128 ELEMENTARY FORESTRY. 
accretion during the last ten years was 12.52 feet, which is 
equivalent to mean annual increment of 1.25 feet. 
As the live branches of this tree occupied the whole trunk, 
the timber was very knotty. A proper crowding would have 
kept it from forming large branches on the lower trunk, stimu- 
lated its upward growth, and prevented so large an increment 
during the early life of the tree. But if, as with the former tree, 
Figure 34. Cross section of White Pine open grown. 
it had been first crowded and then set free, the best timber in the 
least time would have been secured. 
The Profit from an Investment in Land that is stocked 
with only very small coniferous seedlings is altogether too small 
and too remote to prove an attraction to investors at present, 
even were the danger from fire entirely eliminated. But there 
is considerable land that is now stocked with a good growth of 
young pine of fair size that could be bought and managed at a 
good profit if the danger from fire could be greatly reduced. 
This land in many cases would not have to be held more than 
ten or fifteen years to secure a good profit on the investment, 
