A few suggestions on tree-planting

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PRIZES FOR ARBORICULTURE

OFFERED BY THE

ER USTEES

OF THE

MASSACHUSETTS SOCIETY

FOR

: PROMOTING AGRICULTURE.

- BOSTON: |
~ ALFRED MUDGE & SON, PrInTERs,

34 ScHooL STREET.

* 1876. |

Pore

PRIZES FOR ARBORICULTURE

OFFERED BY TUE

CE ees] Ee. Eines

OF THE

MASSACHUSETTS SOCIETY

PROMOTING AGRICULTURE.

BOSTON:
ALFRED MUDGE & SON, PrIntTERs,
34 ScHoon Srreet.
1876.

| NGL Be

Bra, ae ont ce

PRIZES FOR ARBORICULTURE.

Wirn a view of stimulating this important branch of agriculture, the
following prizes, open to all land-owners in Massachusetts, are offered for
Tree Planting by the Trustees of the Massachusetts Society for Promot-
ing Agriculture.

resin —

For the best plantation of not less than five acres . . . . $1,000
OOOH ES LADORL eee ile i cee teas ye ke ue em 600
ROR HQC RE MOST ea gala ual ec diutun ee tea ey ayy ei ah Bh S ae 400

Plantations intended to compete for these prizes must be made of the
European larch in every part of the State, except in Barnstable, Dukes,
and Nantucket Counties, where the Scotch pine or the Corsican pine, or
the two mixed, must be used.

Plantations originally of less than 2,700 trees to the acre cannot com-
pete for these prizes.

Only plantations made on poor, worn-out land, or that which is unfit
for agricultural purposes, can compete for these prizes.

SECOND: —

For the best plantation of American White Ash, of not less
thamdave Beresil Extemt.: i) elie pte el poy cep see at eeinrel 4 SEGR
Por ane test DOSb | Jos, sty, ovilenre Terns jeoverrsyr? .eotedohe od HSOS

Plantations originally of less than 5,000 trees to the acre cannot compete
for these prizes.

GENERAL CONDITIONS OF COMPETITION.

Competing plantations must be made during the spring of 1877. The
prizes will be awarded during the summer of 1887.

All persons intending to compete for these prizes must notify in writ-
ing the Secretary of the Society, E. N. Perkins, Jamaica Plain, Mass.,
of such intention, before Dec. 1, 1876, stating the prize entered for,
the variety of tree to be planted, and the nature and description of the
ground to be used. ;

All competing plantations must at all times be open to the inspection of
a committee of the Board of Trustees, who will award the prizes.

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The Board of Trustees reserve the right to withhold any or all of these
prizes if, in the opinion of the judges, none of the competing plantations
are of sufficient merit to warrant the award.

DIRECTIONS FOR PLANTING.
LARCH AND PINE.

When the nature of the soil will permit, shallow furrows four feet apart
should be run one way across the field to be planted. This is best done
during the autumn previous to planting. Then by planting in the fur-
rows, and inserting the plants four feet apart in the rows, the whole land
will be covered with plants standing four feet apart each way. Planted at
this distance 2,720 plants will be required to the acre. On hilly, rocky
land, which is especially recommended for the cultivation of the European
larch, and where it is impossible to run furrows, it will be only necessary
to open with a spade holes large enough to admit the roots of the plants,
care being taken to set them as near four feet apart each way as the nature
of the ground will admit. In very exposed situations on the sea-coast, it is
recommended to plantas many as 5,000 trees to the acre, the plants being
inserted more thickly on the outsides of the plantations in order that the
young trees may furnish shelter to each other.

It is imperative to plant the Larch as early in the season as the ground can
be worked. No other tree begins to grow so early, and if the operation ‘of
transplanting it is delayed until the new shoots have pushed, it is gener-
ally followed by the destruction of the plant.

The Scotch and Corsican pines can be planted up to the Ist of May.

ASH.

Land in condition to grow corn or an average hay-crop is suited to pro-
duce a profitable crop of white ash. Deep, moist land, rather than that
which is light and gravelly, should be selected for this tree. The land
should be ploughed, harrowed, and made as mellow as possible during
the autumn previous, that the trees may be planted as soon as the ground
can be worked in the spring.

As soon as the frost is out mark out the field with furrows four feet
apart, and insert the trees two feet apartin the rows. This will give
5,445 plants to the acre, which, at the end of ten years, must be thinned
one half. These thinnings are valuable for barrel-hoops, ete.

It is recommended to cultivate between the rows for two or three years
to keep down the weeds and prevent the soil from baking. At the end of
that time the ground will probably be entirely shaded by the trees, and
further cultivation will not be necessary.

GENERAL DIRECTIONS FOR TREE-PLANTING.

Be careful not to expose the roots of trees to the wind and sun more
than is necessary during the operation of transplanting. More failures in

5

tree-planting arise from carelessness in this particular than from any other
cause.

To prevent this, carry the trees to the field to be planted in bundles cov-
ered with mats; lay them down, and cover the roots with wet loam, and
only remove them from the bundles as they are actually required for
planting.

In planting, the roots should be carefully spread out and the soil worked
among them with the hand.

When the roots are covered press the earth firmly about the plant with
the foot.

Insert the plant to the depth at which it stood before being trans-
planted.

Select, if possible, for tree-planting a cloudy or a rainy day. It is
better to plant after the middle of the day than before it.

All young plantations must be protected from cattle and other browsing
animals,— the greatest enemies, next to man, to young trees, and the
spread of forest growth.

DIRECTIONS FOR PROCURING YOUNG TREES.

Selected plants of the European larch and the Scotch pine, about one
foot high and very thrifty, can be imported from England, and delivered
at the railroads in Boston at from $5 to $6 @ 1,000, the price varying
with the price of gold and the rate of exchange and freight. Imported
plants of the Corsican pine of the same size will cost at present prices
about $10 @ 1,000 delivered in Boston.

All persons, whether competitors for the Society’s prizes or not, desir-
ing to import trees of these varieties, can do so by sending their orders to
Francis Skinner, Brookline, Mass., before Dec. 1. Mr. Skinner will
transmit all orders for not less than 1,000 trees to England, and will see
that the trees, on their arrival in Boston, are passed through the Custom
Tfouse, and forwarded at the least possible expense to the persons order-
ing them.

As Mr. Skinner undertakes this duty solely from a desire to facilitate
tree-planting,in his native State, and nvt for the purpose of any personal
gain, he cannot be held responsible in any way by the persons desiring to
order through him.

Mr. Anthony Waterer, Nurseryman, Woking, England, with whom
special arrangements have been made to prepare trees for planting in
Massachusetts, guarantees their safe arrival in this country, provided his
orders are received early enough to permit his shipping the larch, dur-
ing the months of December and January, and the pines not later than
Feb. 15.

The importation of these trees cannot, in safety, be made after these
dates. If it is delayed later, the plants are liable to heat in transit,
and to make a soft, unnatural growth, which generally causes their
death. As the plants will arrive some weeks before they can be planted,
importers should provide some accommodation for their reception. The

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plants must be unpacked as soon as received, the roots moistened,
and then heeled into a frame, cold cellar, or shed, in which the tem-
perature will be at about the freezing point, but where they can be
guarded from extreme cold and the sun’s rays. As a little soil will be
required to put over the roots at this time, importers should lay in a sup-
ply in the autumn for this purpose, and keep it away from the frost until
needed.

American white ash, one or two years old, and about one foot high, can
be procured for from $5 to $10 @ 1000 from the following well-known
American nurserymen: Robert Douglas, Waukegan, Illinois; Thomas
Meehan, Germantown, Pennsylvania; and the.Lawrence Nursery Co.,
Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin.

The following paper on Tree-Planting is reprinted from the Report of
the Secretary of the Massachusetts State Board of Agriculture, 1875, for
general circulation throughout the State, in the hope that its perusal will
awaken an interest in this subject among Massachusetts land-owners,
and induce them to look on arboriculture as a wise and profitable under-
taking.

TrnomAs MoT ey, Jamaica Plain,
LEVERETT SALTONSTALL, Newton,
Ep. N. PERKINS, Jamaica Plain,
THEODORE LyMAN, Brookline,
B. 8. Rorcn, Boston,

W. R. Roserson, Lenox,

HENRY SALTONSTALL, Boston,
Joun G, Cusuine, Beverly,

C. S. SARGENT, Brookline,

H. 8. RussEvx, Milton,

E. F. Bowpitcu, Framingham,
Joux LOWELL, Newton,

Trustees.

5 PEMBERTON SQuaRk, Boston, April, 1876.

[REPRINTED FROM THE REPORT OF THE MASSACHUSETTS STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE
FOR 1875.]

