90 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



appointed whose duty it should be to look after the shade trees of 

 the town. If there are no such trees in a town, so much greater 

 the necessity. We have had such a person in our town for a 

 great many years, and he is dignified by the name of the Town 

 Forester. We send here or into New Hampshire every year for 

 two or three car loads of rock maples, and when they arrive, the 

 Forester gives notice that, any gentleman is welcome to those 

 trees who will figree to plant them on his premises and take care 

 of them. In that way we have filled our town with shade trees, in 

 fact we have the nursery in the village ; but all over the town you 

 will see rows of young rock maples growing vigorously. Imagine 

 what they will be thirty, forty, fifty years hence, if well attended 

 to. If you do this, what effect it will have upon the health of your 

 people. The fact stated by Prof. Fernald is a good illustration of 

 this. It is all-important that you do these things.. 



I mention this because if there is a piece of land in New England 

 that has been badly treated, I think it is the land between Port- 

 land and the city of Portsmouth, in New Hampshire. I have 

 hardly ever passed over a piece of land that looks so cold and so 

 destitute of almost every kind of vegetation as that whole extent 

 of country, with trifling exceptions. When I rode the other day 

 from Saco to Limerick, the road side was mostly barren of trees. 

 For mile after mile, on either side, there was scarcely a tree to be 

 seen, and very few trees had been set by the road side. What 

 are you coming to here in the State of Maine, if you go on this 

 way forty or fifty years longer? If I lived'in one of the towns on 

 that road, I would not sleep until I got four or five men to act 

 with me iii town meeting, to secure the passage of a vote apropri- 

 ating a sufficient amount of money to line those roads with rock 

 maples, elms, and such other trees as are best adapted to the soil. 



I would not live a day without doing it, and I hope none of you 

 will. It is sad to see how barren of trees that road is. It will be 

 equally barren of other vegetation one of those days, unless you 

 do something for it. 



I say we are what our homes are. It is true, a home never can 

 be attractive to young or old unless its surroundings are pleasant. 

 Not only must its internal arrangements be convenient and attrac- 

 tive, but its surroundings must be pleasant. I do not know that 

 it is possible to have a home attractive and agreeable inside with- 

 out pleasant surroundings. I am quite certain that a person who 

 is neat and orderly inside the house, will be equally so outside. 



