538 HORTICULTURE <***er 2i - ^ 



^p nT-altrc nothing bul gravel or loose stones remained. This is 



iree iaiKs only one mu8trati0I1- 

 i. 



\ PATBIOTIC DUTY AND BUSINESS INVESTMENT 

 „ LSTE AM) IMPEOVIDEN* B u ^ ^ goJng on ^ ^ ^ ^ going Qn ^ ^^ 



A few generations ago an almosi unbroken forest ever j town j„ the State; and, if this Bubject of tree 



covered the greater pari of this continent. Looking planting is not taken in hand, either by the Government 



the tops of our highest mountains only a few small or private part ies, we shall soon have a treeless State in 



,. ,,. ,. . _„ ., ^„ij . Massachusetts. We have thousands of acres of land 

 patches, laid open cultivation of corn, could be 



^ thai are until ior cultivation — ten acres would hardly 



seen; now those old woods have nearly disappeared. keep a sheep _ yet this eame land ha8 been . covere d with 



The new settler, at that time, cleared in a year more gQod grmvtlis of timber and wood> and could be again 



acres than he could cultivate in ten, and destroyed in covered if every owner of land would take hold and 



one burning enough wood to las! twenty years. The plant if only a few acres every year. There is no better 



same destruction is still going on in the adjoining investment he could leave his children than to plant his 



provinces. 1 have seen hundreds of acres of what we barren lands with trees, besides benefitting the State and 



would call valuable wood and timber logged and ready country in which he lives. A great many will say: It 



to fire. The only product would be a few hundred does not pay; a tree grows so slowly, I could not reap 



pounds of potash, two or i hree crops of potatoes, oats or any benefit from it during a life-time. Let us look at it 



buckwheat, and a crop or two of hay, when the land in a business way and see. Mr. Avery Slade of Somer- 



] be abandoned and another strip of timber would set lias investigated this matter somewhat, and here are 



be cut down and treated in the same manner. So the a few of the results. Mr. Zebulon Pratt of Bridgewater 



indiscriminate wash goes on, and in a few years, if this purchased twenty-five acres of wornout land in North 



work continues, the Provinces will be as short of good Middleboro, at $9.00 per acre, and set it to white pine 



timber as we are at present, although I believe the gov- in the spring of 1863, at an expense of $6.00 per acre, 



ernment of Canada has taken some steps to try and pre- Two years after he paid a man $47.00 to fill the vacan- 



serve its forests. °i es where some had died, making the cost $197.00 ex- 



lndover's lost beauty elusive of the cost of the land. The plants were from 



. c . -, t.t „ six to eighteen inches in height and were planted ten 



Thirty-five years ago the town of Andover, Mass., 6 * * 



. J , „ . , ,, -, ieet each way. In December, 1883, twenty years after- 



contained as fine groves of pmes and other woods as - ,'•/., 



. ,, ° „ tj,., •.. .i ■. wards the trees were from twelve to sixteen inches in 



there were in the State. From Wilmington to the edge . 



,, , , , diameter and in thriitv condition. The lot is now 



of the Mernmac there were many large tracts of beau- . . 



. , ,, n , . . . ,, .-, , , • , taxed tor $800.00, which is based on two-thirds valua- 



tiful old woods, which it was the pride of my boyish . , . . 



, ,. , ,, ., , ... i j, „ „ tion; and, as towns tavor experiments of this kind, it is 



days to travel through, collecting the beautiful flowers * . 



, ,, T .i j t it, -i i\ (. Ialr T0 presume that the assessed valuation is not too 



that grew there. In those woods I gathered the most » 



.... , , . , high, and that the cash value ot the lot is not far from 



of my knowledge of the plants and trees ot eastern ° ' 



Massachusetts, and it pains me to see them disappear- 



ing so fast, and such little provision being made for £j^ trees _ ^25.00 ^^ 



their renewal. From the top of Institution Hill, at Taxes 20 years _ 12000 ■ 54200 



that time, look whichever way you might, beautiful 



groves were to be seen, and the new city of Lawrence Total cost, $542.00 Profit, $658.00 



was hardly visible. Today, from the same point, it is Savings banks would have given him about $450.00, 



like looking across an almosi barren plain, with the city with risk of losing it all the time. 



in the background. The woods have nearly disappeared, J. D. G. Williams of Raynham set a piece of land to 



and few trees, if any. have been planted to take their pine in 1850. The land was $10.00 per acre, cost of 



places. The brooks I remember, where a string of setting out, $5.00. After twenty-five years' growth the 



trout could be caught, are nearly dry, and contain water standing wood was sold to Mr. Thayer of Taunton 



only a few weeks in the spring or during heavy fall for $150.00 per acre, leaving the land in better order to 



rains: the res! of the year they are dry or nearly so. sel out again than when he bought it. 



At that time peaches and plums grew well in any garden Land per acre $10.00 



where they were planted ; today scarcely a peach or plum Trees " ; 5.00 



can be found growing in the town. A great portion of 



the land where these woods have been cut is of the $20.00 



poorest kind. After burning the little sod there was on Sold wood for $150.00 per acre and had land left. 



it and growing tops of rye (I believe that was a Mr. Williams of Bristol County set a piece of land 



the usual way), they left the land nearly worthless, what to pine in 1841, the land costing $6.00 per acre. The. 



little soil there was, being stripped of its covering of trees were set in rows varying from six to nine feet and 



leaves and mats of small roots, was exposed to the action four to six feet apart. The lot was examined by an ex- 



of the weather and was washed away by every rain until perienced lumberman in 1876, with a view to purchas- 



