54 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



old, if they still retain health and vigor, I am confident that 

 the fruit will keep much longer than from trees which are 

 diseased. I do not know that it is necessary to speak at 

 length upon tliis question. I would simply state, so far as 

 my own observation is concerned, that I am positive apples 

 will not keep so well from trees with diseased trunks, or that 

 are unhealthy from any other cause. If the trunks are not 

 decayed, or if the limbs are not decayed, if from any other 

 cause the tree is unhealthy, my observation is, that fruit will 

 not keep so Avell. 



Mr. Claek. I am much interested in this discussion 

 about growing wood ; but it seems to me that those gentle- 

 men who understand the matter, and who claim that there is 

 a profit in growing it, should tell us what kind of land should 

 be used for that purpose. For instance, what kind of land 

 would my friend Hyde grow white birch on ? I suppose we 

 can grow from twelve to fifteen cords of white birch on an 

 acre in eighteen or twenty years. That wood in the market 

 to-day is worth four dollars a cord. It costs a dollar to cut 

 it, and a dollar to draw it : that leaves you two dollars for 

 your wood ; and, if 3'ou cut fifteen cords from an acre, it 

 will bring you thirty dollars for wood which you have been 

 twenty years in growing. How much can you afford to pay 

 for land on which to grow it ? Certainly it will not pay to 

 grow white birch in Newton; for I suppose there is very little 

 land there that can be bought short of twenty or thirty 

 dollars an acre, and to that is to be added the tax on the 

 land. I take it the gentlemen of Newton would make more 

 money by investing in railroads in the South-west than they 

 would in growing white birch in that vicinity. But if you 

 have land that is not worth more than two, three, or five 

 dollars an acre, tliere you may grow white birch. jNIy 

 experience has taught me that no man can profitably invest 

 his money in land to grow wood for the market, as the 

 market is to-day, and pay over six dollars an acre. There 

 are gentlemen here who have bought shrub-land, and have 

 paid more than that for it, and have grown wood upon it ; 

 yet, if they can say they have got more than five per cent 

 on their investment, I am mistaken. The point we want 

 to understand is, on what land we shall grow wood. If we 

 use our best land in Worcestar County to grow wood on, — 



