FOREST TREES. 119 



killed by the frost, and tliat the plantation was thereby so 

 much injured as not to bo worthy of any further attention of 

 the committee. 



Respectfully submitted, 



Dean Robinson, Chairman. 



MiDDLBTOx, August, 1853. 



BARNSTABLE. 



Report of the Committee. 



During the last twenty years about one thousand acres have 

 been planted in this county with the seeds of the pitch pine. 

 The experiments have been successful, and the labor and capi- 

 tal profitably invested. The cultivation of other varieties of 

 forest trees has been attempted, but with little success. The 

 pitch pine is a native of this climate, hardy, and of rapid 

 growth, and of late years, has become as valuable for fuel, a^ 

 the harder varieties of wood. 



Excepting for ornamental purposes, the committee arc not 

 aware, that any attempts have been made in this county to culti- 

 vate forest trees for timber. Soils that would produce trees 

 of sufficient size are more valuable for other purposes. The 

 white cedar, a tree found in many swamps in this county, we 

 think may be profitably cultivated for timber, and we hope 

 some member of the society will be induced to make the trial. 

 A gentleman at West Barnstable, states that about five years 

 ago, he set in a swamp, several small white cedar trees; that 

 they have grown rapidly, produced seed, and that hundreds of 

 young cedars have come up around them. This is valuable 

 information, as far as it goes ; it only indicates what may be 

 done. There are hundreds of acres of swamps, now unpro- 

 ductive, which if planted with the white cedar, would become 

 valuable to the owners, and be a source of wealth to the 

 county. 



A sandy soil impoverished by repeated crops of grain, is the 

 best adapted to the culture of the pitch pine. On more fertile 

 soils, if the seeds germinate, the young trees will often be 