A FEW SUGGESTION YON TREE-PLANTING.

By C.’S.”SARGENT,

Director of the Botanic Garden and Arboretum of Harvard University.

Evenry year the destruction of the American forests threatens us with
new dangers. Every year renders it more imperative to provide some
measures to check the evils which our predecessors in their iguorance have
left us as alegacy with which to begin the second century of the Republic.

It may not, then, be entirely without interest to examine briefly what
the dangers are which follow the destruction of the forests, and the methods
of counteracting them, which, so far as Massachusetts is concerned, are
fully within our reach.

Our agricultural population is not easily convinced of the necessity of
trec-planting. The benefits are too vague, the profits too prospective, to
cause them to look with enthusiasm on what seems a doubtful under-
taking.

Still, in this respect, public opinion is gradually changing, and already
in many of the States of the Union expcriments in sylviculture are being

made on a sufficient scale to promise the most gratifying results, and it is
not improbable that at no distant day, when its benefits are more cle: urly
understood, this branch of agriculture will receive at the hands of our
farmers the attention its importance demands.

Proof is wanting that the total average rainfall has been reduced, either
in this country or Europe, by cutting off the forests. But examples are
often cited in proof that forests play an important part in regulating and
attracting summer rains and local showers; and it is not improbable, were
more data i in the form of carefully conducted observations available, that
some theory on this subject might be deduced. Certainly, as Mr. Marsh
remarks in his admirable book on physical geography,* “ it is impossible
to suppose that a dense cloud, a sea of vapor, can pass over miles of sur-
face bristling with good conductors without undergoing and producing
some change of electrical condition.”

The following interesting illustrations are not without value as vaguely

* The Earth as modified by Human Action. George P. Marsh. New York, 1874.

8

indicating in what direction we must turn for an explanation of the sum-
mer droughts, which, in certain portions of the country, have increased of
late to an alarming extent. In Massachusetts, however, some cause outside
the destruction of the forests must be sought for; asin the earliest history
of the Colony, and long before land enough had been cleared to induce
any climatic change, the country was nearly devastated by severe summer
droughts, which, if less frequent, were no less violent than those of the
present day.

Mr. Calvin Chamberlain, in an able memorial on the subject of forests*
presented to the House of Representatives of the State of Maine in 1869,
says, ‘* There is a portion of Hancock County (Maine), along the coast,
that is now nearly denuded of trees. During the heat of summer the
radiation from the parched surface affects the atmosphere to excessive
dryness. The electrical and rain-bearing clouds that approach from the
westward, as they come within this dry atmosphere, are absorbed and
dissipated before their watery contents can reach the earth; while the
clouds just north of them float on over a better wooded district and yield
a copious rainfall; and, on the other hand, the showers continue abundant
in the more humid atmosphere of the contiguous bays and ocean.”

Dr. Lapham ft observes that “in the hot and dry plains of our south-
western territories we often see clouds passing overhead that reserve
their contents until they have passed from these almost desert regions.
These clouds frequently present all the actual appearance of rain in the
higher region of the atmosphere, and the fertile-giving drops are seen to
fall far down towards the earth, only to be dissolved and dissipated in the
lower strata of air, heated by the reflection from the parched earth, which
these raindrops Ae not reach.”

As moderators of the extremes of heat and cold, the benefits derived
from extensive forests are undoubted, and that our climate is gradually
changing through their destruction is apparent to the most casual ob-
server. Our springs are later; our summers are drier, and every year
becoming more so; our autumns are carried forward into winter, while our
winter climate is subject to far greater changes of temperature than
formerly. The total average snowfall is, perhaps, as great as ever, but
it is certainly less regular, and covers the ground fora shorter pe-
riod than formerly. It is interesting to note in this connection the
conclusion which Noah Webster t{ drew three quarters of a century
ago, showing that, even at that time, before the cutting-off the for-
ests had assumed the importance which it does to-day, similar cli-
matic changes were at work. ‘From a careful comparison of these
facts,” he says, “it appears that the weather in modern winters in the
United States is more inconstant than when the earth was covered with
woods, at the first settlement of Europeans in this country; that the

* Agriculture of Maine. Second Series. 1869.

+ Report of the Disastrous Effects of the Destruction of Forest Trees now going on
so rapidly in the State of Wisconsin. 1867.

t A Collection of Papers on Political, Literary, and Moral Subjects. New York.
1843.

jet <6. atl

es

9

warm weather of aulumn extends further into the winter months, and
the cold weather of winter and spring encroaches upon the summer; that
the wind being more variable, snow is less permanent; and perhaps the
same remark may be applicable to the ice of the rivers.” Mr. Marsh
arrives at nearly the same conclusion. ‘ So far as we are able to sum up
the results,” he says, ‘‘ it would appear that in countries in the temperate
zone, still chiefly covered with woods, the summers would be cooler,
shorter; the winters milder, drier, longer than in the same regions after
the removal of the forests, and the condensation and precipitation of
atmospherie moisture would be, if not greater in total quantity, more fre-
quent and less violent in discharge.”

Such changes of climate are everywhere noticed in countries from
which the forests have been extensively removed; and if they are not
more apparent in Massachusetts, it is owing to its propinquity to the
ocean, which exerts an important, and, of course, perpetual control over
the temperature of all regions within its influence, preventing the exces-
sive and sudden changes which often mark an inland climate. But even
here there are certain changed conditions which can only find a solution
in climatic deterioration traceable to the destruction of the forests.

Twenty years ago peaches were a profitable crop; now we must depend
on New Jersey and Delaware for our supply; and our apples and other
orchard fruits now come from beyond the limits of New England. The
failure of these and other crops iu the older States is generally ascribed
to exhaustion of the soil; but with greater reason it can be referred to
the destruction of the forests which sheltered us from the cold winds of
the north and west, and which, keeping the soil under their shade cool in
summer and warm in winter, acted at once as material barriers and res-
ervoirs of moisture. It is not necessary to go beyond the limits of the
United States for examples of the climatic changes which follow the
destruction of the forests. Mr. Chamberlain, in the memorial to which I
have already referred, says, ‘‘ A decline in fruit products in Maine has
been apparent for a considerable time; other farm crops are seemingly
in a decline also. Potatoes, oats, and wheat now rarely give such crops
as they did thirty or forty years ago. Fruit-trees take on disease, apples
become scabbed and distorted; pears knotty, cracked, and extremely per-
verse; plum and cherry trees forget former habits and old friendships;
blight and rust and insect-destroyers are everywhere. The farmer’s crops
are invaded from all sides. The cry of local exhaustion of the elements
of the soil, negligent culture, and a long chapter of local complaints, fail
to account for any portion ot the difficulty.” According to Lapham, the
winter in the State of Michigan has greatly increased in severity during
the last twenty years, and this severity seems to keep pace with the cut-
ting-off of the forests. ‘Thirty years ago,” he says, ‘* the peach was one
of the most abundant fruits of that State; at that time frost injurious to
corn, at any time from May to October, was a thing unknown. Now the
peach is an uncertain crop, and frost often injures the corn.” It has been
estimated that the same State has lost, during four years, $20,000,000 from
the failure of the winter wheat, a crop which, in the early history of the
State, was never injured.

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Forests, by preventing the escape of moisture by rapid superficial
flow and evaporation, ensure, it is now generally acknowledged, the
permanence of springs, which, in their turn, supply the rivulets from
which the great water-courses draw their supply. The water falling
on a tract of land stripped of its covering of woods is rapidly evap-
orated by the summer sun, or in winter rushes off over the surface
of the frozen ground to the nearest water-course, converting this for
the time being into a roaring torrent. In a country properly wooded
the result would be exactly opposite. The summer rain, falling on the
ground, protected by the forest from evaporation, is held as in a sponge,
slowly but surely finding its way to the water-courses, while the melting
snows and winterrains gradually soak into the soil, which in the forests is
never so deeply frozen asin the open ground. This is no mere theory,
but a fact of which the proof is, alas! too easily found, and too convincing.
It is a subject of common remark in the country, that brooks which for-
merly ran throughout the year are now dry, save after the autumn rains
or the melting of the suows in spring, when they become raging torrents,
carrying off to the sea in a few days the water which formerly supplied
them with a moderate but constant flow throughout the summer. Unfor-
tunately, no observations of the flow of the great rivers in the United
States have been made, covering a period of time of sufficient length to
enable us to draw any conclusions in regard to it. But in Europe this
subject has received more careful investigation. Herr Wex, at the recent
yearly meeting of the Geographical Society of Vienna, demonstrated that
the average level of the river Elbe had fallen seventeen inches; that
of the Rhine, over twenty-four inches; that of the Vistula, twenty-six
inches; and that of the Danube, at Orsova,as much as fifty-five inches
during the past fifty years. Accompanying this fall in level, there
was also shown to be a constantly increasing diminution of the dis-
charge from springs. Instances, though of less general importance, are
not wanting near home. ‘ There * is a good illustration of the effects
of the destruction and reproduction of forests in drying up and restoring
ponds in my immediate neighborhood. Within about one half mile of my
residence there is a pond upon which mills have been standing for a long
time, dating back I believe, to the first settlement of the town. These
have been keptin constant operation until within about twenty or thirty
years, when the supply of water began to fail. The pond owes its exist-
ence to a stream which has its source in the hills which stretch some
miles to the south. Within the time mentioned these hills, which were
clothed with a dense forest, have been almost entirely stripped of trees;
and to the wonder and loss of the mill-owners, the water in the pond has
failed, except in the season of freshets, and, what was never heard of before,
the stream itself has been entirely dry. Within the last ten years a new
growth of wood has sprang up on most of the land formerly occupied by
the old forest; ana now the water runs through the year, notwithstanding
the great droughts of the last few years, going back from 1856.”

