brought to their minds the comforts and cheerfulness of the evergreens around their native homes. The upbuilding of the finer and ennobling qualities and their influence upon the character will be of a more marked degree where there are trees surrounding the home. The parents will go down their declining years looking back over their lives with a greater degree of enjoyment and satisfaction. Young people growing up under these surroundings will look back to the homes of their childhood with a greater degree of all that makes the remembrance of home dear to them, and looking out over the great world, they will see more that tends to make life worth living and have a stronger sympathy for humanity. PLAN FOR REFORESTATION OF WASTE LANDS IN MINNESOTA. DR. C. A. SCHENCK, BILTMORE, N. C. (From Annual Report, 1898, Minnesota State Fire Warden.) Gen. C. C. Andrews, Chief Fire Warden, St. Paul, Minn. DEAR SIR:-Pursuant to your request,I beg to submit to you statement of the possibilities of planting up large areas of otherwise abandoned and barren land in the state of Minnesota. I have assumed that an area of two million acres is to be planted up in the course of the next eighty years, and that waste land may be acquired for an amount corresponding to the arears of taxes thereon due to counties and towns. EXPECTED EXPENSE OF AFFORESTATION PER acre. Strong white pine seedlings two years old, nursery grown, as will be well adapted for the reforestation in question, can be raised at a price not to exceed $1.25 per thousand. If raised on a large scale it is not impossible that the price will be reduced to one-half of the figure given. Cleft planting-which means planting in small holes made with a narrow and long spade-should cost not more than $1.00 per thousand for white pine seedlings two years old. Five thousand plants per acre will be ample and will allow of a considerable death rate in early youth, as is sure to occur, and at the same time will allow the selection of the fittest individuals to take place from a large number of plants. Assuming that the figures above given are correct, the reforestation will cost $11.25 per acre, to which must be added the price of the land, estimated to be 25 cents per acre, making a total of $11.50 per acre. Figuring at 2 per cent compound interest and discounting $11.50 for eighty years, the figure $55.20 is reached as representing the cost of the original plantation, with compound interest on it accumulated, at the age of eighty years. In the meantime, taxes on the land, the cost of protection and administration, which will certainly not amount to more than 5 cents per acre per year, if planting is done on a large scale, will add up, again with compound interest of 2 per cent, to the figure $9.70. Adding $9.70 to the figure of $55.20 just given as representing the final cost of the planting per acre, we reach the figure $64.90. If the yield per acre after the lapse of eighty years is as much as $64.90, the planting will have paid 2 per cent of compound interest. EXPECTED Yield PER ACRE. The white pine tables published by Messrs. Pinchot and Graves, in 1896, show that a plantation of white pine eighty years old is likely to yield the following amounts of lumber, if the trees are used up to a diameter of the logs not less than 8 inches: On first quality of soil.......... On third quality of soil..... .24,200 feet B. M. per acre. .12,000 feet B. M. per acre. .3,700 feet B. M. per acre. Assuming that the two million acres to be planted up have a soil corresponding with Pinchot's and Graves' average quality, which I think is a safe supposition, and further assuming that the stumpage of white pine land thus raised is worth $5.50 per thousand feet B. M., the expected yield is worth $66 per acre. In I am confident that this price of stumpage and the amount of lumber per acre given are perfectly obtainable, to say the least. other words, the expected yield per acre will be such as to certainly pay 2 per cent of compound interest on the original cost of planting, taxes, protection and administration, which should not be more than $64.90 per acre, as shown above. VALUE OF THE ENTIRE INVESTMENT AFTER EIGHTY YEARS. If a plantation eighty years old is worth $66.00 per acre, then a plantation 70 years old is worth, discounting it at 2 per cent... 60 years old is worth, discounting it at 2 per cent. 50 years old is worth, discounting it at 2 per cent. 40 years old is worth, discounting it at 2 per cent. 30 years old is worth, discounting it at 2 per cent. 20 years old is worth, discounting it at 2 per cent. 10 years old is worth, discounting it at 2 per cent. $54.12 44.22 36.30 29.70 24.42 20.13 16.50 If we plant for eighty years in every decade of years 250,000 acres, we shall have at the end of that period an area of two million acres covered with forest growth of different age classes-in fact, an ideal arrangement of age classes, allowing the forest to cut 25,000 acres of mature timber annually thereafter. The forest will consist of the following areas: 250,000 acres worth about $66.00 per acre, making a total of 16.5 mil lion dollars. 250,000 acres worth about $54.00 per acre, making a total of 13.5 mil. lion dollars. 250,000 acres worth about $44.00 per acre, making a total of 11.0 million dollars. 250,000 acres worth about $36.00 per acre, making a total of 9.0 million dollars. 250,000 acres worth about $30.00 per acre, making a total of 7.5 mil. lion dollars. 250,000 acres worth about $24.00 per acre, making a total of 6.0 million dollars. 250,000 acres worth about $20.00 per acre, making a total of 50 million dollars. 