SECRETARY'S REPORT. • 71 



the mean time there is so little feed for the cattle that they 

 attack the young trees, thus essentially retarding their growth, 

 and very much prolonging the period during which the land 

 must remain nearly unproductive. 



Woodland. 



The constant and rapid decrease of our woodland is often 

 spoken of with serious apprehension. It is thought by some 

 that the time is not far distant when our once beautiful forests 

 will have been entirely swept away. They forget tliat the 

 earth has now the same power of reproduction that she had 

 in the beginning. If this fear be entertained only in relation 

 to timber land, properly so called, there may be some ground 

 for it. The wood in most of our forests is undoubtedly smaller 

 than it was many years ago, or, in other words, a larger propor- 

 tion of it is small compared with the forests of an earlier day. 



Tiie number of acres of woodland in 1840 was reported to 

 be 729,792. In 1850 it had advanced to 896,450, showing an 

 increase in ten years of 166,658 acres, or an annual increase of 

 16,665 acres. This does not look much like the entire destruc- 

 tion of our woods. The apprehension alluded to may have 

 arisen from the fact that a large quantity of old and long stand- 

 ing timber has been cut witliin the last twenty years. The 

 land formerly occupied by this is omitted in an unofficial reckon- 

 ing, and considered as no longer woodland ; it is forgotten that 

 in such cases much of the land has been left to grow up again 

 to fo1"Cst. A large proportion of what has been converted into 

 tillage, mowing or pasture land, has been reclaimed from bog 

 meadows, swamps or ponds, while little woodland, comparative- 

 ly, has been cleared and tilled, and many old pastures have 

 become well wooded from neglect. Even in the county of 

 Essex, where this impression prevails as generally as elscAvhere, 

 the official returns show a positive increase. 



It is estimated that in Barnstable alone, one of the smallest 

 counties in the State, nearly fifteen hundred acres have 

 been planted with pines within the last fifteen or twenty ycara^ 

 while much pasture land has grown up from the gradual opera- 

 tion of the causes before referred to. 



Thus, after making all reasonable allowance for any errors, 



