18 REFORESTATION IN MASSACHUSETTS. 



The Norway spruce (Picea excelsa), a tree grown on an ex- 

 tensive scale in European countries with climatic conditions 

 similar to our own, is a tree well suited for planting in sections 

 where our native red spruce is the predominating species. It is 

 a rapid grower, and its wood is also claimed to have properties 

 for the manufacture of paper pulp not contained in other native 

 trees. This variety has been planted quite extensively in New 

 York State, where excellent results have been obtained. 



For planting on Cape Cod, the Scotch pine, pitch pine, Aus- 

 trian pine, black locust and oak should be used. The Cape 

 conditions vary in a number of ways, and should be looked into 

 to some extent before undertaking to plant the trees. In many 

 sections of the Cape repeated fires have so destroyed the ground 

 cover and even burnt into the top soil that a transplant should 

 be used, whose root could reach down into the soil deep enough 

 to obtain moisture. In other cases a screen of some rapid- 

 growing trees should be planted around the plantation, to act 

 as a protection from the prevailing wind, which often causes 

 the trees to lean. In almost every instance a plantation on the 

 Cape should have some protection from forest fires. The sandy 

 formation of the soil offers great inducement for making and 

 retaining a fire line, at very small expense. A furrow in most 

 cases could thus be made with a plow, and the dry, sandy soil 

 thus turned up would act as a check to a running fire. It could 

 be very easily kept free and clear from dead grass, leaves and 

 brush. In fact, if the towns comprising the Cape could be 

 brought to see the advantage of maintaining a strip 50 feet 

 wide on each side of a town line, many of the large disastrous 

 fires of that section could be prevented. And, as the town lines 

 necessarily have to be blazed or marked every few years, the 

 labor and expense for such work could be done away with. This 

 is a line of work which might receive some attention in other 

 sections of the State, as well as on the Cape. In a number of 

 towns where a rather modified form of the work has been done, 

 it has been found remarkably effective and the expense com- 

 paratively small. 



