390 



Wm. Blanchard, one of the oldest farmers in the county, and 

 since my visit to him called by Providence, I trust, to a higher 

 field of labor, gave it as the observation of a very long life, that 

 a thin and exhausted soil will give 25 cords of wood to an acre 

 in 25 years, and that good land in 30 years will give 50 cords 

 to an acre. Three years previously, from a lot of seventy acres 

 he cut 3000 cords of wood. 



Elpaiet Loring, of Hingham, Plymouth county, states that 

 oak wood may be cut once in 15 or 20 years, and that he obtains 

 30 cords to the acre. Nathaniel Brooks, of Scituate, in the 

 same county, cuts his oak wood once in 15 to 20 years. This 

 subject is. in my opinion, of so much importance that I shall 

 subjoin the opinions and experience of some farmers, whose au- 

 thority is entitled to respect and confidence. 



Elijah Atherton, of Stoughton, Norfolk county, writes me 

 thus : 



" Wood land is considered to be the most profitable in our 

 vicinity. Land that is favorable to the growth of wood, with 

 proper care will produce twenty cords of wood per acre in 

 twenty years; (to wit,) one cord per year per acre, for twenty 

 years, at which time it is generally fit to cut off. The price of 

 good oak wood in the centre and westerly part of the town, is 

 $5,50 per cord, and in the easterly part, $6,00 per cord. Pine 

 wood is about two thirds that sum. There are nearly a thou- 

 sand acres of land in Stoughton, which twenty years ago, were 

 either mowed or pastured, but are now turned out and growing 

 up to wood. The raising of wood has now become a subject 

 of great importance with us. We consider it almost as injurious 

 to allow cattle to go into our young sprouts and browse, as into 

 our cornfields. Pine wood may easily be raised in our old, 

 worn-out fields and pastures of light land. Some of our farm- 

 ers have already begun to sow the pine seed, and transplant 

 small pino trees. Where this has been done, the prospect of a 

 fine growth of wood is very flattering. It often happens that 

 when the seeds fall from the large pine trees, the young trees 

 come up five or ten times as thick as they can grow to advan- 



