200 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



with pleasure by the Messrs. Mctcalf, and rewarded with ample 

 gratification. 



Having spoken of the growth of forest trees in the county as 

 a subject of great importance, and of this in only one of its bear- 

 ings, it may be expected that we should proceed to a fuller and 

 more elaborate discussion of the whole matter. But we have 

 neither the time nor the means at hand for pursuing these 

 investigations. Happily, no discussion of ours is necessary, as 

 none could approach that already before the public, in the admi- 

 rable Report on the Trees and Shrubs of Massachusetts, by 

 George B. Emerson, Esq., of Boston. We earnestly invite 

 attention to that Report, which contains the most extensive and 

 reliable information on the subject. It is greatly to be desired 

 that a new edition of this work should be published, at a cost 

 whicli will enable every farmer and citizen of the Commonwealth 

 to possess a copy of it. 



Charles C. Sewall, Chairman. 



Note. — Since completing this report, we have learned from a 

 perfectly reliable source, facts which lend much support to the 

 encouragement for giving greater attention to the growth of 

 forest trees in the county. 



A member of the society, who has devoted a long life to the 

 labors of the farm, and whose good judgment and industry are 

 proved by the result of his labors, has informed us that, just 

 forty years ago, he planted a field of two acres upon his father's 

 farm with corn and potatoes ; that since that time there have 

 been cut from the same field, two separate growths of excellent 

 birch wood, of at least twenty cords per acre, and that there is 

 now standing upon it a third growth of the same kind of wood, 

 for part of which he has just been offered six dollars per cord for 

 mechanical uses. The field received little care and attention after 

 the cultivation mentioned above. Around the walls of it, white 

 birches were suffered to remain at that time, from the seeds of 

 which, scattered by the winds and the birds, the whole grove, it 

 is supposed, has sprung. 



The same gentleman also states, that he once had in posses- 

 sion another field, of like soil and dimensions, which was over- 

 grown with small brushwood of birches, which he wished to 



