FORESTRY REPORT OF GEORGE B EMERSON. 403 



MASSACHUSETTS. 



This State was the first in the Union to order a special survey of its 

 forest resources. Having previously caused a geological exploration, it 

 in 1837 made provision for a zoological and botanical survey, and in 

 organizing this commission Governor Everett selected Mr. George 

 B. Emerson, of Boston, a well-known educator, and in every way fully 

 qualified for the task, to prepare a report on the trees and shrubs of the 

 State, keeping in view the economical relations of the inquiry, and hav- 

 ing for a principal object to promote the agricultural benefit of the com- 

 monwealth, by leading the owners of land to a consideration of the im- 

 portance of continuing, improving, and enlarging the forests of the 

 State. 



The report of Mr. Emerson was published in 1846, as a State docu- 

 ment,^ and a second and finely-illustrated edition was issued by the 

 author's publishers on private account in 1875.^ To collect information 

 for this report, its author explored from time the forests in almost every 

 part of the State, from the western hills of Berkshire to Martha's Vine- 

 yard, and from the banks of the Merrimack to the shores of Buzzard's 

 and Narragansett Bays, and by means of circulars, correspondence, and 

 personal inquiry, sought every opportunity for gaining full and reliable 

 information upon every point that came within his field of research. 



The discussions in agricultural societies, and by the public journals in 

 this State upon the subject of forest culture, and the various economies 

 relating to forest products, date further back and contain more materials 

 than those of any other State in the Union ; and although there are per- 

 haps no forests managed with strict attention to the rules laid down by 

 scientific foresters of Europe, there are numerous tracts of woodland 

 kept for periodical cutting as coppices. A considerable amount of plant- 

 ing is done every year for forest growth, especially in the eastern part, 

 and in the way of ornamental planting in villages, as fine examples can 

 probably be seen in this State, as anywhere in the world. 



Yet the State of Massachusetts has been for a long time an importer 

 of wood, and for more than fifty years, a large proportion of the mate- 

 rials used in house and ship building, have been brought from other 

 States. Mr. Emerson in his first report mentions certain manufactures 

 of wood, such as furniture, carriages, planes, lasts, bowls, agricultural 

 implements, &c., that were already dependent for supplies upon Maine, 

 iSTew York, and the Southern States, and at the present time these 

 sources are in a large degree removed still farther away, the largest 

 amount coming from the Western States, Canada, and 'New Brunswick. 



The native resources of this State in trees are ample in variety, and 



1 A report on the Trees and ShrnM growing naturally in Massachusetts, published agreeably 

 to an order of the Legislature by the Commissioners on the Zoological and Botanical Survey of 

 the State. Boston, 1846. pp. xv., 535, with 16 outline plates of blossoms, leaves, and 

 fruits of forest-trees. 



2 With same general title as above, but bearing the author's name. Two volumes. 

 Boston. Little, Brown & Co., 1875. Volume I contains the pines, oaks, beech, chest- 

 nut, hazels, hornbeams, walnuts, hickories, birches, alders, plane-trees, poplars, and 

 willows : pp. xxii., 317, with 80 plates. Volume II contains the elms, ashes, locusts, 

 maples, lindens, magnolias, liriodendrous, and most of the shrubs, pp. ix, and paging 

 of former volume continued to 624, with 64 plates. 



The botanical descriptions of this report, as free as possible from technical terms, 

 were prepared by Mr. Emerson from the trees themselves, and the work was done 

 with a thoroughness and care that entitle it to a permanent and honorable place in 

 our literature. The arrangement is according to the natural system, and both edi- 

 tions, but more especially the second, give a concise account of the characteristics of 

 the various orders and peculiarities of structure upon which they depend. 



