18 The Farm Woodlot 



of thirty-five acres not only received absolutely no atten- 

 tion, "but was even mistreated. At the end of twenty-two 

 years the timber crop was sold for $106 per acre, a 

 return of $4.82 per acre per annum from land which 

 would not sell for $15 per acre. This is not an isolated 

 case ; there are acres of others which have done as well. 



In the prairie sections of the Middle West, where there 

 is no natural timber, there have been very few plantations 

 made for commercial purposes. There are thousands of 

 plantations, but they are so small and so highly valued for 

 their protection and aesthetic effect that they are seldom 

 cut. A conservative estimate will show, however, that 

 they have a high intrinsic value for timber, posts and cord 

 wood, entirely apart from the valuable protection they 

 afford to homes, stock and crops. 



Consider, for example, the following data collected 

 from a windbreak plantation near Crookston, Minnesota : 

 The plantation is two rods wide and contains five rows of 

 cottonwood trees planted four feet apart in the row. 

 This means 1650 trees per acre. These trees will all 

 make one post, and half of them two. This means 2475 

 posts which have a value of .08 apiece for treating pur- 

 poses, — a yield of $198 per acre in twelve years, or $16.50 

 per annum, over the cost of production. This is almost as 

 much as the gross returns from a wheat crop. Should there 

 not be a market for so many posts, the forty cords of 

 wood will find a ready sale at $5 per cord, and the profits 

 will be practically the same. The wheat crop so highly 

 valued and universally planted in this section will not 

 yield a third of this, and there is no grain crop that will 

 average such a high revenue for such a long period of 



