144 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



able variety of trees. How shall 3'ou create them ? Plant 

 them, gentlemen. I doubt very much whether there is a 

 farmer in Massachusetts (I really have never seen one) who 

 has not one or more acres of land under cultivation which it 

 is a waste of time and money and manure to cultivate. Why 

 not take such a piece of land, of one acre or several, and 

 devote it to forest? Plant all kinds of trees that w^ill grow 

 in it, — pines will grow everywhere, — the maples, the ashes, 

 the beeches, the hickories. The hickory is one of the finest 

 trees, the cultivation of which it is desirable on every account 

 to encourage. Why not devote these acres, which are now 

 of very little value probably, or no value at all, — why not 

 devote them to trees ? Find out how to plant the different 

 kinds of trees ; find out what are the most valuable. I 

 have mentioned some of them. The hickory, for all pur- 

 poses, is one of the most valuable trees that grow. It is 

 extremely beautiful. Of course it is not necessary to say 

 anything about their growth ; everybody knows how well they 

 grow. We have three pines growing naturally in Massachu- 

 setts, — the white pine, the pitch-pine, and the red, or Nor- 

 way, pine. Wherever the pitch-pine grows, — and its prings 

 up everywhere, — the white pine and the red pine, and the 

 very valuable European pine, — Scotch fir, they call it in Eng- 

 land, — will flourish. They are not so readily diffused ; they 

 do not plant themselves so surely as the pitch-pine ; but 

 wherever the pitch-pine flourishes, better pines will flourish 

 too, and not only pines, but the firs, spruces, cedars, and the 

 richest and most ornamental of the pines, — the hemlock. 



I say that any one of you may add to the value of his farm 

 by taking those poor lots, which are cultivated to disadvantage, 

 and planting them with trees of every kind, or such kinds as 

 he finds in the neighborhood. Wherever one of the oaks will 

 grow, all the other oaks will grow. AVherever the pignut or 

 bitternut hickory grows, the mockernut and the shngbark 

 will grow just as well. All the hickories, as I said, are 

 extremely beautiful trees, and they are peculiar to this 

 country. When Prof. Agassiz came to this country, some 

 time ago, he called on me, because, he said, he wanted to 

 find a person who could point out to him the hickories, for 

 there were no such trees in Europe. There had been, some 



