396 Transactions of the American Institute. 



friend Lyman classes the chestnut among those the least valuable, I 

 class it among those most valuable in our section of country, and as 

 such will offer you au estimate of the profit of growing an acre of 

 chestnut timber. I Avill suppose the trees planted one rod apart each 

 way, making 100 trees to the acre, to cost at two years old in the 

 nursery five dollars per hundred, or eight dollars per acre ; add to 

 this two dollars for transplanting, and we have ten dollars per 

 acre; If planted out younger they will not succeed so well, and 

 if kept longer in the nursery the risk of dying will increase with 

 the time. The chestnuts should be kept damp as soon as ripe to 

 insure success, as a very few days exposure to the dr}' air will prevent 

 germination. If the land is fit for tillage it can be planted with corn 

 or some other cultivated crop, four feet one and a half inches 

 each way, and at every fourth hill, each way, plant the young 

 trees and cultivate with the crops, which will facilitate their 

 growth, while the crops wall pay ; then leave them to natural causes 

 for protection. When the land is too hilly or not fit for tillage the 

 trees can be set without the expense of cultivating. In about eight 

 years after transplanting, the trees will become bushy and not fit for 

 rails and should be cut dowm to eight or ten inches from the ground. If 

 they succeed well they will send up at least five good suckers from each 

 stump. These will grow rapidly, straight and tall, and will in twenty- 

 five years, or less, from planting make six good rails from each sucker 

 or 4,800 rails per acre ; wdiich, at nine dollars per liundred, amounts to 

 $432, or sixteen dollars a year clear of cost of planting. After this 

 cutting they will become more remunerative as they will bear cutting 

 every fifteen years and produce more at each cutting, or at least 

 twenty-six dollars a year, and this, too, without the expense of fenc- 

 ing, or farming, or cutting the timber, as the tops and branches of 

 the trees will amply pay all expenses. If the aljove estimate is cor- 

 rect, where is there any farm land that will equal it in profit of farm 

 crops for a series of years ? If the estimate is considered too high, 

 reduce it one-fourth or one-half, then add seed, labor, manure, and 

 the cost of fencing, to say nothing of the extra taxes on the improved 

 land, and then we shall see vrhich will pay best. Sixteen dollars a 

 year is the interest on more than $200 per acre, and twenty-six dol- 

 lars for the second cutting, the interest on more than $350, more tlian 

 our best land will sell for near markets. I know of young cliestnut 

 trees where the timber was cut not twenty-three years ago, that will 

 make more than double the above estimate of rails, and some will 



