154 THE MASSACHUSETTS SOCIETY 



ciated, as permitting of expenditure, in these lines, 

 with a more liberal hand. 



In 1876 measures were taken to encourage the 

 planting of forest trees, by enlarging the premium list 

 and modifying the conditions, the premiums offered 

 being $1,000, $600 and $400 for the best, and second 

 and third best plantations, of not less than five acres. 

 The trees were to be Scotch or Corsican pine, in 

 Barnstable, Dukes and Nantucket counties, and Euro- 

 pean larch elsewhere in the State ; to be grown on land 

 not suitable for general agricultural purposes, and to 

 have 2,700 trees per acre; also premiums of $600 and 

 $400 were offered for five acre lots of white ash, not 

 less than 5,000 to the acre. 



It was also voted to reprint, for gratuitous distribu- 

 tion, an edition of 10,000 copies of the essay on forest- 

 tree planting by Prof. Charles S. Sargent of Harvard 

 College, a trustee of this society. This was originally 

 published in the annual report of the Board of Agri- 

 culture, and was now issued with a new preface, 

 written by the professor. 



A plan of co-operation with Harvard College in 

 making experiments, and giving instruction in agricul- 

 tural chemistry, arboriculture and botany, as related 

 to agriculture, was agreed upon soon after the college 

 authorities established the Bussey Institute, and 

 organized it with a corps of professors. About $2,500 

 per annum was applied in this way, during the ten 

 years prior to 1880, the grant being, once or twice, as 

 large as $3,500, and reduced to $1500 in other years; 

 and a part of the expenditure each year was made at 

 the Botanic Garden in Cambridge. The experiments 

 were made to some extent under the direction or in 

 conformity with suggestions of the trustees, and con- 

 sisted in part of analyses of soils, and patented or 



