208 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



kinds than to occupy space and divide attention by allusions to 

 those which have but little intrinsic value to recommend them, 

 or which, if really as valuable, are not so much sought after as 

 those we have mentioned. 



Some discussion followed the reading of the Essay, relating 

 chiefly to the modes of preparing bones for use as a fertilizer. 



The Report was accepted. 



The next subject, presented by the Committee on the 

 Management of Forest Trees, was the 



CULTIVATION OF THE PITCH PINE ON THE SEA-COAST. 



BY S. B. PHINNEY. 



Thirty years ago the planting of the pitch pine commenced 

 upon the worn-out lands in Barnstable County, as a profitable 

 investment, and strips or bounds by the sea-side, especially on 

 the south and east shores of the Cape, to protect the lands 

 within, and to prevent the sand from blowing and forming 

 extensive dunes, like that in the centre of Wellfleet, and other 

 places upon the shores of Cape Cod. 



Nineteen years ago, S. B. Phinney planted, near the village 

 of Barnstable, upon poor, worn-out land, ten acres with the 

 pitch pine seed, which has proved both successful and profitable. 

 A large portion of the trees upon this plantation will now mea- 

 sure in circumference from three to three and a half feet. The 

 method adopted in planting this lot was by ploughing shallow 

 furrows four feet apart, and dropping the seed about the same 

 distance between the furrows. Vacancies where seed did not 

 vegetate, were replanted the second year. 



Amos Otis, Esq., of Yarmouth, is probably the largest culti- 

 vator of the pitch pine in this State, and has advanced as his 

 theory, the successful experiments which have been made in 

 Scotland, by planting wide borders of larches by the sea-shore, 

 showing that the land lost to cultivation, was more than com- 

 pensated by the increased fertility of the land within, and that 

 the wood and timber, was a net gain to the owner of the soil. 

 It is found that by the planting of the beaches on the coast 

 of France, with a variety of the pine, the sands had become 

 fixed, and lands formerly worthless had become valuable. Tiicse 

 views were then deemed visionary, but now, the planting 



