74 REPORT OF THE ]?0R;ESTRY COMMITTEE 



species of woods adapted to the creosote treatment will prove more profitable. 

 The species best suited for this purpose is cottonwood. 



A mixture of species is advisable although with thorough cultivation this is 

 not absolutely essential. The trees should be pruned during the first five years 

 after the plantation is formed. A rotation of 20 years, with thinnings every 

 three to five years, after the seventh or eighth year, appears advisable. 



On account of greater expense for cultivation, plantations in this region, 

 under the best conditions, cannot be expected to pay over 5 per cent on the 

 investment, if all items of cost are figured at compound interest. 



THE ROCKY MOUNTAIN REGION 



THE Rocky Mountain region includes a large portion, or all, of Montana, 

 Idaho, Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, Nevada, Arizona and New Mexico. 

 In the valleys precipitation is insufficient to maintain forest growth. 

 Under dry farming methods, wind-breaks may be grown in some of the wider 

 non-irrigated valleys, where they are needed. This will be a distinct aid to 

 agriculture, but cannot be regarded in any sense as a commercial venture. The 

 irrigated lands are too valuable to be devoted to forest growth except to a very 

 limited extent for shade and shelter. 



There is an abundance of low-priced land in the mountains, not well adapted 

 to grazing, that can be profitably used only for the production of forests. How- 

 ever, stumpage prices have not advanced sufficiently to warrant private capital 

 engaging in commercial planting, particularly as planting methods are not yet 

 sufficiently worked out to be certain of results, and the cost of planting is at 

 present prohibitive. The large supply of easily accessible virgin timber means 

 a slow advance in stumpage values, and in the future, government forests will 

 undoubtedly help to maintain stumpage prices at figures too low to be considered 

 by the ordinary investor as offering sufficient returns from planting. 



There are many deforested watersheds near the larger centers of popula- 

 tion in this region that should be reforested, on account of the necessity of con- 

 serving the water supplies and also because these waste lands should be pro- 

 ducing revenue. All of the species adapted to planting in the region are of such 

 slow growth, however, — requiring from 185 to 200 years or more for the pro- 

 duction of saw timber, — that the returns from reforestation can be expected to 

 pay only a very low per cent on the investment. Even under the best conditions 

 it is not likely that more than 3 per cent on the investment can be obtained on 

 any planting done at the present time, and under adverse conditions planting 

 will be done at a loss. It is therefore a function of the government, both State 

 and National, to finance planting enterprises in the Rocky :Mountain region 

 until such time as cheap and satisfactory planting methods have been developed 

 a:nd data is obtained that will justify private capital in investing. 



On watersheds close to large cities where the transportation facilities are 

 favorable and the markets for the products are the best, it will undoubtedly be 

 profitable for municipalities to reforest the areas from which they draw their 

 water supply. Municipalities can afford to have money invested for a long 



