30 HAND-BOOK OF TREE-PLANTING. 



preciable" worth in themselves, but would be the 

 source of great benefit to the country at large. 

 Many, if not most of these tracts, were formerly 

 covered with fo rest - trees, and only require to 

 have cattle excluded from them for a few years, 

 when a new growth of trees would be found to 

 spring up. Cape Cod, now to so large extent a 

 barren mass of sand, we have the best authority 

 for believing^ was, at the beginning of our his- 

 tory, a densely - Wooded region. Other sand- 

 barrens, in all parts of the country, either have 

 the stumps of trees remaining upon them, or 

 were clothed with trees within the memory of 

 those dwelling near them. These now worth- 

 less lands can be made to rank with the most 

 valuable* if devoted to the growth of trees. 



Happily, this is not a matter of mere theory 

 or opinion. The experiment has been tried, and 

 with abundant success. Hundreds of acres on 

 Cape Cod have been planted, and trees thus 

 planted have now attained a height of forty and 

 fifty feet. The people of that region sow the 

 pine-cones upon their sandy fields with as much 

 confidence that a crop of trees will spring from 

 them as the man who plants corn on the prairie 



