26 



$l)c Jmmcr'e JHontljli) llifiitor. 



save time by forming plantations of trees already 

 pretty well crown. This seems to be desirable ; 

 as the growth of all forest trees, for tlie first few 

 years, is excessively slow, and as, with tlie same 

 expenditure, many times as many trees may be 

 raised in the nursery, as will be left to cover the 

 ground in a productive forest or for ornament. 



It would seem very desirable to make experi- 

 ments upon creating forests in situations not sus- 

 ceptible of cultivation, as on the bills in Lynn 

 and in some other parts of Essex county. With 

 this purpose, the acorns may be deposited a- 

 mongst the bushes, or amongst the stones, slight- 

 ly covered, and in quantities sufficient to allow 

 for the depredations of squirrels and mice. The 

 principal item of expense in this case, would be 

 the fencing of the lot until the young trees should 

 have risen out of the reach of cattle and slieep. 

 1 have no doubt that many acres now worth very 

 little for pasture, and nothing for any other pur- 

 pose, might, in a few years, be restored to forest, 

 to the great increase of the value of the land and 

 to the shelter and ornament of the surrounding 

 country. The oaks best suited to this object are 

 those of the chesnut-oak division, particularly 

 the rock-chesnut oak, the white oak, and the 

 black and scarlet, the beech and the chesunt 

 would grow in this way, and, still better, the 

 birches. Pine and larches might be introduced 

 on the same ground which would have the effect 

 of protecting the oaks while young ; and, if the 

 oak-forest promise well, might, as it came on, be 

 cut down. 



I know not that you will find these desultory 

 suggestions of any value. If they should he 

 thought so, it will give me pleasure to have con- 

 tributed, however humbly, to so excellent an 

 object. Respectfully yours, 



GEORGE B. EMERSON. 

 To J. W. Proctor, Esq. 



Pembroke, Dec. 2d, 1847. 

 Dear Sir : — On the subject of your inquiry, it 

 is not in my power to give so full information as 

 may be desired. My experience in the propaga- 

 tion of forest trees has been confined chiefly to 

 the pine and birch families, which are best 

 adapted to our soils. The oaks have been plant- 

 ed to a much more limited extent. Acorns 

 should be gathered about the middle of October, 

 and planted immediately — a few days drying will 

 often prevent them from ever vegetating. In 

 planting there should be a very light covering 

 with earth. It is believed to be best to plant on 

 hind recently ploughed, and some cultivation 

 among the young trees wdl greatly promote the 

 growth of them. A man in Bristol county, about 

 fifty years ago planted a field somewhat exhaust- 

 ed, with acorns; when the young trees were two 

 or three inches high, he ploughed and hoed as in 

 a field of Indian corn; the trees grew to the as- 

 tonishment of the whole neighborhood, and in 

 less than forty years were ripe for the axe. — 

 About a century since there was an experiment 

 in this town in planting the white oak for ship 

 timber, the success of which ought to have en- 

 couraged frequent repetition. The grove "as in 

 cutting for timber thirty years since, and a man 

 between seventy and eighty years old, mid rue, 

 that in his boyhood he assisted ill planting those 

 trees. It is not to the existing generation, so 

 hopeless an undertaking, as some would repre- 

 sent it, to plant forest trees even those of slow 

 growth. I recollect measuring the circumference 

 of an oak tree in West Newbury, the acorn of 

 which was planted by Benjamin Poore, who is 

 yet comparatively a young man, and 1 think it 

 measured twenty-seven inches; it was a well 

 proportioned handsome tree ; had he planted at 

 the same time fifteen acres of similar soil, it 

 would have become before now an inexhaustible 

 wood-lot for the use of one family. The gentle- 

 man who has made the donation to your society, 

 possiblj may be regarded by some as an air-castle 

 builder, but if the association are faithful in car- 

 rying out hi-< virus, of which there is no doubt, 

 it will in less than thirty years appear that he has 

 hi en the efficient instrument in raising into the 

 air multitudes of beautiful and useful trees, anil 

 thus meeting what will ere long become a press- 

 ing want in the community. 



Respectfully, your obedient servant, 



MORRILL ALLEN. 



The Rev. Mr. Allen, in some former publica- 

 tion, had noticed the great gain ami addition he 

 had made to the value of his estate from the 

 growth of wood on partially unimproved lands. 

 The premium offered by Mr. Fay for cultivating 

 forest oaks, is commendable, and will have a sal- 

 utary effect upon the old county of Essex, to 

 whose limits the offer is confined, because the 

 oak is wanted in that locality especially for ship- 

 building. But further in the interior, and espe- 

 cially in New Hampshire, there is much land 

 where the growth of wood and timber is spon- 

 taneous — where trees come up and grow without 

 artificial planting and culture. The young trees 

 need only fencing to give them a rapid growth— 

 a growth nearly as great as under careful plant- 

 ing and cultivation. It happens too, in almost 

 every case, that the spontaneous trees are of the 

 valuable kinds. It would seem almost incredible, 

 that the white birch — the least valued wood in 

 former times — has become a most profitable 

 wood, because of the quicker growth. It is found 

 that this wood, with the proper precautions of 

 covering and drying, is highly valued for fuel, 

 especially to be used in stoves. Then we have 

 the white pine, grown into timber, to the value 

 of one hundred dollars the acre, in a term not ex- 

 ceeding forty years. The trees of the white 

 pines covering a plain in Concord, of no very 

 deep soil, grow to a tall height, straight and 

 clear as a mould candle, rising many feet in the 

 air: the sprouts coming from the ground, if un- 

 molested, are soon under way. Then again, we 

 have the hard pine, so much valued above all the 

 woods, for fuel to railway engines. The demand 

 for this kind of fuel sweeps off the growth of 

 hundreds of acres annually from the extended 

 plains along the rivers ; but the young trees 

 spring up again speedily: twenty years will give 

 upon the Concord pine plains a growth of twen- 

 ty-five to thirty cords of this hard pine wood to 

 the acre. The editor was this winter surprised 

 at the growth upon and near his own premises. 

