142 BOAKD OF AGRICULTURE. 



in the county of Worcester, which is distinguished for the 

 productiveness of her farms. Those lands bear little that i» 

 of any practical utility to man to-day. I do not think I 

 ever saw so mournful a picture in my life as the sight of 

 those old houses, dilapidated and abandoned, the windows 

 boarded up, in some cases the chimneys torn down, the walls 

 and fences all gone to rack and ruin, and all the surround- 

 ings a very picture of desolation. And that in Worcester 

 County I The owners of those lands would be glad to sell 

 them for two dollars and a half or three dollars an acre. 

 There is your foundation, and there is your plant. There is 

 not an acre of those farms that could not be brought pro- 

 ductively into forestry, made profitable as an investment, 

 and add to the wealth of the community and the income of 

 the owner. 



How is it to be done ? The foundation of it is prepara- 

 tion of the soil. The farmer who sets out a tree, who thinks 

 it is nothing but a forest tree, a cheap thing, and who 

 grudges his labor, who goes with a spade or a hoe, digs a 

 hole, and rams the roots in as solid as if he was driving the 

 wad into a gun, will be very apt to find that the tree will not 

 live, and he will say: — "This whole thing is a humbug." 

 It will pay to plough the land if you want to plant forest 

 trees. It will pay to take out the rocks and stones and 

 loosen the soil so as to give the new plant a chance to live. 



Before you plant you want to determine what kind of tree 

 you will grow. That depends upon the conditions of soil 

 and climate. If possible, you want to select that sort of 

 tree that the thinnings will be of value. Therefore, if the 

 nature of your soil is such as to warrant the planting of 

 white ash, white oak, hickory or elm, which are " wheelwright 

 stock," so called, do so by all means, because their thinnings 

 are vastly more valuable than the thinnings of other trees, 

 and will pay your first expense, increase your sinking fund 

 at the start, and insure you a profit. There are places where 

 the white pino will do well, and certainly there are advan- 

 tages in that. But the white pine, to get perfectly matured, 

 to be of the greatest value, must be seasoned by age ; it 

 must grow and then mature. It has been determined that 

 the black walnut and the white pine must not only mature 



