scalded, and much injured 

 by scythe wounds at the base. Six 

 or seven years ago White Pines were 

 planted in rows between the rows of 

 maples, reducing the distance between 

 the trees by one-half in one direction, 

 but not at all in the other. The white 

 pine stock used consisted of three or 

 four year old transplants. Although 

 they grew slowly at first the}' are now 



SCENE IN TWENTY-EIGHT YEAR OI,D MAPI^E PLANTATION, SHOWING WASHING AND 



GULLYING DUE TO WIDE PLANTING. 