Lapham mentions that * such has been the changes in the flow of the

* Trees of America. R. U. Piper, Boston, 1855.

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Milwaukee River, even while the area from which it receives its supply is
but partially cleared, that the proprietors of most of the mills and factories
have found it necessary to resort to the use of steam, at a largely increased
yearly cost, to supply the deficiency of water-power in dry seasons of the
year.. The floods of spring are increased until they are sufficient to carry
away bridges and dams before deemed secure against their ravages. What
has happened to the Milwaukee River has happened to all other water-
‘courses in the State from whose banks the forests have been removed, ard
many farmers who selected land upon which there was a living brook of
clear, pure water, now find the brooks dried up during a considerable por-
tion of the year.”

Many such examples might be instanced to prove that cutting off the
forests has a direct influence in diminishing the flow of springs, but I will
confine myself to one other.

Marschand, as quoted by Mr. Marsh, cites the following: “The Wolf
Spring, in the commune of Soubey (France), furnishes aremarkable exam-
ple of the influence of woods upon fountains. A few years ago this spring
did not exist. Atthe place where it now rises asmall thread of water was
observed after very long rains, but the stream disappeared with the rain.
The spot is in the middle of a very steep pasture, inclining to the south.
Eighty years ago the owner of the land, perceiving that young firs were
shooting up in the upper part of it, determined to let them grow, and they
soon formed a flourishing growth.

“ As soon as they were well grown, a fine spring appeared in place of
the occasional rill, and furnished abundant water in the longest droughts.
For forty or fifty years the spring was considered the best in the Clos du
Doubs. <A few years since the grove was felled, and the ground turned
again toapasture. Thespring disappeared with the wood and is now as
dry as it was ninety years ago.”

The influence of belts of trees, especially of spiked-leaved species, on
local climate is important. Such plantations serve as a material check to
the natural foree of the cold winds from the north, which rapidly lower
the temperature, hasten evaporation, and blow into drifts the snow which
would otherwise protect the ground with an even covering. There is
probably no way in which the farmers of this State could more easily or
more rapidly increase its agricultural product than by planting.such
screens from the northeast to the northwest of their farms ; and their
attention is particularly directed to the importance of this sunject. Such
plantations would be too limited in extent aud too widely scattered to
have any general influence on our climate, or the flow of our water-
courses; but, as ameans of direct profit, it does not seem unreasonable
to predict that such protection to our fields would increase the profits of
their cultivation fully twenty per cent.

Orchards thus protected are still productive, and all gardeners know
that plants generally supposed too tender to support our climate will
thrive when platted under the protection of a garden wall, or among
evergreen trees. What garden wa!'ls are to the horticulturist, these
broad evergreen plantations should be to the farmer.

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Mr. J. J. Thomas, as quoted by Lapham, says, “ Isaac Pullen, a well-
known nurseryman at Ilightown, N. J., showed me last summer (1864)
several belts of evergreen trees which had sprung up from his nur-
sery rows toa height of twenty-five or thirty feet in ten years, and
he stated that within the shelter of these screens his nursery-trees, as
well as farm crops, averaged fifty per cent more than in blank or exposed
places.”

Becquerel, as quoted by Mr. Marsh, says, “ In the valley of the Rhone
a simple hedge two metres in height is sufficient protection fora dis-
tance of twenty-two metres.” ‘The mechanical shelter,” says Mr.
Marsh, “acts, no doubt, chiefly as a defence against the mechanical force
of the wind; but its uses are by no means limited to that effect. If the
current of air which it resists moves horizontally, it would prevent the
access of cold or parching blasts to the ground fora great distance.”
“ Becquerel’s views,” says the same author, “ have been amply confirmed
by recent extensive experiments on the bleak, stony, and desolate plain
of the Crau in the department of the Bouches du Rhone, which had
remained a naked waste from the earliest ages of history. Belts of trees
prove a secure protection even against the piercing and chilly blasts of
the Mistral, and in their sheller plantations of fruit-trees and vegetables
thrive with the greatest luxuriance.” Experiments of a similar nature,
and on a large scale, have been made in Holland, and lands which were
formerly considered unimprovable, such was the force of the winds blow-
ing from the North Sea, have been rendered almost the most productive
in Europe simply by sheltering them with rows of trees placed at regular
intervals, and at right angles to the direction of the wind.

It appears, then, that in a country in which a due proportion of forest
was maintained, it might be expected that local summer showers would
probably be attracted; that extremes of temperature both in summer and
winter would be prevented to such an extent that additional crops would
be made possible; and that the annual rainfall, instead of being rapidly
wasted by evaporation, or still more rapidly poured into the sea, would
be held in the forest-clad ground, from which it would gradually find its
way to the water-courses, which would flow regularly throughout the
year, bringing summer verdure to pastures, and assured power to the
manufactories along their banks.

But these are national questions, and can only be treated in a broad,
comprehensive manner. Let us consider, however, whether Massachu-
setts is furnishing her quota to the national forest system which would
return to our country much of its lost fertility. It has been estimated,
and, I think, with correctness, that forests, in order to maintain normal
physical conditions,and to supply the material so essential to every
branch of human industry, should occupy about twenty-five per cent
of the area of the country to be influenced and supplied by them.

By the census of 1870, of the 4,992,000 acres which constitute the State
of Massachusetts, only 765,714 were reported as woodlands, or nearly
550,000 acres less than the proper amount. A comparison of Mr. Bige-
low’s Report on the Industry of Massachusetts for 1837 with the United

15

States census of 1870, shows a decrease in the amount of Massachusetts
woodlands of some 23,000 acres. The methods used, however, in prepar
ing the statistics of these two reports were so widely different, that Iam
inclined to doubt the value of such a comparison, and to coincide with
the opinion of many intelligent observers, that the Massachusetts wood-
lands are at least holding their own in extent; and if we consider the very
encouraging attention which has been been, for some years, paid to tree-
planting for ornamental purposes, it must be conceded, I think, that
there is now as large a proportion of Massachusetts covered with arborial
growth as at any time during the past fifty years.

As compared with most of the other States of the Union, this condition
of things would be extremely gratifying were it due to a desire on the
part of our people to maintain a proper proportion of forest within the
limits of the State, and not to the forced abandonment of much improved
land; the result in no small measure of the folly of those who stripped
the land of its protection, and subjected their descendants to the evils I
have tried to point out.

Granting that the area covered with forest growth in Massachusetts has
not diminished during the last fifty years, we are still short, by over half
a million acres, of the amount supposed essential to maintain proper
physical conditions; while, if we examine the actual state of the wood-
lands, it will be found that they are very far from being able to supply
sufficient forest products for the requirements of the inhabitants of the
State.

The abandoned lands have generally grown up with trees, compara-
tively worthless for employment in the arts, and which only supply, after
years of struggling growth, an inferior fuel.

The most valuable trees have always been cut, often before they reached
maturity, and as no steps have been taken to replace them, it is not aston-
ishing that the poverty of our woodlands has reached a point which com-
pels the inhabitants of the State to draw nearly their whole supply of lum-
ber from portions of the country more recently settled. This is attended
with so much expense and inconvenience that many valuable industries
have already moved from Massachusetts, and it is not improbable that at
no distant day many others depending on the forests for their existence
will be compelled to do likewise. By the census of 1870, there were in
Massachusetts, besides the woodlands, nearly two million (1,988,164)
acres of unimproved land. Of these, at least 1,200,000 are admirably
suited for forest growth, and, if planted with trees adapted to the various
soils and situations, they would produce at the end of fifty years a crop,
the actual value of which in dollars can only be reckoned by hundreds of
millions.