 He wished to add to a valued clover pasture to 

 which he had converted pine plain lands, where 

 the wood hail been cut off, some ten acres scan- 

 tily covered with trees which had been left, too 

 small for wood, only three or four years since. — 

 The scarcity and value of wood leads to econo- 

 mizing the wood even of small trees: he found 

 upon his ground 150 to 200 cords of wood where 

 be scarcely expected to gather twenty cords. A 

 neighbor cutting off about five*years since all the 

 good wood of a lot of some twenty acres, offered 

 the naked land then and since, at the price often 

 dollars an acre : it was better than common plain 

 laud clearer], because it was hardly half a mile 

 from the Concord free bridge. The owner found 

 no buyer at his price ; but he has again cut over 

 and found upon his laud two hundred cords of 

 pine wood, worth as many dollars standing- 

 worth nearly the price which, four years since, 

 he asked for the land. 



With wood and timber at the present prices 

 and the prospect of increase, what has been 

 deemed refuse lands all along the interior of 

 New Hampshire, have become and are becoming 

 highly valuable. We have known lots purchased 

 and cleared, for their timber alone as of any 

 value, twenty-live and thirty years ago, growing 

 anew wood for both fuel and timber, now worth, 

 standing,from fifty to a hundred dollars to the acre. 

 Sad is the work which the demand for fuel and 

 timber is making with many acres of our forests; 

 but after all, we are inclined to the belief that 



as they had thirty years ago. The destruction 

 has been great; but the growth of young trees 

 is much more rapid than every-day observers are 

 prepared to believe. 



We will suppose a man has twenty-five acres 

 of forest to furnish his fuel, with a growth al- 

 ready standing of twenty-five cords to the acre' 

 increasing at the rate of one cord per acre annu- 

 ally. He supplies himself the first year with 

 twenty-five cords of wood, increasing upon 

 every succeeding acre one cord, until at last he 

 takes fifty cords from the last acre. When this 

 course is through, he is prepared to go again over 

 the ground, supplying himself forever with 

 twenty-five cords annually, and preserving his lot 

 as good as it was after the first course had been 

 completed. From experience, we find that cut- 

 ting over the ground clean is much better than to 

 select only the larger or less thrifty trees : you 

 may go over the whole ground, thinning out and 

 taking off the same quantity of wood, leaving the 

 lot much less valuable than the clearing of acres 

 entirely for the same quantity of wood. 



Eight years ago, the town of Concord, contain- 

 ing fifty thousand acres, presented a growth of 

 wood and timber larger probably, than any other 

 town in New Hampshire: its extensive plains on 

 both sides of the Merrimack, which nearly di- 

 vides it running north and south, favored the 

 pine growth, while the ridgy grounds further 

 from the river, quickly promoting the growth of 

 hard wood in its natural state, made abundance 

 of that kind of fuel. For thirty years, although 

 the heaviest timber was taken away, the growth 

 had not much lessened. Since the railroad com- 

 municated with the towns below, the demand for 

 wood and timber has required a supply of at least 

 four for one, and has sensibly diminished our 

 forest growth. The dark plain on the east side 

 has been almost entirely denuded : old Rattle- 

 snake, with its appendages, is made bare at more 

 than one point: Oak Hill,on the east,looks towards 

 us with an enlarged margin to her face. If the 

 rage for cutting down continues, soon will we be 

 obliged to look elswhere for supplies of wood lot- 

 fuel, and limber for building purposes. Well 

 will it be for us to commence the planting of* the 

 oak, the maple and the ash: if let alone, the 

 plains will grow spontaneously the white and 

 hard pines, and these will arrive at the size (in- 

 most profitable use within the common age of 

 man. 



Corn. 



The Mississippi valley, which is capable of 

 producing such a great variety of" staples, also 

 yields an immense surplus of bread-stuffs, and 

 the increase each year is truly astonishing. No 

 climate or soil is better adapted to its culture 

 than that of the vast tract of country west of the 

 Alleghanies, and between the. 36th and 43d par- 

 allels of north latitude. The resources of this 

 region are as yet but partially known, as only a 

 fractional part has been cultivated. Thousands 

 upon thousands of acres of the richest land, in- 

 exhaustible in productiveness, have never known 

 the plough. Who can form an estimate of the 

 quantity of produce that will ere long be raised, 

 or the immense wealth that will flow into the 

 country, the result of its traffic with foreign na- 

 tions ? a 



To demonstrate the great increase in the In- 

 dian corn trade of this city, we present the fol- 

 lowing table of the number of bushels received 

 by river at this point, for the past four years: 

 In 1^44, - - - 56.800 



" 1845, - - - - 107,940 

 " 184(1, - - - 688,650 



" 1847, - - - 1,083,646 



Total, 



1,937,036 



