120 
U'HEJ RURAL, NEW-YORKER 
February 3, 
FARM FORESTRY. 
Some Notes on Tree Planting as an Jn- 
vestment. 
Part III. 
Ask the average man what he thinks 
of forest-tree planting and he will say 
it is a good thing and ought to be en¬ 
couraged. Ask him if he has planted 
any forest trees and his negative an¬ 
swer is generally followed by the state¬ 
ment that it is too slow a crop—that is, 
too slow for him, but all right and a 
good thing for the other fellow. Yet 
it is safe to say that if the advantages of 
forest-tree planting as an investment 
were more widely investigated and 
known the past year’s crop of a dozen 
forest trees would soon be exhausted. 
Take for example the case of a young 
man working but a brief distance from 
the office of The R. N.-Y. He is about 
25 years old and his salary is $1,000 a 
year. His past record and his work is 
of such a nature that he need have little 
fear of losing his position. In fact, a 
raise in salary of $200 yearly is ex¬ 
pected. Out of a portion of his savings 
he has planted a New England hillside to 
White pine—a legacy if he dies or an 
old age fund if he lives. A New York 
City doctor has a grove of Catalpas 
from which he hopes partly to defray 
the college expenses of two small chil¬ 
dren, and a man in South Carolina has 
a grove of the same variety to prevent 
a companionship of old age and pov¬ 
erty. If these men knew they had but 
a few years to live life insurance would 
of course be the best investment they 
could make. But with the increasing 
value of forest products no one can go 
far amiss who will invest a moderate 
portion of his savings in forest-tree 
planting. To young men who have gone 
from the country to the city the invest¬ 
ment is especially inviting. They know 
from memory of waste land that can 
be bought for a few dollars an acre and, 
with few exceptions, of some competent 
person who can be hired to plant and 
care for groves till they become suffi¬ 
ciently established to need but little or 
no attention. As the years roll by—in 
good times and bad—the trees are grow¬ 
ing into money. Last September, riding 
with a Brooklyn man, the writer passed 
a beautiful self-seeded grove of pines. 
“Just look at those trees!” my com¬ 
panion exclaimed. “It seems but three 
or four years ago that I stood on the 
ground and tied their tops together to 
form arches.” 
Such memories and scenes are com¬ 
mon to city men who visit the farms on 
which they spent their boyhood. One 
would naturally think that with such 
object lessons before them.some of them 
would investigate forest-tree planting 
as an investment, but except in rare 
cases the opportunity is passed by un¬ 
noticed. Many of them go back to the 
city and their dog-trot routine without 
any more hope for the future and old 
age than a raise in salary and their 
share of their father’s estate. A few 
hundred of the dollars of his youthful 
and plentiful years invested in a grove 
of trees would brighten the old age of 
many a man now headed for the bread 
line. 
Pinchot says: “An acre of growing 
natural forest can be bought in nearly 
every forested part of our country for 
less than it would cost to plant, four 
feet apart, an acre of seedlings a few 
inches high.” The writer does not for 
a moment question the truth of that 
statement, but the location, varieties of 
trees, and their age would be very im¬ 
portant factors. The forester of the 
State experiment station should first 
be consulted by anyone contemplating 
such investments. 
The growing of basket willows yields 
a net profit of from $18 to $75 per acre 
yearly, according to the U. S. Forest 
Service, but for a man employed in the 
city the business is much the same as 
long-range farming. Farmers living on 
their own farms should investigate tne 
matter, however, even though the in¬ 
dustry will doubtless never attain the 
importance of becoming a part of the 
regular routine on the average farm. 
Raising Christmas trees is a matter 
that depends largely on the value of 
the land and how much of the con¬ 
sumer’s dollar the grower can obtain. 
Mr. Briscoe, Professor of Forestry in 
the University of Maine, informs me 
that a crew of men near Bangor last 
year cut six carloads of Balsam firs, 
shipping them to Philadelphia. The 
price paid for the right to cut the trees 
(stumpage value) was five cents each. 
In that State, where millions of Balsam 
firs are growing from natural reproduc¬ 
tion, the planting of seedlings to har¬ 
vest a crop of Christmas trees would 
doubtless prove unprofitable. About two 
years ago a young man inquired of the 
writer as to whether or not it would be 
profitable to grow Christmas trees on a 
steep but fertile hillside near a good 
shipping point in eastern Pennsylvania. 
The writer thought it would, but cau¬ 
tioned the young man against counting 
too seriously on a profit of $839 (proba¬ 
bly marked down from $850 as they say 
in bargain sales advertisements) per 
acre five years later, as claimed by a 
prominent nurseryman. The young man 
then sought the advice of two well- 
known foresters. One said it would and 
the other said it wouldn’t. As a con¬ 
sequence the trees are still nestled with¬ 
in the seeds. Under direction of the 
U. S. Forest Service a Cleveland phy¬ 
sician has planted in Ohio a grove of 
about 35,000 Norway spruce for the 
production of Christmas trees, and there 
is scarcely a State east of the Rockies 
where they are not grown from planted 
seedlings for that purpose. 