It is impossible to estimate the indirect profit of such plantations in
improved climate and water-power; but that it would equal or excel the
actual value of the timber produced seems not improbable, while the
benefits arising from so large an additional area of forest would be felt far
beyond the limits of the State. There are in Massachusetts, according to
the last returns, 26,500 farms (a falling off of 7,500 since 1850), which

14

average one hundred and three acres in extent. There is not a farm of
this size in the State which could not be rendered more valuable if a strip:
of land, equal to at least one tenth of its whole area and on its northern
boundary, was devoted to a belt of trees, which would serve to protect the
remainder from the cold winds of winter, and render its cultivation more
profitable and its occupation more agreeable. Such timber-belts would,
in the aggregate, give the State 340,000 additional acres covered with
trees.

It is true that if the existing woodlands were increased to the extent I
suggcst, their area would cover not twenty-five, but nearly fifty per cent
of the whole State. But it must be remembered that the poverty of the
soil and the severity of the climate preclude profitable agriculture from
a large portion of Massachusetts, and that the waste lands at least can
only be made profitable through sylviculture.

Any fears that the production of such plantations will be greater than
the demand, are groundless, as Massachusetts, from her geographical posi-
tion, can always secure a market for any excess of lumber she can
produce beyond the wants of her inhabitants. There is no soil within
the State too poor or too exposed, it must be remembered also, to resist
the fertilizing effects of fifty years of forest covering; and the fact that
properly managed forests, especially when formed of certain trees,
have so great an influence in enriching the soil beneath them, should
always enter largely into any consideration of the expediency of forest
culture.

But few experiments in arboriculture, except on the most limited scale,
have been attempted in Massachusetts, but I will briefly describe the two
most important, which are of special interest as showing what our unim-
proved lands are capable of, if judiciously managed. Mr. Richard S. Fay
commenced, in 1846, planting on his estate near Lynn, in Essex County
and in that and the two succeeding years, planted two hundred thousand
imported trees, to which were afterwards added nearly as many more
raised directly from the seed, nearly two hundred acres being covered in
all. The sites of these plantations were stony hillsides, fully exposed to
the wind, destitute of loam, their only covering a few struggling barberry
bushes and junipers, with an abundant undergrowth of woad-wax (Genista
tinctoria, L.), always a certain indication in Essex County of sterile soil.
He employed in his plantations, oaks, ashes, maples, the Norway spruce,
Scotch and Austrian pines; but the principal tree planted was the Euro-
pean larch. No labor was expended on the land previous to planting, the
trees, about one foot high, being simply inserted with a spade, and no
protection has at any time been given them, save against fire and brows--
ing animals. I recently visited these plantations, twenty-nine years after
their formation, and took occasion to measure several of the trees, but
more especially the larches. Some of these are now over fifty feet in,
height, and fifteen inches in diameter three feet from the ground, and
the average of many trees examined is over forty feet in height and
twelve inches jin diameter. The broad-leaved trees have also made a:
most satisfactory growth, and many of them, on the margins of the plan--

15

tations, are fully forty feet high. During the past ten years, about seven
hundred cords of firewood have been cut from these plantations, besides all
the fencing required for a large estate. Firewood, fence-posis, and rail-
road sleepers, to the value of thousands of dollars, could be cut to-day, to
the great advantage of the remaining trees. ‘The profit of such an opera-
tion is apparent, especially when we consider that the land used for these
plantations did not cost more than ten dollars an acre, and probably not
half that amount.

The second experiment was made by Mr. J.S. Fay, a brother of Mr.
Fay of Essex County, on his estate at Wood’s Holl, in Barustable County,
on the extreme southwestern point of Cape Cod. <A tract of land, one
hundred and twenty-five acres in extent, which is now densely covered
with Mr. Fay’s plantations, was, in 1853, seemingly as little fitted for the
purpose of tree-culture as can well be imagined. It was fully exposed to
the cold northwest winds of winter sweeping down across Buzzard’s
Bay, and to the no less baneful southwest winds of summer, which come
from the Atlantic loaded with saline moisture.

In answer to an inquiry as to the nature of the soil on which his plan-
tations are made, Mr. Fay writes me: ** My land is made up mainly of
abrupt hills and deep hollows, sprinkled over with bowlders of granite.
The soil is dry and worn out, and what there is of it, isa gravelly loam.
The larger part consisted of old pastures, and on the one hundred and
twenty-five acres not a tree of any kind, unless an oak, that sprang out of
the huckleberry bushes here and there, barely lifting its head above them
for the wind, and when attempting to grow, browsed down by the cattle
ranging in winter, could be called a tree.”

Thirty-five thousand trees were imported and set out, besides a large
number of native trees procured in this country; but fully three fourths
of the whole plantation was made by sowing the seed directly on the
ground where the trees were to staud. <A large variety of trees, both
native and foreign, were employed, and while few have failed entirely,
the foreign species, as was to be expected from the situation, have been
the most successful. The Scotch pine has made the most rapid growth,
and then the European larch.

The Corsican pine (Pinus Laricio, Poir y, although not planted as
early as the others, promises to be a valuable and fast-growing tree for
planting under such circumstances.

Larch and Scotch pine, transplanted from the nursery in 1853, are now
forty feet high, and from ten to twelve inches in diameter at one foot from
the ground. Trees of the Scotch pine, raised from seed planted in 1861,
where the trees have grown, but in favorable situations, and which have
been properly thinned, have been cut this winter, and measured thirty
feet in heiglit and ten inches in diameter one foot from the ground, while
the average of the trees in a large plantation of Scotch pine, made in the
same manner in 1862, and which has received no special care, is twenty
feet high and six inches in diameter. Plants of the Corsican pine are now
eight feet high in “only eight years from seed, the growth of the last three
years being over five feet.

16

When we consider the success which has attended the experiments of
these gentlemen in reclothing their property with forest growth, under
circumstances, too, as disadvantageous as it is possible for Massachnsetts
to offer, it must be acknowledged that the attempt to replant our unim-
proved lands is a perfectly feasible one, and the only wonder is that the
inhabitants of Essex and Barnstable Counties, with such examples lefore
them, have not already planted their worthless, worn-out lands with a
crop which would yield a larger profit than any they have produced since
the first clearing of the forest.

Enormously as the price of all forest products has advanced during the
last twenty-five years, their future increase in value must be more rapid
as the supply becomes more and more inadequate to the demand. The
great timber districts of the northern hemisphere have now all been
called on to supply the always increasing wants of the civilized world,
while no provision has as yet been made, except in limited areas, and on
an entirely insufficient scale, to provide artificially the wood on which our
descendants must depend.

In Europe, Norway and Sweden, Russia, Germany, and possibly Bel-
gium, are the only countries which yield more forest products than they
consume; while the other European countries, especially Great Britain
and the extreme southern nations, are enormous consumers of imported
wood. In the United States, according to Mr. Marsh’s estimate, Oregon
is the only State in which there is an excess of forest. New York and
Maine, which were formerly the chief lumber-producing States of the
East, now do not cut enough for the use of their own inhabitants, and
depend on Canada for a large portion of their supply. And this seems to
be true of all the States of the Union, with the exception of Pennsyl-
vania, Colorado, Oregon, Florida, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota.

The annual forest destruction in the three last States is enormous, and
they must soon depend on extraneous sources for their domestic supply.
According to an article in the ‘“¢ St. Louis Republican,” quoted by Mr.
Marsh, 3,311,372,225 feet of lumber were cut in 1869 in these three States,
from 883,132 acres; and the same article estimated that there were only
about 15,500,000 acres of forest left in these States to be cut off, or only
fifteen or twenty years’ supply. When this is gone, the world will be
deprived of one of its richest stores of lumber.

How long the supply in the British Possessions in North America will
last, it is impossible to estimate. Heavy drains are already being made
onit. During the three years ending June 30, 1871, the Dominion of
Canada exported lumber to the value of $63,131,608, gold; the trade
increasing during that time about $1,000,000 each year.

In spite of the substitution in many parts of the country of coal as fuel,
both for domestic purposes and for the generation of steam; in spite of
the increasing employment of other material, both in the construction of
buildings and various implements, and for ship-building, the demand for
wood in the United States has stimulated the supply until the figures
which mark its increase seem almost incredible.

The railroads are enormous consumers, both in fuel, in the construc-

17

tion of cars and buildings, and for sleepers. “The Monthly Report of
the Bureau of Agriculture ” for November and December, 1869, estimated
that the annual expenditure of the railroads at that time for wood for
buildings, repairs, and cars, was $38,000,000, and that the locomotives of
the United States consumed $56,000,000 worth for fuel annually. Sup-
posing this is correct, and that the wood is worth $4 a cord (a large esti-
mate), this yearly consumption of fuel by the railroads would represent
twenty-five years’ growth on 350,000 acres.

