﻿COTTONWOOD IN THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEV. 5l 



pensable both for natural grown and planted cottonwood. Planting 

 on heavy sod is never advisable. If plantations are to be established 

 on improved farm land for windbreaks, it will be of advantage to 

 plow and harrow the ground. Plowing will cost not more than $2 

 per acre. The higher stumpage values of cottonwood on the prairie 

 farms of the Central West, from $10 to $12 per thousand feet, will, 

 moreover, warrant this more intensive preparation. 



On cut-over bottoms cultivation of the ground preparatory to 

 planting is usually not justified from a financial standpoint, nor is it 

 essential, since the amount of moisture is so much greater and rich 

 alluvial sediment is deposited every year by spring overflows. On 

 bottom lands cleared for farming, however, cultivation is as advan- 

 tageous as on the uplands. 



There is another type of bottom land which, though not growing 

 up to trees or underbrush, is nevertheless so completely covered with 

 tall, thick, dense-growing weeds, principally horseweed in the North 

 and indigo plant and cocklebur farther south, that planting without 

 first preparing the ground is out of the question. Abandoned fields 

 and old filled-in river beds and lake bottoms are typical of this kind 

 of land. These weeds on such land are sometimes 10 or more feet 

 high. They can not readily be plowed under unless they are first 

 broken down so as to lie with the furrows. This can be done by 

 hitching a team to each end of a 30-foot log and rolling it over the 

 weeds, breaking them off close to the ground. This must be done in 

 the fall, when the stems are stiff and dry and snap off easily. The 

 cost of clearing and plowing such land should rarely exceed $2.50 per 

 acre. 



The thoroughness with which the ground is to be prepared must 

 depend, of course, on the returns to be expected. As a rule, these can 

 be placed at 7 per cent. Assuming a rotation of 35 years, with a 

 yield of 29,400 feet board measure, worth $5 per thousand on the 

 stump, the total gross returns would be $147 per acre. The interest 

 for 35 years on an assumed land value of $5 amounts to $48.38 ; taxes 

 based on a valuation of $3 now and an increasing value of $1 for each 

 successive 10-year period will represent an investment of $10.31 at a 

 tax rate of 2 cents on the dollar. Assuming the initial cost of stock 

 and planting at $4 per acre, or $42.71 in 35 years, the total invest- 

 ment with interest at 7 per cent less the cost of preparation will be 

 $101.40. This leaves $45.60 available for the cost of preparation, 

 including interest. In other words, approximately $4.25 per acre 

 can safely be invested in preparing the site. If it is unnecessary to 

 expend the whole of this, the net annual return will be proportion- 

 ately increased. On the other hand, if this amount is insufficient to 

 give adequate preparation, the other items of expense must be re- 

 duced, or else the owner will not receive his 7 per cent. 



