266 PRACTICAL ARBORICULTURE 



I give the following estimate of cost and profit, as from ARBORICULTURE: 

 "The cost of planting will vary according to local conditions. The land 

 should be such as would produce a fair crop of corn : 



ESTIMATE PER ACRE. 



Value of land, say $20.00 



Preparing the land 5.00 



Eight hundred and eighty trees 8.00 



Labor, planting and cultivating 5.00 



Interest eight years 12.16 



$50.16 



"At eight years three-fourths of the trees should be removed, leaving 

 permanent trees 16x16 feet, or 170 per acre. 



"Each tree removed will supply two first-class posts worth 10 cents each. 



"Five hundred and ten trees removed make 1,020 posts, worth $100, 

 being original cost with total expenses, leaving the plantation fully paid, 

 including twenty years' interest and taxes. 



"The remaining 170 trees will, by twentieth year, produce 850 cross-ties 

 worth, at 60 cents, $510, or 250 feet lumber per tree, 42,000 feet b. m., which, 

 at $20 per 1,000, is $850. 



"The value of the land having been greatly improved, and a permanent 

 income insured from the continued growths (as the trees are quickly 

 renewed from the stumps), equal to a capital investment of $1,000 at 8 per 

 cent interest." 



The greatest difficulty to be encountered in beginning a plantation is in 

 obtaining pure seed. The following quotation, also from ARBORICULTURE, bear- 

 ing upon this point, is of interest: 



"The Southern Catalpa is much branched, of low, scrubby growth, and so 

 far as known has no value in the arts. As a flowering, bushy tree, it has been 

 largely distributed, and is now found in every part of the world. The enor- 

 mous quantity of seed produced, together with the ease with which the seed 

 are collected, from low spreading trees, has caused thousands of pounds of 

 this worthless seed to be distributed throughout Europe as well as America. 



"One prominent seed house in the West, some years ago, collected one 

 thousand pounds of this Southern seed and sold it as spcciosa, distributing this 

 inferior tree to every part of the United States. Another prominent seed 

 house of an Eastern city sent out a quantity of the seed labeled C. speciosa, 

 the present year, a sample of which seed is held by ARBORICULTURE. Not one 

 seed of this lot is spcciosa. but both the Japanese dwarf. C. kcmpfcrii and C. 

 bignonioidcs comprise the lot. When such gross carelessness, if not crimin- 

 ality, exists among seed houses professing eminent respectability, the public 

 must suffer. 



"The greatest difficulty which this Society has to contend with is the 

 erroneous estimate placed upon the Catalpa by the great number of people 



