250 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 222. 



The Forest. 



The Profitableness of Forest-culture. 



AT a meeting- of the Genesee Valley Forestry Associa- 

 tion, held in the Chamber of Commerce rooms at 

 Rochester on the loth of May, an address was delivered 

 by Mr. B. E. Fernow, Chief of the Division of Forestry, 

 Department of Agriculture. The extracts which follow 

 are taken from a report of this address in the Rt>ches/er 

 Union and Advertiser : 



Profit in Forest-planting. — So far as forest-planting for 

 profit is concerned, I counsel you carefully to scan your con- 

 ditions before you stake your fortune in that direction. With 

 soil otherwise useless, with low cost of stocking the ground, 

 with no extra expense in watching and managing, and with a 

 market not overstocked when your crop is ready for sale, you 

 may find your plantation one of the best and safest savings- 

 banks where a few thousand dollars can be invested with fair 

 returns in the end. 



Aside from the financial result, you will receive, of course, 

 many benefits arising from the existence of the timber-lot 

 which it would be diificult to express in dollars and cents, and 

 yet which are tangible and enhance the value of the surround- 

 ing farm-land by making the place more sightly, by furnishing 

 shelter to cattle and crops; by preventing erosion of the soil, 

 if on the hill-side ; and, if large enough, by equalizing the flow 

 of springs and brooks and insuring desirable subterranean 

 drainage. Nor does the well-kept timber-plantation need to 

 mature in order to attain its value. Soon the prospective 

 value will be fairly recognized, just as the calf and the colt 

 have in them the promise of becoming a cow and a horse and 

 are valued accordingly. 



Looking ForVard. — Although there is still plenty o£ virgin 

 timber in the country, the time when it will be comparatively 

 exhausted is drawing near. We have in the United States 

 about 500,000,000 acres in woodland. If all of this were in good 

 condition, with full-grown timber on it — which is far from being 

 true — there could not be found on it more than 1,500,000,000,000 

 cubic feet of wood, which is at the rate of 10,000 feet b. m.' 

 of saw-timber per acre in the average. Since we use annually 

 from 30,000,000,000 to 25,000,000,000 cubic feet of wood, of which 

 30,000,000,000 to 40,000,000,000 feet, b. m., is saw-timber, it ap- 

 pears that even with these extravagant assumptions regarding 

 supplies we would exhaust them in sixty or seventy years, 

 assuming that new growth is consumed by increased require- 

 ments. That this increase takes place may be learned from 

 my computation, according to which the values of forest- 

 products and wood manufactures during the census years 

 i860, 1870, 1880 and 1890 amount to $300,000,000, $600,000,000, 

 $900,000,000, $1,200,000,000 respectively, or an increase of 

 thirty per cent, for every decade ; and since it takes at least 

 sixty to seventy years to grow saw-timber — what we now cut 

 is usually twice as old or more — it would appear that whoever 

 invests his money in forest-culture to-day must be amply repaid 

 by the crop, albeit his children will reap the profits really. Cer- 

 tain it is that it always requires time, and quite a long time, 

 before the results of such management become visible, and 

 that is largely why people are afraid to stake their money in 

 the business. 



Good Roads and Forestry. — One of the first requisites to 

 make any producing business profitable is to have a market 

 for the product and to be able to readily bring your product 

 to market. Good and permanent roads are necessary to insure 

 continuous profits in forestry as well as in agriculture. The 

 disgraceful condition of the roads through the United States 

 almost everywhere is not only detrimental to good morals, but 

 also to the pockets of the farmer and of the consumer of farm- 

 products. For profitable forest-management good, perma- 

 nent roads are indispensable. Their money value may be 

 judged from the experience of the little dukedom of Bruns- 

 wick, where, without any other changes, the building of a ra- 

 tional system of roads through its forest-domain increased the 

 income from the forest-management by twenty per cent. That 

 forest-management pays in Europe may not any further help 

 our argument than to assure us that it pays under certain con- 

 ditions. The conditions are, first, a dense population, which 

 makes a market for every stick of wood down to the merest 

 brush ; a well-established forestry system which it has taken 

 centuries to build up ; wood-lawns in good or fair producing 

 condition as a result of this long application of rational man- 

 agement ; skillful foresters, who manage the Government for- 

 ests and give advice and good example to private owners. 

