61 ESSEX SOCIETY. 



Selections from an Essay on the Cultivation of the Oak and 

 other Forest Trees. 



BT G. B. PERRY. 



Our " good Commonwealth," with a wise and liberal fore- 

 thought for the prosperity and comfort of after generations, has, 

 by her constituted authorities, offered, through the County Agri- 

 cultural Societies, liberal rewards to encourage and extend the 

 cultivation of the oak and some other kinds of the forest trees. 

 So far as I have knowledge, these offers have been followed 

 with very limited success. Either from real or imaginary diffi- 

 culties attendant upon forest cultivation, very few in this, and 

 it is believed in other counties, have made any extended efforts 

 either to raise the trees for their own benefit, or to entitle them- 

 selves to the premiums. These difficulties I have supposed, 

 and still suppose, are more imaginary than real, while at the 

 same time they are operating very hurtfully in regard to a great 

 public and private injury. 



Before I proceed, I will introduce a remark that may be of 

 service to those about to engage in this matter — which is, that 

 in very few of the cultivated or forest trees is the hybridizing 

 process so prevalent as with the oak. To such an extent does 

 this manifest itself, that I have no recollection of having been with 

 a man into any field or forest covered with this tree, however 

 extensive and particular his previous observations might have 

 been, who did not discover trees possessing some peculiarities 

 which he had not observed before ; peculiarities which, if not 

 great enough to constitute a new species, were enough to attract 

 notice, and interest the feelings of those who delight in the won- 

 derful and varied works of God. 



Practically, this observation will show that, in selecting seed, 

 where a particular kind of tree is especially desired, the acorns 

 should be taken from bearers which stand at a considerable 

 remove from others, or at least from lots where those alone 

 prevail which, in character, are like those it is wished to raise. 



Taking into consideration the character of the soil in most 

 parts of this county, and the probable use to which those who 



