212 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



seed, because it is difficult to distinguish that which has been 

 injured by over-heating, from that which has not. 



If a farmer has a large tract to plant, it would be advisable 

 for him to procure a seed-planter, which will cost about five 

 dollars. If he has only a few acres, a cheap method is to furrow 

 the ground one way, in rows from six to eight feet apart, and 

 drop the seed in the bottom of the furrows with a common seed- 

 planter, covering it about half an inch deep. 



There is another way to which the pitch pine can be applied, 

 to which it is well to call attention. As a border for the 

 protection of cultivated fields, especially gardens, it is well 

 adapted. The dry south-west winds which prevail in some sec- 

 tions of the State, in the spring and summer, are more injurious 

 to vegetation than other winds. Many kinds of fruit trees, that 

 are unprotected on the south-west, soon become unfruitful and 

 perish. A border two rods in width, thickly planted on the 

 south and west of a garden, will add much to its fertility. 

 Trees and shrubs that would not grow at all, will, thus 

 protected, flourish and bear abundantly. 



Those who have gardens near the sea-shore will find it greatly 

 to their advantage to plant, as a screen, a belt of forest trees 

 between the sea-shore and their gardens. Such screens, besides 

 the advantage they are to the growing crop, will add to the fer- 

 tility of the soil by preventing the finest and richest portions from 

 being blown away, and by arresting the particles blown from 

 the neighboring fields. For the same reason, the soil near old 

 ranges of stone wall is better than at a distance. 



In the discussion that followed the reading of the Essay, Dr. 

 Hartwell, of Southbridge, stated that the white pine would grow 

 twice as fast as the yellow pine, and, in fact, nearly four cords 

 of white pine could be grown in the same time, and on the same 

 land as one cord of yellow pine, but the pitch pine might be 

 more profitable on the poor soils of Barnstable County. 



Dr. Loring called attention to the fact that on the stronger 

 soils of Essex County, the plan described by Mr. Phinney, of 

 planting in furrows, had not succeeded in the planting of oaks, 

 and other forest trees. The water would often stand in the 

 furrow, and the freezing and thawing of winter would destroy 

 the young plants, while seeds which had fallen by accident on 



