160 THE MASSACHUSETTS SOCIETY 



the space was not covered with equal density; but, as 

 was estimated, from 10,000 to 12,000 thrifty trees 

 were then upon the ground. They were not of equal 

 height throughout, the highest tree being twenty-five 

 feet, and measuring at the butt twenty-six inches in 

 circumference; but those spoken of as the smallest 

 averaged twelve feet height, with trunks of ten or 

 twelve inches circumference. Others appeared which 

 were of spontaneous growth, among them white pines, 

 six or eight feet high, pitch-pines, fourteen feet high, a 

 white oak, fifteen feet high, and a gray birch, seven- 

 teen feet high. 



The cost up to 1887, including purchase and im- 

 portation, labor, fencing, surveying and compound 

 interest at five per cent., had been, $390.90. The com- 

 mittee remarked that the experiment showed dis- 

 tinctly that the European larch can be grown cheaply 

 on very poor soil, but did not show that native trees 

 will not do as well, instancing the white pine. 



In 1886 a society having been incorporated as the 

 Bay State Agricultural Society, the trustees of the 

 Massachusetts Society voted to give it financial sup- 

 port in holding a stock exhibition in Boston. The vote 

 was of a two-fold character, providing a guaranty fund 

 of $10,000 and a gift outright of $2,500, to be applied 

 in premiums in the name of the Massachusetts Society. 

 The effect of the guaranty was to give the new institu- 

 tion immediate financial credit. The public response, 

 in the purchase of tickets of admission to the exhibi- 

 tion, was generous, and the enterprise yielded a profit, 

 so that the guaranty fund was not drawn upon. There 

 was no competition for one or two of the society's 

 premiums, and the expenditure under that head was 

 but $2,200. Certain members of the board of trustees 



