WHITE-PINE PLANTATIONS "Between the years 1820 and 1880 was a period of enthu siastic white-pine planting in New England. Men were then able to foresee the time when the marketable native white pine would be gone, and the rise in prices would make the planted timber of economic importance. . . . At the end of this period there were said to be in Massachusetts alone forest plantations of white pine to the extent of io,000 acres. About 188o the interest began to decline, largely because it was found possible to bring lumber from the immense supply in the region of the Great Lakes at a lower transportation rate than was expected."— Bulletin 45, Bureau of Forestry, 1903.
It will be noticed that pine planting in New England has been going on for almost a century. The Bureau of Forestry has made careful investigations of various tracts, and publishes facts and figures which prove that land that is worthless for ordinary agriculture has yielded valuable crops of timber, and this in from thirty-five to fifty years after planting. Individual plantations in various states have furnished the data embodied in the bulletins, published for the guidance and encouragement of landowners who are uncertain as to the best way of employing unproductive tracts.
The planting of pine has proved profitable on five types of land: (1) watersheds, (2) sand barrens and dunes along the seashore, (3) bare and worn-out land, (4) cut-over forest land, and (5) woodlots. Water companies and the state at large are benefited by the planting of trees at the headwaters of streams. Shifting sand held by tree roots and accumulating the leaves and other debris of tree growth, is converted into good soil. So is worn-out land of any kind. Growing trees enrich the soil that feeds them. These types of reforestation are justified, even if the trees do nothing but hold the soil and restore it to fertility.
The raising of a crop of trees has been the main object in planting the last two types of ground. In the three species before mentioned examples are numerous to prove that trees set out for other purposes have served these purposes well, and yielded a valuable lumber crop beside. There have been failures,
many of them, but they are traceable in most cases to ignorance or neglect. White pine grows in a white-pine country if it has half a chance.
An encouraging fact for the planter to contemplate is that he may reap the harvest of his own sowing. It takes only thirty five years to grow marketable pine. If the land is good and well prepared the trees grow faster and are of better quality in a given time. Better timber is produced by pruning the trees, thinning them and cutting when the trees are big enough for first-class lumber. For this they must grow sixty years or more. The father must plant for his sons to reap this harvest. No better legacy, no more judicious investment could be made than this. A few years doubles the value of a plantation thus coming on.
About 1835 Mr. F. A. Cutter, of Pelham, New Hampshire, took charge of a farm on which there was a forty-acre tract seeded to white pine by a few old trees. He determined to care for it properly. As need was, the trees were thinned, the weakest removed to give room for the others to grow. A close forest crown of foliage was maintained to prevent the trees from spread ing by side branches. Every year an acre was gone over and the trees pruned of their branches as high as the hand axe could reach. This prevented the formation of large knots, and enhanced the value of the timber. A second pruning all around, and continuous thinning kept the tract in good health and growth.
That tract has recently yielded a harvest which averages 25,000 feet, B. M., per acre. The father sowed and his son reaped 1,000,000 feet of prime white-pine lumber from forty acres! This is five times the average yield in the Michigan pineries. It proves that husbandry in a crop of trees is rewarded as certainly as in a crop of corn.