49 TRANSACTIONS OF THE [DEc. 3, 
culture of trees and the effect of forest-removal in certain locali- 
ties. Referring to northern New England, he cited the fact 
that the Connecticut River has diminished at least two feet in 
its average depth, because so much woodland has been cut away, 
allowing the water to run off too quickly; the resulting wash 
from the hills also tends to fill up the river. The fruit, more- 
over, is not so good as it was years ago, partly because there are 
no forest-trees for the insects to live upon, and also because fruit- 
trees are injured by want of protection from the inclement blasts. 
It takes so long to raise a forest that country people have not pa- 
tience;—they will not settle down to it; a man of forty is not 
willing to set out a forest, as in ten or fifteen years he may want 
to move elsewhere. People who settled in the West when it was 
first opened are looking now for another move, and merely stay 
long enough in one place to plant a few trees in a garden patch. 
There is a method used in some places where charcoal is made; 
the forests are allowed to grow again in rotation over specified 
areas; they are cut from a hill-side in a belt of a certain width, 
and that is left to grow up, while other places are similarly cut 
from year to year. Thus all can be gradually renewed, if pro- 
tected from the incursions of lumbermen and from fires. On 
one occasion, years ago, when walking under the justly cele- 
brated elms of New Haven, he picked up a handful of elm seed, 
and planted it at his home in Hanover, N. H. The young trees 
grew rapidly, and in two or three years had spread seventy feet. 
There is no difficulty in raising trees, any more than grass; but in 
- the case of trees, especially fruit-trees, there is an art in setting 
them out; yet in general it is justas easy to transplant a tree as 
any other plant. 
Dr. Brirron then observed that we had with us Mr. Dudley 
and Mr. Southwick, who had been actively interested in the State 
Forestry Association, and that he should like to know a little 
about the Forestry Commission, where it had established itself, 
its present working, what it is acoomplishing, etc. 
Mr. KE. B. SourHwick said he had sent for the records, and 
had examined several libraries, but without success ; therefore 
he was not able to state very much at this time, but presumed 
he could report before long. In regard to the preservation of 
