FAKMERS' INSTITUTES. "-iia 



ing, the writer quotes the following statement: "Isaac Pulleu, a well known 

 nursery-man at High Town, New Jersey, showed me last summer several belts 

 of evergreen trees which had S})rung up from his nursery rows to a licight of 

 twenty-live or tliirty feet in ten years; and he stated that witiiin the shelter of 

 these screens his nursery trees as well as farm crops averaged fifty per cent. 

 more than in blank or exposed places." Again in speaking of a plantation of 

 trees upon the estate of Richard S. Fay, near Lynn, Massachusetts, he says : 

 ** I recently visited these plantations, twenty-nine years after their formation, 

 and took occasion to measure several of the trees, but more especially the larches, 

 some of these are over fifty feet in height and fifteen inches in diameter three 

 feet from the ground, and the average of many trees examined is over forty 

 feet in height and twelve inches in diameter. The broad-leaved trees have also 

 made a most satisfactory growth, and many of them, on the margins of the 

 plantations, are fully forty feet high. During the past ten years about 700 

 cords of fire-wood have been cut from these plantations, besides all the fencing 

 required for a large estate. Fire-wood, fence posts and railroad sleepers, to the 

 value of thousands of dollars, could be cut to-day, to the great advantage of 

 the remaining trees." It will thus be seen that the farmer desirous of provid- 

 ing some protection for his buildings, orchards and crops, by planting timber 

 belts around his fields, need not be discouraged by the thought that no benefit 

 can accrue to him during his lifetime. Unless he be very near the sunset of 

 life, his efforts in the direction of tree planting will be rewarded with a success 

 which he may himself enjoy, or if death should come before the full realization 

 of his hopes, will it not be a gratification to him to know that his children will 

 enjoy the fruits of his labors? Although less attention has been paid in this 

 country to the planting and cultivating of trees for timber to be used in manu- 

 facturing and building, than to the other branches I have touched upon, yet 

 this branch of Arboriculture has already, especially on the prairie lands of the 

 AYest and tlie old clearings in the Eastern States, assumed considerable propor- 

 tions; and should, I am firmly convinced, receive still more attention from the 

 people in this country. 



When we consider the fact that it will require thirty years at least to grow a 

 tree large enough to make a fair-sized saw-log, and the further fact that the 

 present supply of wood for timber purposes in this State will, in all probabil- 

 ity, be nearly if not quite exhausted thirty years hence, if no measures are 

 taken for its preservation and replanting; wJien we consider these facts, I say, 

 we may well ask ourselves, is it not our duty to make some provision towards 

 replacing the timber growth which we have consumed? In other words, shall 

 we, after having harvested one crop of trees, plant another to succeed it? This 

 question may appear to be of little practical importance now, but just so sure- 

 ly as the farmer must sow his seed year after year to produce the crops of grain 

 which furnish him with his food, just so surely must successive crops of trees 

 be sown in order to supply the timber wants of the future. The growth of 

 tracts of forest can hardly be expected to be carried on by individuals to any 

 great extent, on account of tlie slow growth of the trees to maturity, but it is 

 the province of the State, and the national government, to provide tliat the 

 planting of trees shall be encouraged in every possible way. It would be well 

 if some portions of the government lands, still unsold or those which are for- 

 feited to the State for the non-})aymcnt of taxes, could be held by the State, 

 and the timber on them carefully preserved ; or if barren of timber, new 

 trees should be planted, and cared for by the government in accordance with 