By the last returns there are in the United States 72,633 miles of rail-
road in operation, and the addition of double tracks and sidings will prob-
ably increase this amount to 85,000 miles.

Supposing the life of a sleeper is seven years, the 85,000 miles of track
consume annually 34000,000 sleepers, or thirty years’ growth on 68,000
acres of the best natural woodlands; or if the sleepers are raised artificially, ©
some 700,000 acres would be required, planted with trees best adapted for
the purpose, regularly cropped and scientitically managed, to supply the
railroads already constructed. At least 125,000 miles of fencing are re-
quired to enclose the railroads of the country, which could not have cost
on an average less than $700 a mile. One half of this would barely rep-
resent the cost of the wood employed, or $43,000,000; while it must take
anuually lumber to the value of not less than $4,000,000 to keep these
fences in repair.

By the last return I have seen (1872), there were in operation in the
United States 65,000 miles of telegraph, which destroyed in their construc-
tion 2,600,000 trees for poles, while the annual repairs must call for some
250 000 more.

The 20,000,000,000 matches manufactured in the United States annually
require, according to Mr. Marsh, 230,000 cubic feet of the best pine lum-
ber.

At least 1,450,000 cords of wood, principally pine, were required to bake
the 2,899,382 thousand bricks which the census of 1870 gives as the num-
ber made in that year, requiring the cutting off the trees from 36,000 acres.

The manufacture of shoe-pegs (a Massachusetts industry, but now car-
ried on beyond the limits of the State for want of material here) consumes
annually 100,000 cords of white birch worth $1,000,000.

In 1850 the value of the pine packing-boxes made in the United States
was $1,000,000; in 1870 they were valued at $8,200,000. The value of the
material made into wooden ware in the United States increased from
$436,000 in 1850, to $1,600,000 in 1870. The value of the material con-
verted into agricultural implements in the United Statesin 1850 was only
$8,000,000, while in 1870 it had reached the enormous sum of $73,000,000,
of which the forests must have furnished twenty millions’ worth. The
enormous consumption of wood in this country will, however, be suffi-
ciently shown by the following figures.

In 1860, the value of logs sawed into lumber was $43,000,000; in 1870, it
was over $103,000,000, — an increase which neither the growth of popula-
tion or the geferal advance in all prices can account for, and which can
only be explained by the supposition that the uses to which forest products

2

18

are applied are being rapidly extended, and that the foreign demands on
American forests are increasing. But the statistics of the lumber trade
do not show the entire destruction which is going on in our forests. Mr.
Frederic Starr, Jr.,* in an interesting paper on the American forests,
estimated that during the ten years between 1850 and 1860, 30,000,000 acres
of forest-covered land were cleared in the United States for agricultural
purposes, or ten thousand a day for each working day during that time.
Of the trees thus cut, probably the largest portion never found their way
to market, but were destroyed by fire for the sake of getting them off the
land as rapidly as possible; and although lumber is now too valuable to
justify any such mode of clearing, it is not improbable that trees capable
of producing millions of feet are annually sacrificed in this manner.

These facts and figures prove, whatever other objections there may be
to re-covering a portion of this State with forest growth, that the farmers
will not want a market for all the lumber they can produce, and at prices
far above those of the present time.

In order that any system of arboriculture may be successfully carried out,
it is necessary to consider what trees, both native and foreign, can be
grown in this State to the greatest advantage; and the profits of such an
undertaking as I advocate will be immensely increased, if suitable selec-
tions for the various situations of soil and climate are made.

The sugar-maple, the white elm, and the white ash reach their greatest
perfection in this and the neighboring States, and should be generally
planted wherever the soil will permit. The product of the white oak
and the hickories is of such yalue that they should also be generally
planted, although they require a more genial climate and deeper soil
than Massachusetts can now offer to develop their best qualities.

The white cedar (Cupressus thyoides, L.), although we are here on its
northern limit, where it only attains a moderate size, should be planted
on account of the value of its wood for fencing and other rural purposes,
boat-building, shingle-making, etc., but more especially on account of its
natural place of growth, which is always in deep, cold swamps, often near
the sea, and overflowed by high tides, a situation in which no other tree
of an equal commercial value could possibly thrive.

The value of the white pine is so thoroughly understood, and this beau-
tiful tree grows so rapidly wherever it finds a certain amount of shelter
and protection, that it is needless to advance its claims on the planter.

In consideration of its market value at all ages, the rapidity of its
growth, and the length of time it continues to throw up suckers, the
white ash (Fraxinus Americana, L.) is the most valuable of all our native
trees for planting in this State.. Valuable as Massachusetts-grown white
oak is, it can never compete with that produced in other sections of the
country for purposes which call out its highest qualities ; while the slow-
ness of its growth, and the difficulties which attend the early years of its
cultivation, seem still further to reduce its value for the general planter
as compared with the ash. Already there is a rapidly increasing export

* Report of Department of Agriculture, 1865: American Forests; their Destruction
and Preservation. By the Rev. Frederic Starr, Jr., St. Louis.

19

trade of ash lumber to Europe, Australia, and the Pacific coast, from Bos-
ton and New York, and the possibilities of this business can only be lim-
ited by the supply. The American is generally acknowledged to be
superior to the European ash in the qualities for which it is specially
valued, toughness and elasticity, and in which no other wood can equal
it. Australia possesses no tree which is at all its equal for carriage-
building, while west of the Rocky Mountains there is but a single one
which can supply its place—an ash (Fraxzinus Oregana, Nutt.) which,
developing into a large and valuable timber tree in Oregon, is less fre-
quent and less valuable south of the California line. Of the economic
value of several species of ash which grow on the Eastern Asiatic sea-
board, nothing is as yet known. It seems, then, that the New England
States could command the markets of the world for one of the most useful
and valuable of all woods, had they but a sufficient supply to offer.

According to Mr. Thomas Laslett,* Timber Inspector to the British
Admiralty, the specific gravity of American ash is 480, while that of the
European is 736. The former is, therefore, on account of its greater
lightness, far more valuable for the handles of shovels, spades, hoes, rakes,
and other hand implements.

According to the United States census of 1870, the number of spades,
shovels, rakes, hoes, and hay-forks made in that year was 8,347,478, and
as our exportation of such implements is rapidly increasing, although still
in its infancy, it is evident that the value of ash will be greatly enhanced
at no distant day. It is also used in making ships’ blocks, in turnery,
and for making the oars of boats. In speaking of the white ash, Laslett
says, ‘‘ It stands well after seasoning, and hence we get from this tree the
best material for oars for boats that can be produced. They are much
and eagerly sought after by foreign governments as well as our own,
and also by the great private steamship companies and the mercantile
marine of this country ; consequently there is often a very keen compe-
tition for the possession of them.” The manufactory of oars (surely a
seaboard industry), in pursuit of material, moved from Massachusetts
first to Maine, and then to Ohio and other western States.

Ash is coming into extensive use for expensive furniture and for the
interior finish of houses, while an immense number of the young sap-
lings are annually consumed in the coopers’ trade. Its value for fire-
wood, according to Bull,t is 77, the standard hickory being 100, while
only four other American woods are its superior in heat-giving qualities.

In view of its many uses for purposes for which no other wood can
supply its place, it is not astonishing that the value of ash lumber has
largely increased of late years. The present price in the Boston market
of the best New England ash is $85 the 1,000 feet, or about $15 higher
than that grown in the West.

To developits best qualities, the white ash should be planted in a cool,

* Timber and Timber Trees, Native and Foreign. By Thomas Laslett, Timber
Inspector to the Admiralty. London, 1875.

+ Experiments to determine the Comparative Value of the principal Varieties of
Fuel. T. Bull. Philadelphia.

20

deep, moist, but well-drained soil, where it will make a rapid growth.
That the plantation may be as early profitable as possible, the young
trees should be inserted in rows three feet apart, the plants being two
feet apart in the rows. This would give 7,260 plants to the acre, which
should be gradually thinned until 108 trees are left standing, twenty feet
apart each way. The first thinning, which might be made at the end of
ten years, would give 4,000 hoop-poles, which at present price would be
worth $400.

The remaining thinnings, made at different periods up to twenty-five
or thirty years, would produce some three thousand trees more, worth at
least three times as much as the first thinnings. Such cuttings would
pay all the expenses of planting, the care of the plantation and the inter-
est on the capital invested, and would leave the land covered with trees
capable of being turned into money at a moment’s notice, or whose value
would increase for a hundred years, making no mean inheritance for the
descendants of a Massachusetts farmer. The planting of the white ash
as a shade and roadside tree is especially recommended, and for that
purpose it ranks, among our native trees, next to the sugar-maple.

