1891.] PUBLIC DOCUMENT — No. 4. 257 



It might be helpful to print, in some collective form, our 

 State laws relating to our woodlands, which encourage their 

 increase and aid their protection, and perhaps to incorporate 

 them in the next report of the Board. 



It has been suggested that the State present seedling 

 trees to the owners of poor, uncultivated land, for planting 

 in circular groups where the land would be improved by be- 

 ing turned into woodland, provided the owners will agree 

 to plant and care for them ; the object being to experiment 

 to a limited extent in attempting to secure a new growth of 

 trees that would eventually seed the surrounding land. The 

 question however, arises, whether the State would be 

 authorized to so act, while, from a hygienic or sanitary 

 point of view, no actual necessity for more woodland seems 

 to exist. In this connection it may be recalled that the 

 Massachusetts Society for Promoting Agriculture, with 

 which two members of this Board are associated, has, 

 within the past fifteen or twenty years, offered prizes rang- 

 ing from $1,000 to $50, in the hope of encouraging tree 

 planting on such land as has been referred to ; but the ex- 

 tent to which they have succeeded in establishing new plan- 

 tations has fallen short of what their very liberal and varied 

 prizes might seem to have warranted. 



But this experience is referred to in order that those who 

 have been familiar with it, or now have their attention 

 called to it for the first time, may not be misled thereby, as 

 the results have been of much value in the various localities 

 where plantations were entered for prizes. Indeed, the 

 good results, especially in the cases where the prizes were 

 awarded, together with similar results in previous w T ell- 

 known plantations of the Messrs. Fay at Wood's Holl and 

 Lynn respectively, Mr. Kendrick, Mr. Pratt of Middle- 

 borough, plantations at Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard, 

 Mrs. Phillips' success at North Beverly, Mr. French's at 

 North Andover, with others, are proof of the success that 

 can attend like plantings in parts of the State where this 

 work is now unknown, and where, it is thought, instructive 

 and experimental plantations could be established to the 

 advantage of this Commonwealth. 



These would also increase the desire for a better treat- 



