CA NA I) J A N nOli TICUL TURJS T. 



83 



A siiif^lc pine tree delivcrccl in Buniilo 

 is worth .*1'0U. Very ordinary natural 

 forests are sold noai- Lake Erie at $00 

 to ?5200 an acre, and it is calculated 

 that much of the walnut of ( )hio, if now 

 standing, would he worth .*?"), UUU per 

 acre. 



How will aplantation fifteen, twenty- 

 Hve or seventy-tive years old compare 

 with an orcliard of the same age 1 Too 

 many still think that the timber could 

 only be of profit to our grandchildi'cn. 

 Foresters tell us that after a certain 

 age a tree declines. At fifteen years 

 an orcliard would be in its first vigor. 

 A proper plantation can be laid out 

 to furnish saleable wood at any given 

 age, or a proportion of early maturing 

 trees can be interspersed with the 

 slower growing, the Tuost proper gene 

 ral course, but for a special market a 

 forest of a single kind may be quite 

 suitable. 



All forests can yield a good crop 

 yearly after five years in thinnings, 

 until the whole may be fit to cut. 



Any of the following trees may be 

 gi'own alone or together and treated in 

 this way : — Hickory, White Asl«, Yel- 

 low Locust, Black Walnut, Cherry, 

 Box Elder, Elm, and these are mer- 

 chantable at all sizes. Ash, Hickory 

 and Elm are in demand for implem(;nts 

 at four and six inches in diiimeter. 

 Locust will furnish railway ties in ten 

 years. Walnut and C'herry will come 

 in for turnings in much less time. The 

 great value of the large trees is well 

 known. Oak in twelve years yields 

 full returns in tanbark and charcoal in 

 manufacturing counties. 



But thougli the intermediate returns 

 of a forest are greater than ordinary 

 farm cro])s, 1 am speaking now of tin- 



sole valuer of proper plantations of .say 

 2,700 trees per acre, four feet apart in 

 their earlier stage.s, or OHO trees at 

 eight feet of fuller growth. I find 

 that many members of the Fruit 

 droweis' A.ssociation have brought up 

 this subject in times past, and in 

 Forestry reports from Ohio and the 

 IJ.8. Government I find several cases 

 fjuoted ; one in Southern Indiana of a 

 fortune realized from twehe acres of 

 pecan nuts. 



Twenty - three acri'S of Walnut, 

 twenty-three years old, sold for 827,- 

 000. 



Yellow Locust standing in one forest 

 eight feet by eight, and cut off clean, 

 yielded several hundred dollars per 

 acre, and in nine years the sprouts 

 from the stumps made 5,000 j)Osts per 

 acre. 



Hickory has yielded a fine forest in 

 twenty years ; Catalpa, ties in eight 

 years. 



A lot of seeds which I put in last 

 year attained the following growth the 

 first season : — Bla'k Walnut, 14 

 inches ; Chestnut, 9 inches ; Catalpa, 

 2 feet ; White Ash, 1.', feet ; Mulbeny, 

 12 inches; Yellow Locust, 6 feet 6 

 inches. A promise to yield some day 

 the retu rns stated. 



Many ex.amples of great interest are 

 given of timber not (piite hardy here ; 

 but investigation of indigenous trees 

 (n-en here in tlu; backwoods during my 

 short experience in planting, leads to 

 the conclusion that a forest here could 

 ])e laid out ecjual in value to any or- 

 chard. And as orchards are increas- 

 ing in number while forests are dis- 

 ap])earing, b»'foi(> a forest now started 

 would matui-e it will be worth three 

 orchards. 