The finest hickories are not produced in Massachusetts, although in the

western part of the State, especially in the valley of the Connecticut, and
in other favorable situations, the natural growth of this tree is fine
enough to warrant its extensive cultivation, The hickories should be
cultivated in the same manner as recommended for the ash, the young
plants being equally valuable for hoop-poles, walking-sticks, and similar
purposes; while the lumber cut from the large trees brings a higher price
than any other produced in the northern States. It is used extensively
in carriage-building and for axe handles, in which form it is carried all
over the world. Hickory makes better fuel than any other wood with
which we are acquainted, and is always the standard by which the value
of other woods for this purpose is estimated. The best hickory is worth,
in the Boston market at the present time, $100 the 1,000 feet. In the
form of firewood it now seldom comes to the Boston market, where it
readily commands, however, $16 the cord, and in nearly every part of
the State it is worth from $8 to $10 a cord for curing hams and bacon, for
which purpose no other wood supplies its place. The shagbark hickory
(Carya alba, Nutt.), which also produces the finest fruit, and the pignut
hickory (Carya porcina, Nutt.), are the most valuable species for cultiva-
tion in Massachusetts.

In the valley of the Connecticut the American elm develops its noblest
proportions, and there possibly earns the title of the most magnificent
vegetable of the temperate zone,” bestowed on it by the younger Michaux,
Except, however, in very favorable situations, where its roots can find
their way in deep, cool soil, supplied with abundant moisture, the Ameri-
can elm is far from a beautiful tree. In the situations I have described
as being favorable to it, the American elm should be largely planted, not
only on account of its beauty, rapid growth, and long life, but for the
value of its wood, which has many uses, the most important being its
employment for the hubs of carriage-wheels.

21

The sugar-maple (Acer saccharinum, Wang.) nowhere becomes a finer
tree than in the western portions of Massachusetts; and when we con-
sider the value of its wood in the arts, and for fuel, the value of its sap
when converted into sugar, its rapid growth, long life, immunity from the
attacks of insects, and its beauty and fitness for street and ornamental
planting, it must be acknowledged that no tree deserves more general
cultivation in this State. The wood of the sugar-maple, which is hard,
close-grained, and smooth, is largely used in furniture-making, cooperage,
and in making shoe-lasts, for which it is preferred to that of any other
tree. Two million five hundred thousand pairs of lasts are consumed
annually in Massachusetts alone; aud if we can judge of the future of
this business by its past history, it will, before many years, consume all
the sugar-maple lumber the country can produce. For fuel, the wood of
this tree is generally considered superior to that of any other, with the
exception of the hickory. Mr. Bull estimates its value, however, at only
60, hickory being 100, and places before it, in heat-giving qualities, no
less than twenty-two species of North American trees and shrubs.

The destruction of the sugar-maple has been so general in this State,
that sugar making, which formerly held an important place in Massachu-
setts industry, has, during the last thirty years, diminished fully one half,
and that, too, in the face of an enormously increased national production,
and of prices which have considerably more than doubled during the
last forty years.

There are, especially in the western part of the State, many unproduc-
tive pastures, now almost worthless, which would, if converted into sugar-
orchards, yield in a few years a handsome income.

In regard to the age at which it is profitable to commence drawing the
sap for sugar, authorities differ; but a tree twenty-five years old will yield,
on the average, ten pounds of sugar, and will continue to be productive
to this extent for fifty or sixty years longer. One hundred and sixty
trees being allowed to the acre, the sugar crop, from an orchard of that
size, would yield, at present prices, $273 annually; and it must be
remembered that, owing to the season of the year at which sugar is
made, no operation of the farm can be carried un with so small an outlay
for labor. The trees, uninjured by the drawing off of the sap, would
increase in value for a hundred years, and at any age find a ready sale
either for fuel or for use in the arts. Its adaptability to all soils, except
where stagnant water stands, the rapidity of its growth, its general thrift-
iness and undoubted beauty at all seasons of the year, render the sugar-
maple the most valuable of all the North American trees for street and
roadside planting, and it should be more generally used instead of the
American elm, which has been planted for this purpose in Massachusetts
almost to the exclusion of other trees, although rarely thriving in such
dry, dusty situations.

As I have before remarked, the value of the white oak (Quercus alba,
L.), for all purposes requiring durability, toughness, and hardness, is so
great that it must always be in demand, no other North.American wood
equalling it in these qualities. And although I do not believe that its

22

cultivation in Massachusetts can ever be as profitable as that of the ash
or the hickory, it should always form a part of mixed plantations, and
should be spared in thinning woodlands in preference to all other trees,
on account of the slow growth of its early years and its value at maturity.
The value of the white oak for fuel is very great, being, according to
Bull, 81 to hickory’s 100, the hickories and the swamp white oak alone
surpassing it in this quality.

There are a few European trees which have now been sufficiently
tested here to show that they are suited to the soil and climate of Massa-
chusetts, and that the qualities for which they are held in high esteem in
other countries would make their cultivation equally valuable here.

The common European elm (Ulmus campestris, L.) was introduced
into Massachusetts more than a century ago. According to Dr. Shurt-
leff,* Maj. Paddock, a carriage-builder by trade, and therefore probably
fully aware of the economic value of the tree, planted the row of English
elms in front of the Granary Burying-ground in Boston about the year
1762, and as the trees had been grown in a nursery at Milton for some
time previous to their being planted in Boston, it is not improbable that
they were imported fully a hundred and twenty-five years ago. In
spite of the hard treatment which seems the destiny of all trees intrusted
to the eare of our city fathers, one of the row had in 1860 reached, accord-
ing to Dr. Shurtleff’s measurement, the respectable size of twelve feet
eight inches in circumference at three feet from the sidewalk. Other
trees of this importation were doubtless planted in the neighborhood of
Boston, and I have recently measured two growing in Jamaica Plain
which could not have been planted much later. One of these, at four
feet from the ground, measures seventeen feet two inches in circumfer-
ence, and the other sixteen feet ten inches at three feet.

Several trees in Brookline, which were planted in 1805, when they
might have been ten years old, are now eighty feet high, and average
from eight feet to cight feet six inches in circumference at three feet
from the ground. It would, from these examples, seem that the Euro-
pean elm not only grows rapidly in the eastern part of the State, but
promises to attainits largest dimensions and full span of life. I have been
unable to compare satisfactorily the rapidity of its growth with that of
the American eim, but probably in its best condition the latter is of far
more rapid growth, although in the ordinary situations where the elm is
planted, and where it generally suffers from insufficiency of root-moist-
ure, the European elm is immeasurably its superior in rapidity of growth,
length of life, and general thriftiness. The fact that the European is fully
a month longer in leaf than the American elm, that its tougher leaves
would seem to offer a less appetizing food to the canker-worm, the great-
est enemy of the American elm in New England, and its adaptability to
all situations, are strong arguments in favor of giving the preference to
the former for general cultivation.

Its thriftiness in smoky situations makes the European elm the most

* Topographical and Historical Description of Boston. Nathaniel B. Shurtleff.
Boston, 1872.

Lf C.

23

valuable tree our climate will allow for city street and square planting,
and as a shade-tree by roadsides, no American tree is its equal.

The economic value of the wood of the European, which is hard and
fine, has always been generally acknowledged to be superior to that of
the American elm, and in Europe it is devoted to many important uses.
For the hubs of carriage-wheels, it is used almost to the exclusion of all
other wood. If employed in situations where it is constantly under water,
or kept perfectly dry, it excels almost every other wood in durability. It
is considered the best timber for ships’ keels. It is largely used for ships’
blocks, and for pumps, piles, and water-pipes, and by the turner and cabi-
net-maker; and by the coffin-maker it is preferred to all other woods.
The general cultivation of the European elm would add a valuable tim-
ber-tree to the products of Massachusetts.