250,000 acres worth about $16.00 per acre, making a total of 4.0 million dollars. The entire area of two million acres will bear an aggregate value of stumpage amounting to 72% million dollars. AGGREGATE ANNUAL OUTLAY. The expense of two million acres of land at 25 cents per acre will be $500,000. Annual expense for planting 25,000 acres at $11.25 will be $281,250. Besides for taxes, protection and administration on an average area of one million acres-assuming that the two million acres will be acquired gradually—these expenses to be 5 cents per acre, must be spent annually $50,000. Thus, at an annual expense of say $350,000 per year the state will own forest property worth 721⁄2 million dollars after the lapse of eighty years. RETURNS AFTER EIGHTY YEARS. From the eightieth year on the forest will yield annually, on 25,000 acres, 12,000 feet B. M. per acre or 300,000,000 feet B. M. on the whole, worth at least $1,650,000, figuring at a stumpage value of $5.50. It is very likely that a considerable yield from thinnings will be obtained at the same time. Under proper care, a second growth will be secured, in the place of the one planted, free of charge, from selfsown seed. If the increase of lumber prices holds pace with the increase of population (12 per cent per annum) the result will be 3.3 times better than shown above. The investment will then yield 3% per cent of annual interest instead of 2 per cent. It is worth mentioning perhaps that the exclusive right of fishing and hunting on say 25,000-acre sections of the forest leased out peri. odically under certain restrictions will yield a considerable return as well. To protect fish and game whilst protecting the forest will be an additional duty of the staff of forest rangers. The combination of forest rangers and game keepers is even from a financial standpoint a most desirable one. SOME HINTS FOR PLANTERS. The planting, to begin with, should be made in a way safe-guarding the future forest against damage from fire, storms and insects. As large, even aged, forests suffer from these factors in a high degree, the reforestation should be made in strips, say 500 feet wide. The best soil should be planted up first so as to obtain early returns and so as to secure the necessary training of the crew of planters and of the superintendent of the rangers before more difficult tasks are begun on poorer soil. The planting should proceed gradually toward the prevailing storm direction, so that after eighty years the plantation would lie about as follows: STORM DIRECTION MAIN FIRE LINES The figures given in this sketch represent the age of the strip of forest. Every two series of such strips are separated by what may be fire lanes. Under this arrangement the storm will not blow down any trees. Between every two strips, lines about 16 feet wide should be left unplanted as secondary fire lines. They should be kept cleared from inflammable matter as much as possible, so as to act as secondary fire lines and so as to facilitate supervision and transportation of forest produce. The main fire lines, separating two series of forest plantations should be about 100 feet wide. They should be established at intervals of about 2,500 feet and should be kept absolutely clean from any inflammable matter, being burned over annually under proper supervision by the forest rangers. This arrangment will necessitate each series of plantations to have a width of about 2,500 feet, or to consist of about five stripes each. Adjoining strips should differ in age by at least five years and by not over twenty years, so as to avoid the spread of insect pests and fungous disease on one side and heavy overshadowing on the other side. Seedlings and saplings of pine, tamarack, white cedar and hard woods, wherever they appear in groups sprung up from self-sown seed, should be fostered, whilst single indiviuals-especially misshapped and shrubby trees-should be gradually removed by deadening or otherwise. A good survey must precede the entire operations. Without the help of accurate maps, forestry work is uncontrollable. Only compact bodies of land should be acquired, the cost of protection and administration per acre being much smaller in this case. HOW TO OBTAIN THE NECESSARY FUNDS. The state will be entirely justified in securing the moneys necessary for the acquisition and the reforestation of land by public loans. Even part of the interest (certainly 2 per cent) due on such loans may be secured by loans. The increase of the loans, to be made annually, will go hand in hand with the growth and the extension of the forests. The loans, backed by valuable assets, viz., the forests, will be obtainable at á comparatively low rate of interest. From the eightieth year on the net revenue from the forest is likely to yield sufficient interest on the entire investment. From the sixtieth year on mature timber may be obtained from the best localities, yielding then (after Pinchot and Graves) 13,400 feet B. M. per acre. Inasmuch as the expense for acquisition and reforestation, administration and taxes is not made from loans, the forests will form the "Savings Box of the Commonwealth." ADVANTAGE OF THE STATE FOREST SYSTEM THUs secured The advantages of such a system of forestry are manifold. First. All the sums spent for planting are money spent for common labor. The value of the plante, too, is nothing but money spent for gathering seeds, preparing nurseries, sowing seeds, weeding seed beds, etc., etc., consequently nothing but money distributed amongst the laboring people. Second. The common laborer engaged in forest planting finds work at the season at which labor is not required in agriculture, building, etc. Third. The harvesting and the manufacturing of wood and lumber will be a source of revenue to a large population after another two generations, such revenue being derived from lands otherwise barren. Fourth. The public loans above mentioned will offer a good chance for safe investments. History proves that investments in forestry are safer than any other. Fifth. The fishing and hunting interests of the state will be greatly benefited by the forests systematically protected and used. Sixth. The example given by the state will act as a stimulus relative to conservative use of forest resources by the wood owners. Seventh. The counties will obtain taxes from the land otherwise barren. Personally, I am strongly in favor of the state paying taxes on state forests to the counties and towns where such forests are situated. Of course these taxes should be taxes on the value of the soil only, just as in case of agriculture, and not taxes on soil plus crop. As an immature crop it has practically no market value, as revenue cannot be derived from it immediately. For this reason I have included taxes on the land amongst the expenses in the calculations at the head of this letter. POSSIBILITIES OF THE SPECULATION. As regards the possibility of higher returns than those figured out to begin with, they may be expected with certainty. |