FORESTRY. 213 



mcr I was across the country in various directions, and in 

 I^laccs where, as far as the eye could reach, I could not see 

 anything in the shape of a forest nine years ago, you can go 

 a hundred miles and scarcely look anywhere without looking 

 into one of those timber belts. They obscure the whole 

 view, except occasionally you may catch a glimpse through. 

 Those trees are twenty, thirty and forty feet high, and allbrd 

 a shelter to buildings and to the crops, even. It is a won- 

 der that it was not found out and practised long before. 

 They grow the silver-leaf maple, the cottonwood and the 

 black walnut from seed, also other varieties of trees. They 

 plant the Scotch pine, the Norway spruce, the Scotch larch, 

 and they are all successful. 



Mr. Cragin. Would you plant pines for timber very 

 thick? 



Mr. Manning. Oh, yes ; plant them very thick. They 

 plant them about four feet each way. They cultivate them 

 as they would corn. Where they cultivate them they are 

 very sure of success. I have seen, at Mr. Wheelwright's place 

 at Beverly Farms, trees sixty or seventy feet high, where it 

 was not supposed a tree could be made to grow. Each tree 

 originally occupied about a foot of space ; and you will see 

 to-day, under those trees, little shrubs four feet high, that 

 have got overshadowed and dwarfed. Our American bass- 

 wood is one of our best trees. 



Mr. Grinnell. Mr. Chairman, please to call on Mr. 

 Had wen to speak in relation to the Scotch larch. 



Mr. Hadwen. I have had a little experience with the 

 Scotch larch, as well as with a good many other of our trees ; 

 and for timber, and for timber purposes only, perhaps there 

 is no tree that is more worthy of the attention of planters 

 than the European larch. Several years ago I was building 

 a barn, and I wanted some sticks of timber that would square 

 eight by ten inches, and thirty feet in length. I went to the 

 lumber yards and they informed me that they could get such 

 timber, but it would require some three weeks' time, as they 

 would have to order it. As I came home I looked at some 

 Scotch larches that I had planted twenty-six years previous, 

 just on the margin of my land bordering the highway, and I 

 came to the conclusion that I had the timber on the spot. I 