As timber-trees, some of the willows deserve more attention than they
have hitherto received in this country, for, although the white willow
(Salix alba, L.) has for many years been planted in Massachusetts for
ornamental purposes, its economic value has been entirely overlooked.
It grows rapidly here, reaching its largest size and developing its best
qualities. By the side of the highway leading from Stockbridge to Great
Barrington, in Berkshire County, there is a willow which, at four feet
from the ead girts twenty-one feet eight inches, and which, according
to a popular tradition of the neighborhood, was brought in the form of a
riding-switch by a person travelling from Connecticut, and planted where
it now stands, in the year 1807. According to Newlands,* Salix fragillis,
I., or as it was more commonly known, Salix Russelliana, Smith (the
Duke of Bedford’s willow), produces the most valuable timber of any of
the family, the common white willow coming next. I am not aware that
the Duke of Bedford’s willow has ever been introduced into this State;
but as the two species have the same geographical range, and grow nat-
urally under precisely similar conditions, there is no doubt that it can be
successfully cultivated in any part of Massachusetts. Few trees grow
more rapidly than the willow, or adapt themselves to a greater variety of
soil. It has been general in this State to select low, undrained situations,
beside streams or stagnant ditches, for planting this tree, but it is equally
suited to high, exposed places, and poor soil, where, however, its growth
will be naturally less rapid. In Europe, the timber of the willow I have
referred to is used for many purposes. Newlands says it is ‘* sawn into |
boards for flooring, and into scantlings for rafters; and in the latter capa-
city, when kept dry and ventilated, it has been known to last one hundred
years. But the purposes more peculiarly its own are such as require
lightness, pliancy, elasticity, and toughness, all of which qualities it pos-
sesses inaneminent degree. Italso endures long in water, and therefore
is in request for paddle-wheel floats, and for the shrouding of water-
wheels. It is used in lining carts for conveying stones or other heavy
material, as it does not splinter; and the same quality renders it fit for
guard posts or fenders.” Turners and tray-makers find many uses for
willow-wood, and it is employed in making shoe-lasts, light ladders, and

* Carpenter’s and Joiner’s Assistant. James Newlands. London, 1867.

>

24

the handles of light agricultural implements. Its incombustibility is so
great that it is peculiarly suited for the flooring of buildings intended to
be fire-proof, and attention has been recently called to its value for such
purposes. As willow timber could be produced far more cheaply than that
of any of our native trees, it would soon come into general use here for
the purposes for which it seems particularly fitted, and for which more val-
uable woods are now employed.

Less than one third of the willow used in the United States in basket-
making is produced here, the remainder being imported from Great
Britain, France, and Belgium, at an annual cost of $5,000,009.

The osier proper, the product of Salix viminalis, L.,and its allies, ean be
grown without trouble in any wet, undrained soil, capable of producing
little else of value; but the better sorts of basket-willow are only success-
fully produced with careful cultivation on rich, well-drained soil. Under
such conditions it is a profitable crop, capable of netting at least $150 a
year to the acre, and well worth the attention of our farmers. Further
experiments, which might be made under the auspices of the county so-
cieties, are, however, required to determine which of the many basket-
willows is best adapted to our climate, and to devise some method for pro-
tecting this crop against the attacks of many insects which have of late
years seriously interfered with its cultivation in various parts of the
United States.

In spite of the beauty and great economic value of the white pine,
there are many Situations in this State where its cultivation is almost im-
possible, and where it should be replaced by its relative the Scotch pine
(Pinus sylvestris, L.) of the north of Europe. It is many years since
this tree was first introduced for ornamental purposes in Massachusetts,
where it finds itself perfectly at home, and grows rapidly, soon becoming
a large tree on poor soil and in exposed situations. Under such econdi-
tions, we usually find the ground covered with a spontaneous growth of
the pitch pine, and wherever this tree grows naturally, it is certain that
the infinitely more valuable and beautiful Scotch pine will flourish. If
Mr. Fay’s success with this tree can be taken as a criterion, the whole of
Cape Cod, to its eastern extremities, could be covered with sufficiently
large tracts of the Scotch pine to render the remaining portions better
suited for agricultural purposes; while the produet of such plantations in
Barnstable and the other eastern counties in the shape of fuel for brick-
baking would always find a ready market, taking the place of the im-
ported firewood from the shores of the Bay of Fundy, already nearly
stripped of its forest growth to supply the increasing demands of Boston
and the other New England seaports.

But fuel is the least valuable use to which the wood of the Scotch pine
can be turned. In Europe the lumber from this pine is considered more
valuable than that of any other coniferous tree, the larch excepted, and
for all economic purposes it is rated far above American white pine.

The nature of these two woods, and the uses to which they are each
specially adapted, are so dissimilar that any comparison between them is
not particularly interesting. A number of experiments * made at the

* Timber and Timber Trees. Laslett. London, 1875,

25

Royal Woolwich Dockyard have shown that the wood of the Scotch pine
will resist a transverse strain .11 greater than that of the white pine; that
its resistance to a tensile strain is about twice as great, and its resistance
to a vertical strain is .56 greater; while its specific gravity is 541 to 513
for the white pine. All European writers on timber, from Duhamel to
Laslett, agree that the wood of the Scotch pine is the most durable of all
pine woods,

Newlands says “ the lightness and stiffness of the Scotch pine render it
superior to any other kinds of timber for beams, girders, joists, rafters,
and, indeed, for framing in general.”

From its greater strength, spars, top-masts, and the masts of small ves-
sels which are often subjected to violent and sudden shocks, are made
from the Scotch pine, in preference to any other wood, although, on ac-
count of its greater lightness, the white pine is preferred for heavy masts
and large spars. Since the supply of larch has become entirely inade-
quate to the demand, the Scotch pine is used in Europe for railroad
sleepers more generally than any other tree, enormous quantities even
being shipped from the northern ports to India for this purpose.

Although the wood of the white pine is undoubtedly superior to the
Seotch for all purposes where a soft, light, easily worked, clear wood is
demanded, the latter has qualities so desirable that its cultivation for
economic purposes would be of great value in this State, especially when
it is remembered, as I have before remarked, that it will grow rapidly in
situations where the white pine cannot flourish.

The rapidity of its growth in all situations and ils economic value make
the Scotch pine the most valuable tree farmers can plant for screens
and wind-breaks about their fields and buildings, and for this purpose it
is recommended in place of the more generaliy planted Norway spruce,
which, although of rapid growth in its young state, does not promise, in
our climate, at least, to fulfil the hopes which were formed in regard to it.
The Scotch pine is being so extensively planted in Europe that it is prop-
agated in immense quantities and at low rates. Plants one foot high can
be delivered in any part of this Siate for from $50 to $60 the ten thousand.

There is no tree capable of producing so large an amount of such valua-
ble timber in so short atime as the European larch (Larix Ewropea D.C.)
in countries where its cultivation is possible. A native of high elevations
in Northern and Central Europe, and always growing on poor, gravelly,
and well-drained soil, it is not surprising that when planted under exactly
opposite conditions, as is often the case, it does not become a valuable
tree. The rocky, well-drained hillsides so common in Massachusetts are
admirably suited to the cultivation of the larch; and there is but little land
within the limits of the State too poor or too exposed to produce a valua-
ble crop of timber, if planted with this tree.

The European larch has always been a favorite for ornamental planting
here, and has shown itself well adapted to our climate. I cannot discover
when this tree was first planted in Massachusetts, but in the eastern part
of the State specimens, in open situations, are abundant, sixty feet high
and five feet in girth three feet from the ground. The largest specimen

26

of the European larch in Bartram’s Botanic Garden, near Philadelphia,
probably the first ever sent to America, when examined by Mr. Meehan,*
over twenty years ago, measured 108 feet high and 5 feet 4 inches in cir-
cumference.

The economic uses of the larch are numerous and important. Accord-
ing to Newlands, the strength of larch timber is to that of British oak as
103 to 100; its stiffness as 79 to 100, while its toughness is as 134 to 100.
In the most trying circumstances in which timber can be employed, where
it is alternately subjected to the influence of air and water, it is the most
durable wood known. Laslett states, on what he considers good authority,
that ‘many of the houses in Venice are built on larch piles, particularly
those of which the supports are alternately exposed to wet and dry, and
that many of these piles, after being in place for ages, are said not to have
the least appearance of decay.”

At the request of the Duke of Athol, experiments with a view of testing
the durability of the larch were made many years ago in the River
Thames. The result of these experiments is found in Sir Thomas Dick
Lauder’s { edition of Gilpin. ‘‘ Posts,” he says, ‘ of equal thickness and
strength, one of larch and the other of oak, were driven down facing the
river wall, where they were alternately covered by water by the flow of
the tide, and left dry by its fall. This species of alternation is the most
trying of all circumstances for the endurance of timber, and accordingly
the oaken posts were decayed, and were twice replaced in the course of a
very few years, while those that were made of larch remained altogether
uninjured.”

In Europe, larch is preferred to all other woods for railroad sleepers,
and it is probably superior for this purpose to the wood of any North
American tree. Larch fence-postsare also in great demand at high prices,
and instances are abundant of its great durability when thus employed.
A practical forester, { speaking of this tree, says, “ For out-door work it
is considered the most durable of all descriptions of wood. The length-
ened period that some larch posts have stood is quite surprising, some of
which are known to the writer to have stood nearly fifty years, than which
there can be no better proof of its durability.” For posts, it will probably
equal in durability our red cedar, while in the power to hold nails it is
greatly its superior.

