This table indicates at a glance that much more timber can be 

 grown in the same period of time on good soil than on poor 

 soil. The highest production was found on the rich lowlands, 

 where the soil was deep, rich and moist, but withal well drained. 

 The upland pasture, our hillsides and upland plateaus, which form 

 the largest part of land where wood crops will be planted, is indi- 

 cated by soil qualit}^ two. The rate of growth here is not far below 

 that of soil qualit}^ one, because the pine finds its demands as re- 

 gards moisture, food supply, etc., well supplied. The third quality 

 of soil consists of the wet, cold, mucky swamps, or the most sterile 

 drifting sands. For the purpose of this publication soil of the 

 second quality will be considered, because this is the kind of soil 

 that will most largely be used for growing forest, raising crops of 

 timber and wood materials. 



The table shows in a most striking manner how the quantity 

 of timber increases with the age of the forest. It, therefore, shows 

 what a short-sighted policy and poor financial plan it is to cut 

 growing forests. It will be seen that a forest thirty years old contains 

 nearly twice as much lumber as one twenty-five years of age, or 

 a thirty-five-year-old crop three and one-half times as great as 

 when harvested at twentj'-five 3'ears; also, that while it takes 

 twenty-five years to grow the first 6,750 feet of lumber nearly 

 40,000 feet more can be grown in a second twenty-five years — i. e., 

 allowing the crop to grow fift}' 3'ears. 



The land owner is also interested in knowing what he may ex- 

 pect in the way of financial returns as well as quantity production. 

 For this purpose the following interesting tables, which were pre- 

 pared by the State Forest Service of Massachusetts, are herewith 

 published with the permission of Frank Wm. Rane, State Forester 

 of Massachusetts : 



