FORESTRY COMMISSION. 65 



harvested when young and produce timber that will bring a good pr'ce. 

 Such are the coimuou locust, chestnut, white ash, basswood, hardy cataljja, 

 perhaps the osage orange, cottonwood for paper, and a few others. You 

 prefei- not to wait one or two hundred years for the trees to' mature. The 

 kinds of trees above named, if well grown, may be harvested in twenty 

 to thirty years; in some cases, sooner. 



In the fourth report of the Michigan Academy of Science appears one 

 of my short papers, much like contributions to the Michigan Farmer in 

 1002, entitled, "What Shall the Michigan Farmer Grow for Fence Posts 

 and Telegrapih Poles?'' 



If ycur land is deep gravel or sand, well drained, from Mecosta county 

 southward, possibly farther north, you run little risk in growing trees of 

 chestnut and common locust. Both grow very rapidly, both produce 

 durable timber. For locusts, plant one-year-old trees; for chestnuts, 

 plant nuts where you want the trees. Plant eight feet apart each way, 

 one way in rows, and set in about as many box elders to shade the ground. 

 For locusts, the box elders may be set in one year after planting the 

 former; for chestnuts, two years or three years after. Cultivate as you 

 would cultivate corn. The tops of chestnut trees and locust trees will 

 not grow thick enough to shade the ground sufflciently to keep out grass 

 and weeds, which will check the growth of trees very materially. 



In case of locust trees, borers often damage the timber, especially 

 where trees grow singly in the open, where the sun shines on the trunks. 

 It is important that the nurse trees, the box elders, shade the trunks of 

 the locusts to keep out the borers. Unlike chestnuts and locusts, box 

 elders produce a dense shade. They grow rapidly, are cheap and easily 

 managed, hence are selected for nurses, or for shade. 



Much care will be needed to let the trees crowd just enough to run up 

 straight and tall, and not enough to reduce too much the size of the tops 

 and linally smother out the life of the trees you are growing. As the 

 trees grow older and extend upwards, they will need thinning, a few 

 every year. 



With such a promising job on his hands, I hardly see how a farmer 

 can fail to become inter-ested, and interest in a good cause is one of the 

 most important things to insure happiness in this life. 



A well managed artificial forest will be worth, when harvested, three 

 to live times as much as a forest of which Nature has had the entire care. 

 I give the dimensions of a chestnut tree and a locust at the age of twenty- 

 one years, which I grew at the Agricultural College. The diameter given 

 does not include the thickness of the bark. 



Chestnut— Age, 21 years; diameter 1 foot from ground, 9 inches; 26 feet, 4§ inches; 

 37 feet, 3^ inches. 



Com. Locust — Age, 21 years; diameter 1 foot from ground, 16 inches; 30 feet, 3 

 inches. 



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