62 



PRACTICAL SUGGESTIONS UPON TREE-PLANTING. 



It is further probable, that the quality of wood may be found to vary 

 with the soil, and that the larch, grown on high gravelly land, would 

 differ from that of the riclr prairie-mold. It is within the knowledge of 

 all lumbermen that sap pine has no durability in the ground. It is rea- 

 sonable that saplarch should exhibit the some properties. We know 

 that the pine in our soil and climate acquires with age the most desira- 

 ble qualities,. and it is equally probable that the same may be true of 

 the European larch. It is pVobable tbat the durability of this timber 

 would be increased by stripping off the bark and allowing it to season 

 for a time before cutting. 



CALCrLATIONS OF COST FOR ONE ACRE OP LARCH 



PAIGX, ILL. 



BY M. L. DUNLAP, OF CHAM- 



Trench plowinfr 



Harrowing and rolling 

 Three thousand plants 



Freight 



Spade and setting 



Cultivating 4 



Hoeing the young trees 5 



Cultivation live veara 15 



Total , 



65 



The cost of land, interest for six years, taxes, and the above in five 

 years, amount to 8125, making the total cost at that time $190. Xo 

 further attention would be needed for the next six years, when, with 

 interest and taxes, the cost would have amounted to 8320. 



The crop at this time should consist of 2,500 trees, allowing 500 for 

 loss. Of these, 100 may be taken out, leaving 1,500 standing. Those 

 taken out would give 1,500 posts, worth $350, less 830 for cutting, and 

 leaving 8320. Thus, in twelve years, the partial crop will have paid 

 for the land with interest, and we have 1,500 larch trees, large enough 

 in twelve years more for railroad-ties, and worth, at 60 cents apiece, 

 giving 8800 for the land and trees, at the end of twenty-five years.^ 



SUGGESTIONS OK PLANTING — IOWA EXPERIENCE. 



Mr. Sue! Foster, of Muscatine, Iowa, in a prize essay on forest-tree 

 planting, offers the following suggestions as applicable in his State :^ 



The larch is of tolerably rapid growth ; growing half an inch or more in diameter 

 each year for the first ten years, and tho next ten years fully equal to one inch. This 

 is in size equal to our black walnut, and it grows much better and straiehter.^ The 

 little trees should be bought of nurserymen, for it is a nice and particular thing to 

 raise the larch or evergreens from seed. I would recommend to the farmers of Iowa 

 to buy European larch at two years old, at $10 to $15 per thousand. They should be 

 set in nursery rows, 4|- feet apart, and 1 foot in the row, so that when one row is taken 

 out it will make a wagon-road through the grove. Larch must be moved very early in 

 the spring, for they are among the very earliest trees to start to grow. The ground 

 should be plowed very deep in tho fall, then plowed in tho spring, as soon as possible; 

 harrowed and pulverized very finely by turning the harrow bottom up the last time. 

 Then stretch a line and set with a spade. Have a mud-hole to dabble the roots all in. 

 While the man uses the spade, a boy can handle plants. About 2,000 will be a day's 

 work, and will cover about a quarter of an acre. They must be carefully plowed and 

 hoed for two years, and if the weeds start too quick in May and June, the third or 

 fourth years they should be plowed. 



Co.st— 8,000 plants for an acre, 880 ; setting out 88 ; plowing and hoe- 

 ing the first year, 88; plowing and harrowing the land before setting, 

 8-1; second year, 84; two years after, 84; interest on the land at 850; 

 eight years, at 8 per cent!=832. Total cost of an acre of European 

 larch, at eight years, 8140. 



'Cited in an address by Dr. John A. Warden, in January, 1S73, before the Kansas 

 State Board of Agriculture. Report of that year, p. 2G2. See also Ohio Agricultural 

 Report, 1871, p. 55. 



' lotoa Agricultural Report, 1870, p. 323. 



