BULLETIN OF THE BUSSEY INSTITUTION. 375 
grow a sufficient number should be cut out to prevent crowding. 
When large enough for box-boards or coarse lumber, not more 
than four or five trees should be left on each rod of land. 
On an average soil, thirty-five years is sufficient to produce 
white pine timber of a profitable size to cut for coarse lumber, 
and as a rule, on our New England soil, it is more profitable to cut 
the trees at this age than it is to let them stand long enough to 
produce trees large enough for clear lumber. It is a mistake to 
suppose that trees large enough and good enough for clear lumber 
can be grown on any soil, it is only on soils best adapted to the 
growth of the white pine that it is wise to let the trees stand after 
they are more than twenty inches in diameter. On ordinary and 
even on very barren soils, the young trees grow quite rapidly, and 
unless the soil is very unfavorable, they will make a satisfactory 
growth until the largest trees are ten or twelve inches in diameter ; 
beyond this size if the land be well covered with trees, a very large 
portion of them will show signs of decay, and only a few growing 
in the most favored places will continue to grow rapidly ; thus the 
decay on the lot will be nearly equal to the growth. 
While it requires but from twenty-five to thirty-five years to 
grow the white pine large enough for box-boards, it requires from 
sixty to seventy years to grow it large enough for clear lumber. 
When we consider the fact that there is always a ready sale, at 
renumerative prices, for coarse lumber, and also the uncertainty 
of getting first quality of lumber by thirty years of additional 
growth, it would seem unwise to encourage owners of pine timber 
forests to let the trees stand after they are large enough for 
coarse lumber, except on land strong enough to keep up a rapid 
growth until the trees are three feet or more in diameter. 
Four white pine trees set thirty-one years ago now measure, 
three feet from the ground, as follows; one 60 inches in circum- 
ference, one 65 inches and two 66 inches; the 65-inch tree grows 
in a wet soil, the remaining three are in a gravelly loam not rich 
enough to produce more than 800 pounds of hay to the acre. 
These trees when transplanted were not over six inches in height, 
and they have grown with other trees set at the same time so 
near each other that they now completely shade the land. Two 
trees set on a poor gravelly knoll twenty-five years ago, now 
measure 33 and 39 inches in circumference; these trees were 
about twelve inches in height when set; they have grown on open 
land. 
