26 TREES OF MASSACHUSETTS. 



ten such is 23 years. Others speak less definitely, from 15 to 

 20, 17 to 30, 20 to 25, 20 to 30, 20 to 33, 20 to 40, 25 to 30, 25 

 to 35, 30 to 35, for woods of miscellaneous growth. The aver- 

 age deduced from fourteen such statements, is, from 21 to 28. 

 The general average from all is a little over 24 years. These 

 statements are probably as definite as the case admits. Differ- 

 ences of situation, exposure, soil, and kind of trees, would of 

 necessity lead to them. For particular trees, the answers are 

 more precise. The white or grey birch is of most rapid growth, 

 and springs at once from the stump. This may be profitably 

 cut in from 10 to 20 years; a growth of maple, ash and birch, 

 black, yellow and white, in 20 to 25 ; oaks in from 20 to 33. 

 Where the trees are principally oak, white, black and scarlet, 

 the forest may be cut clean three times in a century. Cedar 

 swamps, which grow from seed, cannot be profitably cut in less 

 than 40 years. Pitch pines, which also spring only from seed, 

 are very slow at first, and require from 40 to 60 years to be in 

 a condition to be felled. In many places, the experiment has 

 been tried of burning over the surface, ploughing, and sowing 

 with rye. When the trees have been of hard wood, this prac- 

 tice is strongly condemned. In the case of the pitch pine, it is 

 recommended. The seedling pines make much more rapid 

 progress when the surface has been softened by cultivation. 



An intelligent gentleman of great experience, A. M. Ide, Esq., 

 of South Attleborough, gives me a statement of some important 

 facts bearing upon the subject. " Having been, for thirty years 

 past, more or less engaged in buying woodland and cutting it 

 off, I wish to state that I know, from careful observation, that 

 an acre of good land, where there is a -mixture of the several 

 kinds of oak and walnut, (hickory,) cut off while young and 

 thrifty, will produce, during the first 20 or 25 years, a cord of 

 wood yearly." "I believe that most kinds of hard wood are 

 worth twenty or thirty per cent, more, for fuel, at the age of 25 

 years than at 75." This important fact is confirmed by many 

 of the wood-growers in the Old Colony, and in other parts where 

 the woods have been repeatedly cut down. It is remarkable 

 that all the facts and testimony lead to the same conclusion. 

 The trees best for fuel shoot again most readily and vigorously 



