60 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1893. 



younger trees, of from fifteen to twenty-five feet in height, are often- 

 times not much inferior in beauty of form or foliage to the Scotch or 

 European larch. The fasciculated leaves of the tree of the last 

 named sizes are denser, of a livelier hue, and more pendant, than are 

 those of the first named. 



The balsam fir, also a total stranger to the central and southern 

 towns of the county, is frequently met with in the fields and woods 

 of the northern county towns. It is a steeple-shaped tree, and so 

 dull and stiff as to be unaftractive. As found in Worcester County, 

 this tree is a prolific producer of the light amber-colored liquid known 

 in the American pharmacopseas as Canada balsam. The trunks and 

 large branches are literally blistered with sacs or reservoirs, which 

 are filled with the liquid. This is secreted in these receptacles, and 

 does not flow from the wood, as does the sap of the maple. When 

 the sacs are punctured the balsam flows in about the consistency of 

 strained honey. A teasjpoonful is of ten taken from a single reservoir. 



Almost every town in Worcester County has one or more trees, 

 which, because of past associations, or else for great and unusual 

 size, may be classed as historic and notable. Some of these trees 

 were planted by the hands of the pioneer settlers, and yet living, 

 keep in perpetual remembrance the name and memory of men long 

 since passed away. In learning the history of many of these patri- 

 archal trees I have been surprised at the number of men there were 

 among the earlier settlers, who made successful effort to beautify the 

 home grounds by the planting of trees. The elm was the favorite 

 shade or ornamental tree in colonial times, simply for the reason, if 

 none other, that the same preference was given it in England, from 

 whence the Puritan or his immediate ancestors had come. The mate- 

 rial condition of men and communities, and the measure of their in- 

 telligence, inclinations, tastes and dispositions, as they existed a cen- 

 tury and a half ago, or more or less, is told by these aged trees just 

 as forcibly and truthfully as they mark the men and communities of 

 to-day. The selfish, immoral, and evil-disposed man, did not plant 

 trees in the past, neither does he in the present. It is the man and 

 the community with a disposition to live and act for the future and 

 for posterity, as well as for themselves, that plant and preserve trees 

 and forests. But did you ever observe that it is the man and the 

 community, which do the most for posterity, that receive the best 

 there is in life in their own day and generation? 



The earliest instance of concerted action in the planting of trees 

 by a community, that I have yet learned of, was in Brookfield in 



