TREES AND SHRUBS. 161 



high and girting nearly three feet at the surface of the ground ; 

 of the last planting, some are twelve feet high, and one foot in 

 circumference. I find they have grown so fast that they not 

 only answer the purpose for which I first planted them, that 

 is to hide the nakedness of the Jand, but they bid fair to be a 

 source of profit ; at any rate, they are " a thing of beauty," 

 and I enjoy the consciousness of being the means of producing 

 a thrifty growth of forest trees on land so barren and unpro- 

 ductive it would not pay to fence it. You will see by the 

 surveyor's certificate that I have two acres and thirty-one rods 

 of land on which are twenty-eight hundred and sixty-five trees 

 in a flourishing state. 



Statement of Jonathan Copeland, of West Bridgewater. 



f he tract of land planted and transplanted to forest trees, 

 which I entered for the society's premium, payable in 1856, was 

 high, poor land, and had been exhausted by frequent croppings. 

 In the fall of 1847 I sowed the land to rye ; had a small crop. 

 In 1848, in February, I sowed pine seed, procured the fall 

 before, and also sowed again the first of April on the rye ; 

 neither sowing came up well. The seed sown in April came 

 up best. I then, in 1850, went to transplanting white pine and 

 some white birch. In 1857 we planted one acre, in November. 

 They nearly all lived and have made good growth since. In 

 1858 we planted two acres, in April, which are very thrifty. In 

 1860 I planted nearly three acres. These were of a larger 

 growth, say from two to four feet tall ; and about one-eighth of 

 these died. 



I think the best months to transplant are April and Novem- 

 ber. If trees are planted the last of May, or the first of June, 

 we frequently have dry weather, which, if it does not kill them, 

 prevents their growth. When young trees can be obtained, I 

 think that transplanting is far better than sowing the seed, and 

 less work. Two men can set out five hundred young pines in 

 a day, and that is enough on a half acre. If we transplant, 

 they should be from ten to twenty inches high, when moved. 

 In transplanting we gain five or six years in the growth, and 

 nine out of ten will live, if properly done. The whole number 

 of acres which 1 have planted is between fourteen and fifteen. 



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