ESSEX SOCIETY. 69 



generations before their days. The society, in my apprehen- 

 sion, could hardly do a better service, than, by some pecuniary 

 consideration, to encourage justifiable inquiry. It would be of 

 great advantage in their present interesting operations. One fact 

 I will venture to state, proving a personal knowledge of the trees, 

 and of their age, from information by the gentleman on whose 

 property they stood. In this instance there are four yellow oak 

 trees standing nearly in a row — the two outside ones being 

 about twenty feet apart. They stand on the side of a hill, soil 

 a sandy loam, — are forty years old. The largest is estimated 

 to contain two feet or more of wood ; the other not so much. 



Of the general fitness of our soil to the production of the oak 

 in its full size and greatest strength, we have pleasing demon- 

 stration in the majestic oaks which still remain scattered over 

 most of the county, as well as in the safety with which our 

 majestic ships, built of our wood and fashioned by the wise 

 craftiness of our own men, have resisted and out-lived the 

 mighty lifting up of the ocean-wave. 



The object which the society is pursuing, is one of great inter- 

 est. It is an enterprise connected with more and wider results 

 than, at first thought, are likely to be supposed. The mildness 

 of our climate, the purity of the air . we breathe, the life and 

 freshness of our water, the plentifulness of refreshing showers, 

 the fulness of the out-gushing springs, the beauty of our scenery, 

 the number and variety of the beautiful songsters of the woods, 

 the facility of raising many of the tender plants, flowers and 

 fruits, — the perfection even of the apples, pears and peaches, which, 

 in addition to the pleasure we derive from a rational use of them, 

 are becoming an article of so extensive a traffic, and a means of 

 so much wealth, — are all, to a lesser or greater extent, connected 

 with the success of this enterprise. From these sources, a most 

 abundant reward would be obtained for all the money and la- 

 bor expended in carrying it out, were no returns to be expected 

 from the growth of the trees themselves. If we value therefore 

 the wealth or happiness of those who may come after us, or re- 

 gard the estimation in which we shall be held by those, whose 

 gratified feelings and kind remembrance we wish to secure, we 

 can take no more wise and sure course, than to cover our hills, 



