Show LUMBER ONE OF THE BEST CROPS Fourth in the List of Freight Commodities Produced in inThis inS inI S I This Country SOME RAILROAD FIGURES TIME COMING WHEN TREES WILL WILLBE WILLBE WILLBE BE CAREFULLY RAISED Lumber is IIi one of the chief freight commodities produced by b land Its I H weight per acre es corn barley oats wheat heat and rye re Few people are aware of the care used by railroads in keeping tab of the productiveness of land along their lines from the standpoint or the amount of freight produced by various crops cro Heavier the crops per acre the more business for the raib oads Nor are there many people who tinK of lumber lumberas I as a crop and ard one of the most Import Important ant crops at that which contributes a large share of the freight business of railroads The quantity of freight produced by bya a crop depends upon m il d region and kind of crop Railroads figure it from that point of view Their melr profit de depends d depends upon tonnage and class and aud they the want to know what crop pays the carrier best How It Is Figured Out Many averages in many localities are necessary to reach reliable results rare Care is III necessary ary too in applying a to one region the figures obtained in another Indiana Illinois and Kentucky are the center c of a vast vat productive region and averages there th re possess JO as much value as those of any an part of the Uie country countr but bu butof butof of oC course they cannot be lie applied everywhere An acre is Js credited with yield as follows folio Pounds per r RI r Cabbage e Onto Onions Potatoes IN Lumber Leather Hay Nay Corn 1 lS Barley U I IB Oats B Tobacco S 7 Rye Re Wheat m Lumber Fourth in List ListAs ListAs ListAs As the list shows the three heaviest freight crops are cabbage onions and potatoes Lumber IB Is h fourth Up to the present time timber umber has been cut almost exclusively from wild wilt land without much regard to the acres gone gOtte over But the time Is coming when wh n the they yield y ld of wood per acre will wilt be calculated ed as carefully as the yield of corn cornand cornand cornand and as much thought will Hill be given to growing it though not Mt as much work How Horn much wood grows on an acre in a year Some of the abused burnt washed and neglected lands are producing only little It has been estimated that the typical hardwood of Tennessee where fire is kept out are growing about pounds of wood yearly early per acre Good stands of young pine in other parts of the country countr are proba probably probably probably bly doing as well or better But this Is not the limit for foresters say wood woodland woodland woodland land can do much better under un ler forestry methods Good timber must be select selected ed the poor cut out just as the farmer plants the best kinds or Of corn and re rejects the poor In Europe where they raise crops of trees they get under fa favorable favorable conditions an annual growth of to t pounds or wood per acre This country countr can do at least as aswell aswell aswell well The freight carriers however seldom transport the whole growth groth The waste is left in the woods or at the mill This is b much or little depending upon what is made of the wood before the transportation company gets it It it is apparent however that after de deducting ducting for waste the growth of an acre of timber furnishes more freight than an acre of oC any anyone one or of the agricultural agricultural tural crops except cabbage onions and an potatoes Constant Demand for Lumber The quantity of any one of the thet three commodities that will go to the market is 15 limited by demand but the demand for lumber is not diminishing All AH that the forests and planted lots can supply will go the market Woodland under care ca yields yearly early crops as regularly as wheat fields The marketable timber only is cut at reg regular regular regular ular intervals and new growth Is al always always always ways coming on AJ As A a freight producer a timber tract may ma be depended upon as surely surel as a potato field In fact it itis itIs itis is surer sure for land in farm crops wears out unless constantly fertilized fertilised but timber Um r land fortifies Itself with its leaves and becomes richer It will yield undiminished crops forever Trees grow on rough land where agriculture cannot profitably be car carried carried ried ned on and the freight and other otner re returns returns returns turns from such re ons are largely larely clear gain since such fuch land would other otherwise otherwise otherwise wise be producing little or nothing |