On account of sentimental reasons, main¬ 
ly, I bought from my mother the old farm 
on which I was born and reared in Ashta¬ 
bula County, Ohio. I had an idea that as 
the ordinary farming would not pay unless 
I could give my personal attention to it 
I would try the experiment of planting 
trees. But I find that the same attention is 
needed for this as for the first. I found 
that I could buy Norway spruce in France 
for $4 per 1,000, which cost me here about 
$8. I could get no quotations here for 
stock similar, i. e., three-year plants, less 
than 20. If I were planting again 1 
should be willing to pay 50 per cent in¬ 
crease, as the stock would be fresher and 
I think some time is lost in acclimation. 
The first year was a very dry one and 
I could not get them properly cultivated, 
and this of course increased the dry weather 
effects. The next -year they were well cul¬ 
tivated and the third not so well. Last 
year, the fourth, nothing was done to them ; 
consequently the results have not been 
nearly what they might have been. I have 
estimated that about 20 per cent died. 
The highest are now only about three or 
four feet and these are exceptions. Many 
which have not increased much in height 
have made a large growth in root and 
stock, and I look for a large growth in the 
next two or three years. Cutting for 
Christmas trees may, I think, be begun 
to a very small extent a year from now, 
and be increased each year afterward. The 
profits are as yet problematical, but to 
depend on hiring labor when it is most 
needed and most efficient is the great draw¬ 
back in a scheme of this kind. My ex¬ 
perience is that if a farmer would per¬ 
sistently plant 5,000 to 10.000 every year 
it would pay him much better than the 
same time and land devoted to the ordinary 
crops. 
We are told that within 15 years the 
greater part of the hardwood forests in 
the East will have been cut. It will 
certainly be surprising if forest planting 
companies, promising 20 and 25 per cent 
profits, do not spring up before that 
time. Not long ago the writer read the 
glowing prospects ahead for one who 
invested in a mid-Southern Catalpa plan¬ 
tation and Eucalyptus plantations are 
now an old story. Avoid such invest¬ 
ments as you would a pestilence. If 
you have money to throw away get your 
dollars changed into nickels and scatter 
them where newsboys congregate. This 
will give you more fun and the dividends 
will be just the same. 
S. H. MADDEN. 
African Orange Daisy 
No Garden Should Be Without it 
very easy culture. The plants, of neat 
branchy habit, grow about 12to 15 inches 
high and are exceedingly profuse in flower¬ 
ing. Its Marguerite-like blossoms, to 
23£ inches in diam¬ 
eter under proper 
cultivation, show a 
unique glossy rich 
orange-gold, with 
dark-colored disc 
surrounded by a 
black zone. It pro¬ 
duces its pretty 
flowers very early 
after being planted 
out in the open 
ground in sunny 
situations, and will 
continue to flower 
during the summer. 
Plant in soil not 
over rich. 
We will mail a packet of this superb annual and a 
copy of our beautifully illustrated catalogue, 144 
large pages—the best seed book published in America 
—for only 10 cents, stamps or coin. Write today. 
CATALOGUE NOW READY 
J. M. THORBURN & CO. 
DEPT. Y 
33 Barclay St. and 38 Park Place, New York 
DIBBLE’S SEED POTATOES 
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DIBBLE’S SEED BARLEY 
DIBBLE’S SEED CORN 
DIBBLE’S ALFALFA, CLOVER 
and grass seed are the best obtainable on the American 
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1600 acre Seed Farms to yours. 
Dibble’s 1912 catalogue is the leading strictly Farm 
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that Dibble’s Farm Seeds are all we claim and more . 
The Catalog is Free and with it, we send two practical 
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“Dibble on the Potato ” and “Dibble on Alfalfa.” 
/ieMress—EDWARD F. DIBBLE 
Box B HONEOYE FALLS, N. Y. 
In Your Garden 
PORN, OATS. POTATOES and GRASSES 
will yield more for you with better seed. Our 
free 
A. 
ree catalogue will help you get it. Write to-day. 
L H. HOFFMAN, Bamford, Pa. 
the initial cost of the seeds is 
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SPECIAL OFFER 
Our 1912 Catalogue, vKvery thing for the 
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35-37 Certlandt Street 
NEW YORK 
cow pea errn Extra quality. Price* 
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occrv r\ ATC Regenerated Swedish, 
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CLOVER *■» TIMOTHY .KWR 
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A. A. BERRY SEED CO., Boi560 CLARINDA, IOWA. 
TREES 
l: 
150 ACRES 
CATALOC FREE 
Genesee Valley grown. "Not the cheapest, but toe best. 
Never have had San Jose Scale, b&tablished i86q. 
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3 
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Southern R. R., Dept. D, Norfolk, Virginia. 
^ ^ at ONE-HALF ■■ 
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[ ■■■■■■■■■■■■■ Let us send you our catalog; of seeds —It’s different. 
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SEEDS PRODUCE BIG CROPS 
When buying your Vegetable and Flower Seeds consider quality before 
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————— SEEDSMAN ■ ■ 
1 1 6 S. PEARL STREET, ALBANY, N. Y. 
j 
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JOHN A. SALZER SEED COMPANY. Boxl 44 , La Crow, Wi«. 
