PRACTICAL SUGGESTIONS UPON TREE-PLANTING. 47 



clerbru8h only, consisting of several varieties of oak, hickory, ash, and some other sorts. 

 I have watchtitl the growth of timber there from year to year, until the present time, 

 and am myself surprised at the result. The laud was worth, when cleared, perhaps 

 $12 i^er acre, not more. There have been taken from it, during the last seven years, 

 poles equal in value, probably, to $10 per acre, and §iriO per acre would hardly buy the 

 trees now standiug upon it. So that, if we estimate the value of the land (at the time 

 mentioned) at $12 per acre, and compute the interest upon this for 16 years at 6 per 

 cent, compound interest, adding the amount of taxes accruing during the time, with 

 interest upon this at the same rates, we have IflOO per acre as the net profit of the tim- 

 ber crop ; while, of course, the land itself has partaken of the generally enhanced value 

 of surrounding real estate, and would now probably sell for $50 per acre, were the 

 timber removed. 



* * * Let us estimate the expense of raising a growth of ten acres, planted with 

 ■white ash and black walnut, five acres of each. These varieties grow at about the same 

 rate, and are about equally valuable for lumber. The seeds of the ash, like all seeds of 

 this cla?s which ripen in the autumn, should be gathered when ripe, and kept in the 

 cellar through winter. The walnuts, as other nuts, should be spread evenly upon the 

 ground, where surface water will not stand, not more than two nuts in depth, and 

 covered with two or three inches of mellow soil, that they may freeze during the win- 

 ter ; to be planted as soon in spring as they show signs of sprouting. The land should 

 be deeply ploughed, late in the fall if practicable, and finely pulverized in early spring, 

 and marked both ways, as for corn, three feet eight inches ai;art. The tree-seeds and 

 nuts should be planted eleven feet apart, which will admit of two rows of corn or pota- 

 toes between each two rows of trees. By putting two or three seeds in a place, to be 

 thinned out to one if both or all germinate, an even stand can bo secured. A better 

 way is to plant in rows, eleven feet apart, running north and south, and three feet 

 eight inches, — (in the marks for corn). Tbis will secure straight trees, being closer, and 

 the.v may be thinned out to eleven feet each way, when large enough to use for grape- 

 stakes, bean or hop poles. Tliis will give 300 trees per acre,' or 3,000 trees in all, allow- 

 ing for some vacancies, though in all cases of tree planting, whether in groves or screens, 

 a supply of good plants, grown elsewhere, should always be in readiness to use in till- 

 ing vacancies, which should be done at the end of the first year. 



The preparation of the ten acres, at $5 per acre, would be $50. Average cost of seed, 

 50 cents per acre, $5. Planting, $25. The cultivation, during the first five years, will 

 be paid for in the crops grown between rows. For cultivation from fifth to ninth 

 years, four years, wMth horses only, $30 per year, $120. After this time no cultivation 

 or care will be needed. This makes the entire cost, in seed and labor, of the 10 acres 

 of trees, $200. These trees will, at twent?-five years of age, average sixteen inches in 

 diameter at the ground, and about ten inches at the height of sixteen feet. This will 

 give, deducting waste in sawing, 120 feet of lumber per tree. Allowing one-sixth for 

 damage by the elements and loss from other causes, we have, in round numbers, 360,000 

 feet of lumber, which, at $50 per M, would amount to $18,000. The value of the tree- 

 tops for fuel would be equal to the cost of preparing the logs for the mill, and the ex- 

 pense in sawing would not exceed $5 per M. This, added to the cost of producing the 

 trees, and the amount deducted from the value of the lumber, leaves $16,000 for the use 

 of ten acres of land for twenty-five year.s, and the interest upon the amount expended 

 in planting and culti%'ating the trees! This statement may be deemed incredible, per- 

 haps, by those who have not previously turned their attention to the subject ; but after 

 much study and many years' observation and measurements of growths of ditierent va- 

 rieties of trees, I am convinced that in all well-conducted experiments in growing ar- 

 tificial groves upon our large prairies, the profits will not fail far, if at all, short of the 

 rates above stated. It must be borne in mind that trees standing at regular and proper 

 distances upon rich prairie soil, and rect^iving good cultivation, will grow much faster 

 than the same varieties found growing in natural groves. For a list of varieties suit- 

 able for planting in artificial groves, I wouM refer all interested to the lists recom- 

 mended by our State Historical Society, with the remark that the planter can hardly 

 be in error in planting any tree which is indigenous in a soil and climate similar to his 

 own ; while many trees, whose native homes are found in latitude north or south, have 

 thus far proved valuable, as the osage orange and catalpa from the south and the red 

 pine and white spruce and some others from the north. Some foreign varieties are 

 equal or supei*ior to any of our natives, among which are European or Scotch larch 

 (best of all foreign deciduous trees), Austrian and Scotch pines, Norway spruce, and 

 ■white willow. 



SPRING OR FALL PLANTING IN NEBRASKA.. 



In the discussions at the winter meetings of the Nebraska State Horti- 

 cultural Society, at Omaha, in January, 1873, Mr. Abbey stated that he 

 had planted 3,000 trees in the fall of 1869, and 5,000 the following spring. 

 A larger proportion of those were killed which were planted in the fall 

 than tuose in the spring. The latter were heeled in during the winter, 



