COTTONWOOD IN THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY. - 51 
pensable both for natural grown and planted cottonwood. Planting 
on heavy sod is never advisable. If plantations are to be established 
on improved farm land for windbreaks, it will be of advantage to 
plow and harrow the ground. Plowing will cost not more than $2 
per acre. The higher stumpage values of cottonwood on the prairie 
farms of the Central West, from $10 to $12 per thousand feet, will, 
moreover, warrant this more intensive preparation. 
On cut-over bottoms cultivation of the ground preparatory to 
planting-is usually not justified from a financial standpoint, nor is it 
essential, since the amount of moisture is so much greater and rich 
alluvial sediment is deposited every year by spring overflows. On 
bottom lands cleared for farming, however, cultivation is as advan- 
tageous as on the uplands. | 
There is another type of bottom land which, though not growing 
up to. trees or underbrush, is nevertheless so completely covered with 
tall, thick, dense-growing weeds, principally horseweed in the North 
and indigo plant and cocklebur farther south, that planting without 
first preparing the ground is out of the question. Abandoned fields 
and old filled-in river beds and lake bottoms are typical of this kind 
of land. These weeds on such land are sometimes 10 or more feet 
high. They can not readily be plowed under unless they are first 
broken down so as to lie with the furrows. This can be done by 
hitching a team to each end of a 30-foot log and rolling it over the 
weeds, breaking them off close to the ground. This must be done in 
the fall, when the stems are stiff and dry and snap off easily. The 
cost of clearing and plowing such land should rarely exceed $2.50 per 
acre. : 
The thoroughness with which the ground is to be prepared must 
depend, of course, on the returns to be expected. Asa rule, these can 
be placed at 7 per cent. Assuming a rotation of 35 years, with a 
yield of 29,400 feet board measure, worth $5 per thousand on the 
stump, the total gross returns would be $147 per acre. The interest 
for 35 years on an assumed land value of $5 amounts to $48.38; taxes 
based on a valuation of $3 now and an increasing value of $1 for each 
successive 10-year period will represent an investment of $10.31 ata 
tax rate of 2 cents on the dollar. Assuming the initial cost of stock 
and planting at $4 per acre, or $42.71 in 35 years, the total invest- 
ment with interest at 7 per cent less the cost of preparation will be 
$101.40. This leaves $45.60 available for the cost of preparation, 
including interest. In other words, approximately $4.25 per acre 
can safely be invested in preparing the site. If it is unnecessary to 
expend the whole of this, the net annual return will be proportion- 
ately increased. On the other hand, if this amount is insufficient to 
give adequate preparation, the other items of expense must be re- 
duced, or else the owner will not receive his 7 per cent. 
