1857. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



187 



ble importance in connection with the labor of mow- 

 ing with machines, and as it has never been tested 

 thoroughly in this country, the society hope to have 

 such a series of experiments made as will be of per- 

 manent value, 



Mr. Fay then spoke of the subject for the discus- 

 sion of the evening. He said he had formerly 

 thought any piece of waste land could be converted 

 into a forest by simply planting trees. He had 

 believed that he might safely act on the theory of 

 the Scottish farmer, who said to his boy, "Jock, 

 be aye planting a tree ; it will grow while you are 

 sleeping." But he had found that although he 

 planted trees, they did not become a forest very 

 readily. A great deal of time is required to cause 

 a forest to be produced. He remarked that it would 

 be generally found whenever an oak forest was cut 

 down a pine forest would succeed ; and on the oth- 

 er hand when a pine forest was cut down, an oak 

 would spring up. These sprung up from seeds 

 that had long lain in the ground. Dr. Holyoke 

 fifty years ago, planted one hundred and fifty acres 

 of the land now occupied by Mr. Fay, with acorns, 

 and the seeds of maple and other forest trees. 

 They are now only a few feet high. The true way 

 to secure a forest is to prepare both the ground 

 and the trees in a suitable manner. He raised 

 oaks from the seed planted in a nursery, and then 

 transplanted into soil prepared to receive the young 

 trees. From his own experiments of ten years, he 

 would say that the only way to realize good trees 

 was to sow the seed in a nice plot of ground, and 

 after two years transplant them to properly pre- 

 pared soiL 



Mr. Flint, Secretary of the Board of Agricul- 

 ture, desired to ask Mr. Fay whether he would treat 

 soft wood trees like pine in the manner he had sug- 

 gested. He had seen large tracts covered with 

 pines sown on the soil M'here they now are, and are 

 very flourishing. On the island of Nantucket the 

 raising of forest trees has been attracting consider- 

 able attention. There they sow the seed broad- 

 cast, and harrow it in, sometimes with oats and 

 sometimes with other crops. 



Mr. Fat said that on a sandy soil, pine seed will 

 often do very well, sown in the manner stated by Mr. 

 Flint ; but in his own experience, he had found it 

 much better to sow the seeds in a nursery and then 

 transplant. When the seed is sown broad-cast, the 

 growth is rather uncertain ; but by transplanting 

 from a nursery, the certainty of the crop is secured. 

 In France, where the economy of culture is observ- 

 ed, they always transfer both hard wood and pine 

 from the nursery. If the soil is without other shrub- 

 bery, and has grass to protect the small pines, it is 

 rather safe to sow broad-cast. 



Mr. Ho'WARD, of the Cultivator, spoke of exper- 

 iments made by Mr. Gardner, of Nantucket, with a 

 pecuHar kind of pine, called the m.aritime pine — the 



same species that is cultivated in France. That 

 stands the sea winds better than any other species 

 of pine. 



Mr. Sheldon, of Wilmington, said that in 1805, 

 he lived with a farmer in Danvers, who owned a 

 poor lot of land in Reading. It was worth not more 

 than $4 or $5 an acre. Eleven acres of the land 

 were plowed by himself and another young man, 

 and sowed with white pine seed. Thirty years af- 

 ter, when passing by the field, Mr. Sheldon saw a 

 man cutting the wood, and asked him to let him 

 know the quantity per acre. The growth was white 

 pine, pitch pine and white birch, and the yield was 

 forty cords per acre. He was satisfied it was no 

 matter how poor the soil is for white pine. When 

 land is made as poor as it can be, if pitch pine then 

 grows upon it, and is cut off, a tolerably good crop 

 of rye may be raised, showing that it rather enrich- 

 es than impoverishes the land. From some experi- 

 ments he had made with white pine, he had found 

 that for many years they increased their growth at 

 the rate of fifteen per cent, per annum. 



Mr. Wetherell spoke of the importance of 

 planting shade trees. In this connection he said he 

 did, while a member of a School Committee, use 

 his influence to have shade trees planted around the 

 school-houses of the town, where there were none. 

 Though promises were made that trees should be 

 planted, the houses are still without them. These 

 facts were stated to show how great is the want of 

 interest in planting trees to beautify public grounds. 

 The matter has been greatly neglected. He knew 

 of few school grounds where there were any trees ; 

 and often there is no land except the highway, in 

 connection with school-houses. He urged most 

 earnestly the formation of tree-planting associations 

 in each town. The difficulty of causing forest trees 

 to live and grow well when transplanted, after the^ 

 attain considerable size, is mainly owing to the fail- 

 ure to dig deep enough to get up the tap root, with 

 a sufficient number of the branching and fibrous 

 roots. He said that chestnuts did not require a 

 sandy soil, as some agricultural paper had stated. 



Mr. Wood, of Orange, spoke of the experiments 

 he had made successfully in transplanting forest 

 trees. He thought there was httle difficulty in caus- 

 ing them to live and thrive, if great care was taken 

 to secure many of the roots in a sound state. He 

 considered the rock maple a tree that exhausted the 

 soil very much — perhaps more than any other tree. 

 The butternut also exhausts the soil very much. 

 He also said that the chestnut requires a light, but 

 not a sandy soil. 



Rev. Luther Farnham, of Boston, thought that 

 farmers would be much more readily induced to 

 plant shade trees, and especially in villages, if they 

 could reahze how much they would add to the value 

 of their lots. A house lot will sell for one-third 

 more, in many places, if trees are growing upon it. 



