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By way of illustrating what has been done in re-clothing a denuded district the 

 wonderful results obtained on Cape Cod are worthy of special attention. 



EXPERIMENTS IN TREE PLANTING ON CAPE COD. 



By Joseph S. Fay, Wood's Holl, Mass. 



The soil of Cape Cod is simply and purely diluvian or drift, and at best a light sandy 

 loam, with little or no clay anywhere. Yet it has been, no doubt, well-wooded with oak, 

 hickory and pine in the time past, and has now its fair proportion of forest. Formerly 

 this has afforded some ship timbtjr, but of late it has been mainly utilized for fuel, and 

 when cut olF for tliis purpose, the trees have grown up again, to be again cut off at re- 

 gular periods. Of course, from this tliei-e can be no production of timber or lumber. 

 Until the last forty years the keeping of sheep has been inimical to fresh forest growth, 

 but sinc(; then that industry has been almost entirely abandoned, and attention has been 

 given to using some of the vacant lands for tree-planting. This has for the most part 

 been done with the seed of the native pitch pine (pinus riyida) and seemed for a time to 

 be quite a success. Unfortunately, in addition to the disasters incident to forest fires, 

 carelessly or wantonly set, this pine has become subject to a blight, said to be a fungus, 

 which attacks the foliage of the young growth, .spreading and destroying the trees, so 

 that the hopes of the planter have been grievously disappointed. This has been the case 

 also on the island of Nantucket. Experiments have been made quite extensively, within 

 the last twenty years at Wood's Holl, the south-west extremity of the Cape, with the 

 Scotch pine planted from seed on an old worn-out pastui*e land. So far, the promise 

 is very good, as the blight or fungus which is destroying the pitch pine does not seem to 

 touch it. The tree, so far, appears to be a rapid and healthy grower, but, of course, its 

 value for timber or lumber cannot be fixed for some years y(>t. It bears a severe exposure, 

 but more trees are broken off by gales of wind than among our native pines, although 

 this may be accidental or exceptional. The native pine .seeds have usually been planted 

 by dropping them in light furrows, run six, eight or ten feet apart, according to the 

 supply of seed. If coming up too thickly, the surplus may be transplanted or cut out. 

 They, as well as the Scotch pine, are also sometimes sown broadcast and do well. If 

 done when there is a light snow on the ground in the spring, there is less likelihood of 

 their being sown too thickly. The white pine will not do well where it is likely to be 

 reached by the winds blowing from the sea, as the salt affects the foliage injuriously. 

 Ex'periments have been begun with the red pine (pinus resinosa) which is a desirable 

 tree for any part of the country. Is is very handsome, and is a fair substitute for the 

 southern yellow pine. It deserves attention. The European larch and Scotch birch have 

 been somewhat planted and are doing well. They are hardy and rapid growers. The 

 former are now planted from seedlings obtained at the west. The earlier ones came from 

 England. The latter came from abroad, and are already quite large trees. The Catalpa 

 seems to have done well, and there are some handsome well-grown specimens introduced 

 from the seed some forty years ago, which encourage the more extensive plantings now 

 bt?ginning to be made. From prcjsent appearances there seems to be nothing that will re- 

 ward labour and capital, better than the systematic cultivation of trees on the light lands 

 of this region, the more so as they are of little value for any other purpose. Attention 

 is being more and more given to it. 



The economic results obtained in Scotland from forest planting are forcibly presented 

 in the following extract from a paper read by Prof. Wm. Brown, of Guelph, at the Cin- 

 cinnati meeting : 



In Scotland, especially, the re-clothing has been very extensive and successful. Land 

 that fetched only 8d. an acre for sheep grazing, or Is. for a deer forest, has been under 

 skill and capital, brought to produce a clear annual revenue of fifteen times these amounts 

 ' — by tree crops. 



