ABOUT TREE-PLANTING. 137 



Cut late in Winter or early in Spring, so that the 

 stumps will each throw up two or more shoots or 

 sprouts, which usually grow much faster than the 

 original tree did. And the process of thinning may 

 thus be continued indefinitely, while the choicer trees 

 are allowed to attain their stateliest proportions. 

 And thus a rocky, sterile hill-side or knoll may be 

 made to yield a crop annually after the first two or 

 three years from planting, while growing trees of 

 decided value. I judge that almost any land within 

 fifty miles of a great city and not more than two 

 miles from a railroad depot or from navigable water 

 may thus be made to earn a good interest on $100 

 per acre, after meeting all the cost of breaking up 

 and planting. I confidently assert that many thou- 

 sands of sterile, rocky acres, which now yield less 

 than $5 per acre annually in pasturage, would net at 

 least double that sum to the owner if wisely devoted 

 to forest-trees. 



I have a hearty love of forests. They proffer gentle 

 companionship to the thoughtful and rest to the 

 overworked, fevered brain. Our streams will be 

 fuller and less capricious, our gales less destructive, 

 our climate more equable, when we shall have re- 

 clothed our rugged slopes and rocky crests with 

 trees. Timber grows yearly scarcer and dearer, when 

 it ought to be becoming more plentiful and acces- 

 sible, and would be if we devoted to trees all the 

 land which we cultivate at a loss or fail to cultivate 



