264 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan. 



There is also much land that is now poor and uncultivated, 

 which would be more useful if it could be covered with a 

 judicious selection of evergreen or deciduous trees ; but the 

 present laws permit cities and towns to acquire such land 

 for the purpose of cultivating trees, although these laws do 

 not appear to be in a form acceptable to cities and towns ; 

 and such power has been exercised under special acts. 



The power not having yet been exercised by cities or 

 towns, to my knowledge, wider the present general act, the 

 question arises whether this power can at some time be 

 wisely transferred to the State, with a certain limit as to 

 price to be paid for the land. On general principles, and 

 considering the State (or country) as one large whole, 

 belonging to no one generation of men, but held in trust by 

 its governing body, to be intelligently protected in the 

 interest of present and all future generations alike, we see 

 (especially after the experience of older countries, particu- 

 larly France) that our hill lands should be retained in 

 woods, as a protection against severe blasts and winds in 

 general, and as guardians of the sources of moisture upon 

 which the fertility of the valley land is dependent, and to 

 prevent the washing into the valleys of the soil from the 

 hills, which can only be replaced by great length of time 

 and heavy, expense. 



In France, as the population increased, and as all available 

 land was demanded for the uses of the country at a more 

 recent period in her history, it became necessary to reclaim 

 her mountain sides and tops, once wooded, from a barren 

 waste to forests again ; and, in consequence of the stripping 

 off of rooted growth, the soil had been gradually washed 

 from the mountain sides into the valleys, streams had made 

 new courses and multiplied them, so that it became necessary 

 for the government of France to be put to enormous expense 

 for building dams, and otherwise, to enable them to again 

 regain control of those streams and send them back to fixed 

 channels, so that young trees could be planted over the hills 

 again to gradually remake the soil, reform the springs, and 

 preserve both for the good of France. A costly example 

 was thus set to the world. 



Where plantations are to be made, the greatest care 



