84 



THE CANADIAN H0ETICULTURI8T. 



of the Association for 1882, but as 

 these trees Jiave not continuously re- 

 ceived the best of attention it is perhaps 

 satisfactory. 



Stratford, Ont., 12th February, 1883. 



THE WHITE PINE AS A FOREST 

 TREE. 



BY JAC B W. MANNIXO, READING, MASS. 



Our native White Pine ( pinus stro- 

 bus), which was introduced into Eng- 

 land by Lord Weymouth in 1702, and 

 is there called the Weymouth Pine, 

 extends to the 50th de^i-ee north lati- 

 tude, west to Lake Winnipeg, south 

 from Minnesota to the New England 

 coast and along the Alleghanies to 

 Northern Georgia. 



It is one of the most profitable of all 

 the pine family as fuel or as a timber- 

 tree. A piece as long as a stave for a 

 pail, that can be cut from between the 

 knots measuring a year's growth, is 

 valuable, as well as the longest clear 

 board plank or framing timber. It is 

 always reliable, does not warp or crack 

 as spruce or hemlock, and is light and 

 durable as a building material. 



Many open lands and forests abound 

 in trees that will transplant safely, if 

 six to twenty-four-inch trees, and even 

 larger, are taken up with a ball of 

 earth, which should be retained when 

 the trees are planted, thus allowing the 

 roots to be undisturbed ; and I find 

 after am[)le experience, if the holes are 

 opened in the fall and allowed to re- 

 main open over winter, especially in 

 hard land that is not to be cultivated, 

 the frost will mellow the earth and put 

 it in much better condition for the 

 growth of trees when planted the next 

 spring. 



On rough land, where stumps and 

 rocks abound, the distance apart would 

 be regulated by the lay of the land ; 

 they should be planted from three to 

 seven feet apart. It is best to ket^p all 

 cattle Irom a young forest. 



This work could be done as the 

 ordinary farm work with the usual 

 force of men. 



Thus many broken lots of land now 

 treeless and so rocky and worn out 

 that they would not afford a paying 

 crop of rye or even buckwheat, and 

 when used as a pasture would not pay 

 the interest of $500 per acre for any 

 number of years, could be made to in- 

 crease in value year after year, with a 

 small outlay at first and little care 

 after, so that it would be an intvest- 

 ment from which a young man would 

 realize a great gain, and no better 

 legacy could be left by an old man to 

 his sons ; or if he wished to realize on 

 it he could sell it at a much advanced 

 price over the original value of the 

 land and the labor put on it in plant- 

 ing the trees. 



The growth of a pine in good soil in 

 ten years after transplanting is ten to 

 twenty feet in height, with a spread of 

 branches six to fifteen feet, and a diame- 

 ter of three to eight inches where they 

 stand alone. 



Allowing trees to grow in an open 

 situation, with a wide spread of 

 branches from the base up, gives the 

 tree great vital force but makes knotty 

 lumber ; but in growing timber it is 

 most desirable if free from knots, and 

 this must be attained by close planting. 



I have seen a White Pine come up 

 from seed in an old worn-out pasture, 

 full of rocks and running briars, that 

 grew in forty to forty-two years to 

 more than two feet in diameter, afford- 

 ing two ample board-logs and a heavy 

 horse-load of fuel, and all about it was 

 a little forest of seedlings that required 

 thinning out or transplanting, and all 

 this from one seed that must have Veen 

 carried many rods by the wind forty 

 years before. Now these suggestions will 

 apply to many almost useless pieces of 

 land on which our New England farmei*8 



