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and healthy. At three feet apart, an acre contains about 4,900 ; in this state, they should 

 be allowed to remain six or seven years, when they will have attained the height of 

 twenty feet, if they have been well cultivated the first three or four years ; they should 

 then be thinned for the first time by taking out every alternate row ; the thinnings make 

 the best quality of hop-poles, worth at present about five cents apiece— 2,450 poles, at 

 five cents, brings $122.50. Then being allowed to remain in this state about three years 

 longer, they should have the second thinning. By taking out every alternate tree in the 

 row, this would leave them six feet apart each way ; the thinnings are now five to six 

 inches through, and are worth ten cents apiece for boat masts and yards, supports in 

 mines, etc. — 1,225 spars, at ten cents, brings $122.50. After growing five years at this 

 distance, they should be finally thinned out to twelve feet apart ; the trees will now be 

 seven to ten inches through and over thirty feet high, can be sawed into rafters, fencing, 

 flooring, etc. ; and are worth at least twenty-five cents apiece — 612 spars, at twenty-five 

 cents, brings $153. Now, if we suppose that the sale of poles and spars would be 

 sufficient to defray the expense of making and upholding the plantation, and that each 

 tree still remaining on an acre, say fifteen years after planting, is worth only twenty-five 

 cents, the value of 612 trees is $153, there would be a handsome profit after allowing $2 

 a year for rent, which, for fifteen years, would be $30, and a great deal of land suitable 

 for growing larch would not rent for more than half that amount. Now, the expenses 

 cease, because the forest can be pastured with sheep without danger of injury to the 

 trees ; the increase of value is now much more rapid, the annual inci-ease of the circum- 

 ference of the trees will average one and one-half inches until they nearly reach maturity, 

 which is in about fifty years after planting. The trees will then average thirty to forty 

 inches in diameter, three feet from the butt. Each tree will produce about 450 feet of 

 lumber, at $25 per thousand, $11.25, less expenses for drawing and sawing $2.25. It 

 would surely not be considered extravagant to value each tree at $9 — 612 trees at $9, 

 $5,508, less thirty-five years' rent, at $2 per acre ; $70 from $5,608 leaves a net profit 

 of $5,438. Be it observed that plantations of larch do not impoverish the land but 

 rather improve it. The annual deposit of leaves gives more nutriment to the soil than 

 is taken from it by the trees." 



Mr. Hicks, of Roslyn, L. I., says of the yellow locust : — 



" Hough's Report on Forestry mentions its lasting fifteen to twenty years as railroad 

 ties, while oak lasts only five to ten years, and chestnut six to eight years. The timber 

 is used very extensively by carriage builders, and in some instances in preference to 

 hickory. Brewster &, Co., of Broom St , New York City, using it and paying higher 

 prices for it than for hickory. 



" On Long Island, near New York City, this tree is the most valuable grown. After 

 thirty years' growth the tree will make posts eight, ten, and twelve feet long, three to 

 five inches in diameter, at the small end. In New York City the posts are worth, for 

 eight feet in length, four inches in diameter, forty -eight cents ; ten feet, four and a-half 

 inches in diameter, seventy-seven cents ; twelve feet, four and three-quarters inches in di- 

 ameter, ninety-five cents ; six and a-half feet fencing posts, four inches diameter, twenty- 

 -eight cents. The trees will often cut one piece or stick twelve feet, one ten feet, one eight 

 feet, one six and a-half feet, making $2.48 per tree ; these are the wholesale prices. In 

 the most famed localities, and with five or ten years' more growth, the tree will make, 

 say one stick sixteen feet, thirty-six inches girth ; one twelve feet, thirty inches girth, 

 and one ten feet, twenty-five inches girth, this making the tree worth many times as 

 much, as it sells for from sixty cents to $1.25 per cubic foot. As to value in other 

 localities. Dr. Warder states that he is cutting trees, having a growth of twenty -four 

 years, averaging twelve inches diameter, and sixty feet high, trees making eight to ten 

 good fence posts, seven feet in length, six to eight inches face at the top end, trees stand- 

 ing 400 to the acre. 



"Ezra Sherman, of Preston, Ohio, states that locust seed was sown in 1830; three 

 years afterwards, the trees were planted in a grove of fifteen acres, also an avenue of 20 

 rods. In 1870, two-thirds of these last were cut, 180 trees making 1,500 posts, worth 

 thirty -five cents each, or $525 ; and Mr. Sherman says, that the fifteen acres will furnish 



