503 



M.— (p. 393.) 



G. B. EMERSON ON THE FOREST TREES OF MASSACHUSETTS. 



At the instance of the Commissioner for the Agricultural Survey, 

 during three successive sessions of the Legislature, a series of weekly 

 meetings was held, of farmers in the Legislature and others interested 

 in Agriculture, in the Hall of the House of Representatives, for con- 

 versation and discussion on this subject. These meetings were well 

 attended, and excited much interest. It was said by one of the best- 

 informed men in the State, seconded by several others, " that if the 

 Agricultural Survey had accomplished nothing more than to have in- 

 stituted and reported these agricultural meetings, in the interest which 

 they created in the subject, and the information which they elicited and 

 diffused, the Commonwealth was far more than compensated for its ex- 

 penditures upon that object." 



At the Tenth Agricultural Meeting of the session of 1841, Geo. B. 

 Emerson, President of the Society of Natural Plistory in Boston, was 

 kind enough to address the meeting on the subject of the Forest Trees 

 of Massachusetts. His remarks in this case were so interesting and 

 instructive that I took pains to report them at large from my notes as 

 well as I was able. A report of this kind can do but very imperfect 

 justice to a public speaker ; but I have taken care to do him no injus- 

 tice, as I have obtained his i-evision of my report. The speech seems to 

 me to deserve a more permanent preservation than in the columns of a 

 newspaper; its appearance here will give additional value to my book, 

 and I am persuaded be received with pleasure. 



Mr. Geo. B. Emerson, agreeably to previous appointment, entered 

 upon the subject of the Forest Trees of New England, announced be- 

 fore as the subject of the evening's discussion. 



He began with the expression of the strong interest he had always 

 felt in the forests of New England. He had visited among them, and 

 had dwelt among them, with a pleasure and interest always increasing 

 by indulgence. He had been more than twenty years familiar with 

 them. When wearied and worn down with the labors of his profession 

 in the city, he was accustomed to seek the retirement of the forest, and 



