FOREST TREES. 205 



Even these foreign resources are fast failing us. Within the 

 last quarter of a century the forests of Maine and New York, 

 from which we draw our largest supplies, have disappeared more 

 rapidly than those of Massachusetts ever did. In a quarter of a 

 century more, at this rate, the supply in many places, Avill be 

 entirely cut off. 



7. Another special use of the forests of the State is in the 

 production of maple sugar. Great quantities are already made, 

 and the manufacture might be much more generally introduced. 

 In many favorable situations, the cultivation of the maple tree 

 would cost only forethought. The labor of planting the trees 

 might be performed late in the year, when the fall's work was 

 over, and the making of sugar be attended to early, before the 

 spring's work had begun. 



Of minor importance, but of much more than is usually given 

 to it, is the production of nuts of various kinds, the fruits of 

 forest trees. The produce of the shellbark, chestnut, beech, 

 hazel and acorn, already valuable, might be increased almost 

 indefinitely, by selecting the best native varieties, and improving 

 them by processes similar to those to which we owe the fine 

 varieties of apple and pear, and the cultivated varieties of Euro- 

 pean nuts, and by introducing similar trees, such as the pecan 

 nut, the English walnut, and the European hazel. 



8. The most extensive and important use of the forest is in 

 the fuel it furnishes. Most of the fires through the State are 

 still chiefly fed from this source." 



The population of the State, according to the last census, is 

 about 1,100,000. Suppose each family to consist, on an aver- 

 age, of five persons, and we then have 220,000 families in the 

 State. Suppose the quantity of fuel required for the use of each 

 family to be, on an average, six cords every year, and the aver- 

 age price of all kinds of wood to be $5 per cord. Then the annual 

 cost of wood consumed for fuel in our houses is $6,600,000. 



By the last annual reports of the several railroad corpora- 

 tions, we learn that the expense of wood for fuel consumed by 

 the locomotives, during the year, was . . $1,288,838 00 

 which, added to the' amount above, . . . 6,600,000 00 



making an aggregate of $7,888,838 00 



as the annual expense of wood for fuel in the State. Much 