The European must not be confounded with the American larch, which,
although a valuable tree for many purposes, does not make durable fence-
posts.

Timber of the European larch is admirably adapted for rafters, joists,
and the main timbers in large buildings. When sawn into boards, how-
ever, it has the serious drawback of excessive shrinkage, and a tendency
to warp in seasoning, and is therefore rarely used in this form. Its prin-
cipal uses in this country would be for railroad sleepers, fence-posts, tele-

* The American Hand-book of Ornamental Trees. Thomas Meehan.

t Gilpin’s Forest Scenery. Edinburgh, 1834.

t Christopher Young Michie, in Transactions of the Scottish Arboricultural Soci-
ety. Vol. V, part II. Edinburgh.

27

graph posts, hop and bean poles, and other rustic work, and for piles in
bridges, wharves, and similar structures, where the rising and falling of
the tide require the employment of the most durable timber possible.
White oak is generally thus employed, but it is probably less durable than
larch, and far too expensive. The fertilizing effects of a plantation of
larch on poor, almost barren ground, is remarkable, and now universally
acknowledged.

According to a writer in the Highland Society’s Transactions, quoted
by Loudon, the pasturage under a piantation of larches thirty years old,
and which had been thinned to four hundred trees to the acre, produced
in Scotland an annual rental of eight or ten shillings the acre, while the
same land, previous to the introduction of the larch, was let for one shil-
ling the acre. Grigor* calls attention to the same good result of planting
the larch. ‘No tree,” he says, “is so valuable as the larch in its fertiliz-
ing effects, arising from the richness of the foliage which it sheds annu-
ally. Ina healthy wood the yearly deposit is very great; the leaves
remain, and are consumed on the spot where they drop, and when the
influence of the air is admitted, ihe space becomes clothed in a vivid
green, with many of the finest kinds of natural grasses, the pasture of
which is highly reputed in dairy management. And in cases where
woodland has been brought under grain crops, the roots have been found
less difficult to remove than those of other trees, and the soil has been
rendered more fertile than that which follows any other description of
timber. -Already in some of the Western States great interest is taken
in the cultivation of the European larch, owing principally, I believe, to
the efforts of Mr. Robert Douglas, of Waukegan, Illinois, and large num-
bers are planted annually, with every prospect of success. In his whole-
sale catalogue for 1876, Mr. Douglas calls attention to the fact, that the
president of the Illinois Central Railroad, after an examination of the
larch forests of Europe, and the growth and quality of this timber pro-
duced in Illinois, has without solicitation offered to transport European
larch free of charge to any point on his lines in Illinois and Iowa, pro-
vided they are to be planted in the vicinity of the road.

Judging from the growth made by the larches in Mr. Fay’s plantation,
which are the only ones I know in this State offering any valuable statis-
tics in regard to the rapidity of growth of this tree, I think we can feel
confident that on the ordinary soil suited to their culture, larch, planted
when about one foot high and three years old, will in twenty years aver-
age twenty-two feet in height, and seven inches in diameter, three feet
from the ground; and that in thirty years they will be from thirty-five to
forty feet high, and twelve inches in diameter; and if the plantations are
thinned to four hundred trees to the acre, that at the end of twenty years
more, or fifty years from the time of planting, the trees will reach from
sixty to seventy feet in height, and at least twenty inches in diameter.
This is also the average growth of this tree in the Highlands of Scotland,
under nearly similar conditions.

Let us consider what profits a plantation of larch, ten acres in extent,

* Arboriculture. John Grigor. ‘Edinburgh, 1868.

28

and intended to stand for fifty years, would give. The labor of cutting
the trees will be more than paid for by the sale at different periods of a
large amount of small wood suited to many rustic purposes, but for which
no credit is made. It must also be remarked that the following account
is charged with a permanent wire fence, although it*is more than prob-
able that any land suited to this purpose, is already surrounded by stone
walls, which would require but little subsequent care. Present prices for
forest products are taken, without allowance being made for their prob-
able future increase in value.

EstmmaTED PROFITS OF A PLANTATION OF EUROPEAN LARCH oF TEN ACRES, TO
Last Firry YEARS,

Dr.
Ten acres of land, at 320 , x 4 : E 5 $200 00
Wire fence 5 3 : t : 5 ; ; ‘ 5 : 5 1,600 00
Plants, 27,200, at $5. . E i A 3 ; ‘ , ; 3 7. 136 25
Labor of planting . : . . F c c ° 5 : 4 500 00
$1,836 25
Interest on investment, as above, 50 years, at 6 percent . 4 : a 5,499 00
Taxes, 50 years, atl.5 percent. : : Q : : 3 5 C 150 00
Interest on taxes equal 25 years, at 6 percent . 5 . 0 : . 225 00
$7,710 25

Cr.

Product of first cutting at the end of 20 years: 13,000
trees, less 20 per cent for casualties; 10,400 trees, or 20,-
800 fence-posts, at 20cents, . . je

Product of second cutting at the end of 30 years: 10,-

{, 200 trees, less 10 per cent for casualties; 9,180 trees,
or 18,360 sleepers, at 50 cents. 5 : yy oe $9,180 CO

And 9.180 fence-posts, at 25 cents : ; : C : 2,295 00

$4,160 00

$11,475 00
Product of third cutting at the end of 50 years: 4,000 trees,
less 5 per cent for casualties; 3,800 piles, worth $5.00

each: 0%, 5 A 6 : : : : a . é $19,000 00
And 7,600 sleepers, worth 50 cents : 5 A . ; 5,800 00
— $22,800 00
Land atcost . 5 F 5 6 : 5 4 F 200 00

$38,635 00

Thirty years’ interest on $4,160, atG per cent . . : $7,488 00

Twenty years’ interest on $11,475, at 6 per cent . 5 : 13,770 00
—-—— $21.258 00
$59,993 00
Pronti : F : A 5 5 . : B 4 c - 62,282 75*

There are within the limits of the State fully 200,000 acres of unim-
proved land which could with advantage be at once covered with larch
plantations.

For the sake of keeping these estimates within reasonable bounds let
us suppose that these 200,000 acres will, in the natural course of eveuts,

* Equal to about 13 per cent per annum for the entire fifty years, after returning
the original capital invested.

29

produce during the next fifty years one hundred cords of firewood to the
acre, worth $6 a cord. This would make their total yield for the fifty
years $120,000,000. If they were planted with larch, their net yield,
according to my estimate, during the same time, would be $1,045,660,000;
but that we may judge how much such an operation would add to the
wealth of the community, we must deduct from this amount the value of
the wood which we suppose would be produced naturally, or $120,000,000.
That sum being subtracted, we have left as created wealth the respect-
able sum of $925,000,000.

There is no branch of agriculture at once so pleasant and so produc-
tive of possible gains, as farming on paper. It is a dangerous pastime,
however, and often leads into grave errors, and great dangers, as the
agricultural population has learned to its cost. In this case it will be
well to be on the safe side. The larch, in common with other plants, is
liable to disease; it is preyed on by many insects, and our plantations
may be often injured by fire, bad management, and other dangers now
unforeseen.

In view of such chances, let us reduce the total yield of our ten acres
of larch a little more than one half, and be content with a profit of only
six per cent per annum on the capital invested.

Such a diminution of yield would reduce the amount I suppose would
spring, in the course of fifty years, from the 200,000 acres of larch, to
$462 ,830,000.

If we can add $8,000,000 annually to the net product of the agriculture
of Massachusetts by replanting a small portion of our nearly worthless
lands with trees, the mere material gain to our wealth is worth striving for
But when we consider that this is an operation which will bring benefits
to the State far beyond any direct material gain, it becomes the moral duty
of every citizen to continue his efforts in this direction until every land-
owner shall be convinced that tree-planting is a patriotic act, and that we
owe it to our descendants to leave the land at least as productive and
pleasant as we received it. It is within the power of many to give direct
assistance to such an undertaking. The wealthy and powerful corpora-
tions depending ona supply of water for their existence will do well to
reflect on the dangers which threaten them through the destruction of
the forests, and consider what steps they can take to avert them.

The railroads, the most dependent of al) our corporations on a supply
of wood for their daily consumption and increased traffic, must soon, in
self-defence, turn their attention to arboriculture. But, in this com-
munity, we must look to individual enterprise and individual intelligence
if we expect to see any considerable portion of this State re-covered with
forest growth; and to the farmers, more than to any other class, must be
left the solution of the difficullies and dangers, which the forest question
presents,

To-day, I can offer them no better advice than that of the dying old
Scotchman to his son,—‘* Ye may be aye sticking in a tree, Jock; it will
be growin’ when ye’re sleepin’.” j

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