6 THE FOREST TREE CULTURIST. 
this time, its increased value would have paid the interest 
on its original cost and taxes, and left a large surplus to 
the owner. Regrets over past follies will avail nothing 
unless they teach us to be wiser in the future. 
In all of our large cities anxious inquiries are made for 
that indispensable article, timber. If we would extend 
commerce, ships and docks are needed, and fer these more 
or less timber is required. The builders, the houseless and 
homeless, rich and poor, know and feel the need of it. 
Trees suitable for piles now command twenty to thirty 
dollars each. One of my neighbcrs rot long since sold 
one hundred for three thousand dollars; ten years since 
half that amount would have been considered an exorbitant 
price. Firewood on the lines of our great railroads, miles 
away from our cities, sells for seven and eight dollars per 
cord; and if the demand continues to increase, soon it can 
not be had for double that amount. The demand increases, 
although coal and iron are persistent competitors ; but the 
supply of wood decreases more rapidly. There is no rea- 
son why the supply should give out; there is land enough 
within reach of our great cities that les uncultivated, or, 
what is more lamentable, unprofitably cultivated, that 
might be made to grow forests of good timber that 
would return to their owners a large profit on the invest- 
ment. . 
I know many large land-owners who have been toiling 
for the past thirty years to lay up something to keep them 
in their old age and leave a balance to their children. 
They have worn themselves out as well as their land, and 
that something for which they have so arduously labored 
