THE ENGLISH ELM. 271 



Massachusetts almost to the exclusion of other trees, although 

 rarely thriving in such dry, dusty situations. 



As I have before remarked, the value of the white oak 

 (Quercus alba, L.), for all purposes requiring durability, 

 toughness and hardness, is so great, that it must always be iu 

 demand, no other North American wood equalling it in these 

 qualities. And although I do not believe that its cultivation 

 iu Massachusetts can ever be as profitable as that of the ash 

 or the hickory, it should always form a part of mixed planta- 

 tions, and should be spared, in thinning woodlands, in prefer- 

 ence to all other trees, on account of the slow growth of its 

 early years, and its value at maturity. The value of the white 

 oak for fuel is very great, being, according to Bull, 81 to 

 hickory's 100, the hickories and the swamp white oak alone 

 surpassing it in this quality. 



There are a few European trees which have now been suffi- 

 ciently tested here to show that they are suited to the soil 

 and climate of Massachusetts, and that the qualities for which 

 they are held in high esteem in other countries would make 

 their cultivation equally valuable here. 



The common European elm {Ulrnus campestris, X.) was 

 introduced into Massachusetts more than a century ago. 

 According to Dr. Shurtleif,* Major Paddock, a carriage- 

 builder by trade, and therefore probably fully aware of the 

 economic value of the tree, planted the row of English elms 

 in front of the Granary burying-ground in Boston about the 

 year 1762, and as the trees had been grown in a nursery at 

 Milton for some time previous to their being planted in Bos- 

 ton, it is not improbable that they were imported fully a hun- 

 dred and twenty-five years ago. In spite of the hard treat- 

 ment which seems the destiny of all trees intrusted to the 

 care of our city fathers, one of the row had in 1860 reached, 

 according to Dr. Shurtleif's measurement, the respectable 

 size of twelve feet eight inches in circumference at three feet 

 from the sidewalk. Other trees of this importation were 

 doubtless planted in the neighorhood of Boston, and I have 

 recently measured two growing in Jamaica Plain which could- 

 not have been planted much later. One of these, at four feet 



* Topographical and Historical Description of Boston. Nathaniel B. ShurtleflF. 

 Boston, 1872. 



