SECRETARY'S PORTFOLIO. 517 



therefore well settled in this country that an exemption from taxation granted 

 by one legislature does not tie the hands of its successors if they think that 

 public necessity or public policy requires them to disregard it. 



In 1859 our legislature, to encourage the manufacture of salt., passed an act 

 exempting all the real and personal property used in that business from 

 taxation, and offering a bounty of ten cents a bushel on each bushel of salt 

 made from water obtained by boriug in this State. A subsequent legislature 

 withdrew the exemption and bounty, and the right to withdraw it, though 

 stubbornly contested, was sustained both by the Supreme Court of this State 

 and the United States. Any promise of the kind would consequently be so pre- 

 carious as to be but a slight temptation to engage in the business. If it is 

 thought advisable for the legislature to do anything to make timber culture 

 sufficiently profitable to attract capital, it will need to do something more sub- 

 stantial than to pledge itself not to tax the property used in it, and something 

 that amounts to more than that pledge would, even were it certain that it would 

 not be disregarded. 



Though not germane to the question asked, I must add that the government 

 should no longer encourage the destruction of the forests by laying a tariff on 

 imported lumber and timber. That should be withdrawn immediately. It 

 seems idle to talk about the government encouraging the growth of forests, 

 while it is offering a premium for their destruction. 



Planting Pine. — A correspondent of Mirror and Farmer writes: My 

 father built his barn fifty years ago next June, and I an 50 years old in May. 

 From that time he began to save his pine timber, and it has proved the most 

 profitable investment he ever made. I have two acres of pine timber that has 

 grown since I have, and is now worth $200 per acre, and while it would not pay 

 on our best fields, I know of no better use for waste land and rough pieces. 

 Trim a little each season, rather than all at once, as the latter practice lets in 

 the sun too much and retards rather than helps the growth. Limbs should be 

 cut off with a saw and not hacked off with an ax, so tnat the wood will grow 

 solid over the knots. People nowadays seem to have a mania for skimming 

 off all the "timber; they will cut anything, if only big enough to make one 

 board or two slabs, and this practice is all wrong. Let it grow, and when you 

 do cut it have first-class lumber instead of cheap boxing stuff. I have sold pine 

 timber that has paid me 6 per cent compound interest on the value of the land, 

 and I had the land left, and I consider this as good as 4 per cent in the bank 

 and certainly as safe as Western mortgages. 



Native Trees Best. — Professor Sargeant says that he is fully convinced 

 that the native trees of Massachusetts are better suited to Massachusetts than 

 any exotic trees can be, and that if our woods and plantations are ever to 

 assume real importance and to make profitable returns upon the money 

 invested in them, they must be composed either wholly or in large part of 

 our native trees. Some of the most valuable timber trees known to man 

 flourish naturally within the borders of this State, or may be found not far 

 beyond its limits; but this material, placed within easy reach of Massachu- 

 setts planters, has been too often neglected, and in some conspicuous cases 

 has been entirely replaced by foreign trees, which, as is now known, are 

 incapable of flourishing here for any length of time, or of yielding adequate 



