52 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



do not leave the good seedling trees and thin out the poorest ones, 

 as we sliould do. If our fathers had done this we should have 

 better trees than we have now, and we should do it for the sake of 

 coming generations. 



John Robinson said that in planting trees we should not OA'er- 

 look those most in demand for timber, such as the Butternut, 

 "White Oak, Chestnut, and White Pine. The wood of the Red 

 Pine (rinus resinosa) resembles that of the White Pine so closely 

 thai it is difBcult to tell them apart. This tree is most desirable 

 for its beaut}' ; it resembles the Austrian Pine, but is preferable as 

 being a native species. Foreign species which are worthless here 

 frequenth' have valuable native counterparts. B3' taking cuttings 

 of the Ailanthus from female trees we can avoid the objectionable 

 odor. Tliere are many trees which will thrive south of Ca[)e Cod 

 which will not succeed north of that peninsula, as we know the 

 Cape Cod plants flourish in Long Island and New Jerse\- and along 

 the Southern coast. He had seen the Salix purpurea growing 

 wild at Beverly within a stone's throw of the ocean, and the Salix 

 alba at the exposed " Salem Xeck," as healthv as in the interior. 

 In the white pine woods along the Beverly shore there are trees 

 two feet in diameter, where the}' have the protection of other trees, 

 and but a few hundred feet inland they thrive without such pro- 

 tection. 



Professor Robinson did not agree with those who thought that 

 pruning forest trees is going to injure them, but it must be done 

 proper!}', as in Europe, where forestry is a science. There a man 

 goes round with a bilUiook, and cuts the limbs off close, and covers 

 the wound with coal tar. The best tinw to do this is in winter, 

 when the trees are dormant, as the growth is not checked then, 

 and as soon as the tree begins to grow the wound will begin to be 

 covered. If the pruning is left to nature there will be innumer- 

 able pins several iuelies long, each of which will make a knot in 

 several boards when the trunk is sawed up, but if cut close only 

 one or two boards will be affected. 



It is evident from the Census Report on Forest Trees that our 

 Western forests are being destroyed with fearful rapidity, and that 

 ten or twenty years hence Chicago will not be the great lumber 

 market it is now. The same reckless destruction is going on at 

 the South, and along the Pacific coast, thougii we may be improv- 

 ing in New P2ngland. Just such meetings and discussions as this 

 are necessary to awaken the people to the need of tree planting 



