64 BOARD OF AGRICULTUEE. 



powerful aid of the agTicultural press, and by the example of 

 a few intelligent leaders, to introduce rational improvements 

 in this department of our agriculture. 



Here again botanical knowledge will prove of very great 

 service. That no one is qualified to engage intelligently in 

 tree culture without an acquaintance with Structural and Phy- 

 siological Botany is self-evident ; but familiarity with Descrip- 

 tive and Geographical Botany is hardly less essential. This 

 is admirably illustrated by the introduction of the Australian 

 Eucalyptus globulus, 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 val- 

 ued at eight hundred million dollars. To increase the annual 

 product fivefold is therefore a matter of some consequence. 

 Hon. Marshall P. AYilder 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 absorl)ing 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 aflirmed 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 experiments, continued for many years, can 

 teach us what trees are best adapted for planting in New Eng- 

 land. The ailanthus, which grows here more rapidly while 

 young than any other hard}^ 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 seems peculiarly suited to our 

 climate, may furnish some other more valuable kinds as yet 

 undiscovered or untried. But we have one among our numer- 

 ous native trees which ought to be planted abundantly wher- 

 ever 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 tolerable soil grows 



