RELATIONS OF BOTANY TO AGRICULTURE. 437 



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lus, or blue gum, into cultivation. It was first planted in France 

 in 1856, and so rapid is its growth, that plantations of this species 

 are estimated to produce five times as much valuable wood in the 

 same period as an equal area of native timber. The forests of 

 France are now valued at eight hundred million dollars. To 

 increase the annual product fivefold is therefore a matter of some 

 consequence. Hon. Marshall P. Wilder informs us that he saw 

 specimens of blue gum in California which, at the age of six j~ears 

 from the seed, had attained the height of fifty feet. This tree has 

 a surprising power of absorbing and exhaling moisture, and of 

 destroying malarious exhalations from swampy and unhealthy 

 regions. It also imparts to the air a salubrious, balsamic odor. 

 It has been affirmed by good medical authority that the general 

 planting of this species in the malarial districts of Southern 

 Europe would be followed by the speedy restoration of the people 

 to health, vigor and enterprise. 



Nothing but experiment, continued for many years, can teach 

 us what trees are best adapted for planting in New England. 

 The ailanthus, which grows here more rapidty while young than 

 any other hardy deciduous tree, and the European larch, which 

 has been so successfully grown in Scotland by the Duke of Athol 

 and others, are among the most promising of foreign species. It 

 is, however, quite probable that Japan or China, whose vegetation 

 eeems peculiarly suited to our climate, may furnish some other 

 more valuable kinds as yet undiscovered or untried. But we 

 have one among our numerous native trees which ought to be 

 planted abundantly wherever it will thrive and does not already 

 exist in quantity. The sugar maple may be raised from seed and 

 transplanted almost as readily as a Swedish turnip, and in a toler- 

 able soil grows with rapidity. Its timber is very highly prized 

 in the arts, and the wood of its branches is most excellent fuel. 

 No tree is more vigorous or symmetrical in form, and none suffers 

 less from the attacks of insects. Its foliage is clean and beautiful 

 in summer, and as the season advances it assumes the most 

 gorgeous tints of yellow, orange and scarlet. The sap, which 

 flows freely from incisions or borings in early spring, yields a 

 large amount of sugar, identical in its chemical composition with 

 that of the cane, the beet and the palm, while its peculiar flavor is 

 far more agreeable. Trees thirty years old will furnish one pound 

 of sugar per annum, and larger ones more, according to their size, 

 — the greatest well-authenticated product from a single tree in 



