No. 4. J FORESTRY IN MASSACHUSETTS. 69 



farmers are, the following will serve. Persuaded b}' their 

 efficient forest manager, — for they have a first-class profes- 

 sional forester to run this business, and are, not as is often 

 the case with us, each one wiser than the manager, — the 

 city fathers allowed the manager to build roads during fifteen 

 years to and through the woods, until 1 II uiiles Avere com- 

 pleted, at an expenditure of $25,000. Due to this improve- 

 ment, making all parts of the forest accessible, and haulage 

 possible over (partly) macadamized roads at any thne in the 

 year, an increased return equal to 33 per cent on the invest- 

 ment could be shown. 



I am sure if as good financiers are to be found in Massa- 

 chusetts towns, with as good expert advice, an era of town 

 forests will soon arrive. 



Towards such a desirable end the assistance of the State 

 should be readily given by })ledging the State's superior 

 credit in acquiring and reforesting waste lands, and enabling 

 the towns without too much sacrifice in the present to estab- 

 lish their town forest, since the State could probably borrow 

 money at a lower rate than the towns. An example may 

 illustrate the method of procedure. 



Let us assume that a town has saj^ 1,000 acres of such 

 waste lands which it could secure for say $3,000, borrowing 

 the money from the State at 3 per cent interest; the 1,000 

 acres to be planted up in the next twenty-five 3 ears, i.e., at 

 the rate of 40 acres per year, at a cost of $300 ; this amount 

 to be borrowed also from the State from year to year, when 

 the interest charges will be annually $1)0 for the land pur- 

 chase, and increasing hy $9 each year for twenty-five j^ears 

 for the planting cost. The loans will then in the twenty-^fifth 

 year, when the reforesting is finished, amount to $10,500, 

 and the interest paid will have amounted to $5,250, varying 

 from $99 in the first to $315 in the last year, which is the 

 maximum annual pajanent. Now the interest charge becomes 

 stable at tliis rate, and at the same time each j^ear 40 acres 

 may be thinned. These thinnings can be safely figured to 

 net $2 per acre for the twent} -five-year-old stands ; they 

 are to be repeated every five 3'ears, and increase then bv $1 

 per acre for the first and by 50 cents for every following five 



