THE net profits of one acre of timber plantation, in fifty years, exceeds Fifteen Thousand Dollars.

This proposition I will demonstrate by facts and figures.

First

In my estimate I will use the White Pine and European Larch, as I regard them the most valuable varieties for forest culture. It is a fact that a pine or larch plant, of six inches in length, set on rich or moderately rich soil in forest form, will attain a height in twelve years, of 30 to 35 feet, and a diameter at the collar of 8 to 12 inches. This is demonstrated on my ground in Elgin, in both pine and larch. Pine trees attain the height of 100 (one hundred) feet in fifty years, and a diameter of 3 (three) feet. We have abundant facts in proof in the Eastern and Middle States. The larch being a native of Europe, we have to go there for facts.

" Twenty years from planting of plants of 12 inches in length, trees were cut from which saw-logs of 18 to 20 inches in diameter were cut and drawn to the mill for lumber purposes. G. Marshall".

"Thirty years from planting, the forest was being manufactured into lumber by the steam-saw mills located in their midst, from trees of two feet and more in diameter and 80 to 100 feet in height. Wm. Hill".

"We find by the Duke of Athol's measurement that trees planted by him in 1743, were nine feet and three inches in circumference when measured, four feet from the ground, in 1795, a growth of 52 years. Sir T. D. Lauder".

Let me here remark, that the larch trees planted in 1743 here referred to, now stand 126 years from planting, 120 feet in height and five and one-half feet in diameter, as measured last summer (1868) by E. Y. Teys, of Richmond, Indiana. A pine or larch tree, therefore, of fifty years in forest plantation, is 100 feet in height and three feet in diameter, and will make 2,600 feet of lumber. This lumber, of cither larch or pine, at the present price, would be worth not less than one hundred dollars.

I will therefore plant the larch or pine for my Model Forest.