92 NATURAL HISTORY AND TOPOGRAPHY OF GROTON, MASS. 



paired that a new railing was required. Mr. Joseph Rugg was em- 

 ployed to build the new railing, and he was directed to set the willows, 

 but with the only thought that they might be a substitute for a railing. 

 That end they answer, but they also constitute an avenue of shade and 

 beauty. 



The new cemetery was laid out in the year 1847, and thus a bare 

 and barren hill was transformed into a park, made attractive even in 

 the evidences of death and change by the beauty of the trees that 

 have been planted along its ways and avenues. 



In the year 1835 the thought of planting trees by the highway, or 

 of preserving those that might spring up, had not taken possession of 

 the public mind. 



In the last third of a century a good deal has been accomplished 

 in both particulars ; but there is much opportunity for better things, 

 especially in the protection and the preservation of the trees that we 

 now have. Within the last ten years the telegraph and telephone 

 companies have done irreparable damage by the mutilation of trees 

 by the roadsides, sometimes within the road limits and sometimes on 

 private property. 



Serious injury has been done by abutters who have cut trees, and 

 destroyed the lesser growth upon the margins of the roads, and often 

 to the damage of their own estates. 



These proceedings should be arrested by the rigid enforcement of 

 the law, which is ample for the purpose. I cannot doubt that the 

 beauty of the town has been more improved in these sixty years by 

 the planting and growth of trees than it has been by the erection of 

 new buildings, and the repair and adornment of old ones. 



BOG-ORE. 



BoG-ORE, sometimes called swamp-ore, was found in Groton 

 by the earliest settlers of the town, and to a small extent was 

 worked by them. In the printed edition of the Early Records 

 the following entry is found : — 



Groton : May y'" 21"' day : 1688 at y' anueal towne meeting the 

 Inhabatan of this towne deed then by the maior uoat grant for the in- 

 coregment of such men as will set up loran works at masabog pond ; 

 that thay shall haue y*" ues & improument of the woods and timbr 