 Many a farmer there finds his wood-lot the best-paying and 



never-failing crop, and there are communities, towns and 

 cities where, instead of paying taxes, a dividend is paid to the 

 citizen from the surplus resulting from the well-managed 

 woodlands. 



State Forests. — In the Government forests the annual net 

 profits range from $4.11 per acre of forest in the highly culti- 

 vated and densely populated kingdom of Saxony to $1.19 in 

 mountainous Bavaria, where the Government forests comprise 

 2,300,000 acres, on which the Government spends $3,130,000, 

 and gets in return $5,880,000, netting $2,730,000 every year, and 

 giving besides employment to a large force of men. In Prussia 

 the net annual profit for every acre of woodland was at the rate 

 of $1.31 on 6,000,000 acres woodland, the expenditure last year 

 ijeing nearly $8,800,000 for the administration, and with prices 

 in the woods of $3.00 per cord of fire-wood in the average, and 

 $10.32 per 1,000 feet b. m. of saw-timber the returns were over 

 $17,600,000, netting $8,835,119, and this is continuous, ever- 

 increasing revenue. 



Why should not the state of New York, now owning as state 

 property twice the area which little Saxony owns in woodlands, 

 and proposing to acquire additional lands so as to make the 

 area between that of Bavaria and Prussia's Government forests ; 

 why should not New York make its Adirondack forests, if not 

 as profitable, yet fairly so, as those states have made their 

 woodlands pay ? There are really only two difficulties in the 

 way — these are politics and private greed I 



Otherwise, with, say, 4,000,000 acres set aside as a reserve, 

 if only half that territory is in fair producing capacity an annual 

 cut of 250,000,000 feet would be a low estimate, and under skill- 

 ful management the annual growth would soon represent 

 double that amount, assuring a handsome revenue in years to 

 come, besides securing a state park for health, pleasure, hunt- 

 ing, fishing, preservation of water-flow and lumber-supply, and 

 all without expense. To bring this about it is necessary to se- 

 cure as soon as possible the acreage before it becomes more 

 expensive, to place it under competent administration, to open 

 up and make accessible the wilderness by a rational system of 

 well-built roads, and inviting, not keeping out the railroads, 

 under such restrictions, to be sure, as will properly guard the 

 forest against danger from fires ; for accessibility is the key- 

 note of practicable and profitable forest-management. 



The lumberman can then be satisfied by selling the logs, the 

 friend of nature will find plenty of opportunity to enjoy him- 

 self, the game will find the protecting thicket, which is now 

 unknown, and the forest-cover, instead of decreasing, will be 

 increased in density and quality under the skillful use of the 

 axe by the forester. But the profitableness of forest-manage- 

 ment in the Adirondack, like that of the wood-lot on the farm, 

 cannot be stated altogether in dollars and cents, for its indirect 

 value may far outstrip its direct revenue-producing value. As 

 the properly placed wood-lot may protect the crops from in- 

 jurious winds, give shelter to cattle, and keep the soil from 

 erosion, and tlie water-flow of springs and brooks even, so the 

 Adirondack forests, kept in proper condition, have an influence 

 upon climate and water-flow for the whole state, and with it, 

 upon its commercial condition and prosperity, which far out- 

 weighs the profits that may be derived from their timber, and 

 this indirect profit it is that states and communities should 

 have in view. 



While, then, forest-culture may not be profitable in indi- 

 vidual cases and for private purposes, it is always profitable 

 for the community at large, for it insures favorable conditions 

 in general and continuity of one of the most useful resources. 



Correspondence. 

 The Winter-killing of Conifers. 



To the Editor of Garden and Forest: 



Sir, — A note in Garden and Forest concerning the injuries 

 to Retinosporas and other conifers in the vicinity of New York, 

 leads me to say that, although the winter here has been most 

 severe, none of the conifers on my place have suffered in the 

 least. Perhaps the injury to these trees in other places may 

 be attributed to the drought in August and September of last 

 year, which was very severe in some parts of the country, 

 rather than to the cold winter. Thirty or forty years ago, 

 whenever I lost an evergreen tree, I used to attribute it to the 

 severe cold, and the same view was held by my friend, the 

 late Winthrop Sargent, of Fishkill, with whom in those days I 

 was in constant correspondence on horticultural subjects. But 

 after many years of experience and close observation I have 

 learned to give my trees much better cultivation, and have 

 discovered that serious injury more often results from the 



