PREMIUMS FOE TEEE-PLANTING IN MASSACHUSETTS. 417 



better fuel than any other wood with which we are acquainted, and is always the 

 standard by which the value of other woods for this purpose is estimated. The beat 

 hickory is worth, in the Boston market at the present time, $100 the 1,000 feet. In the 

 form of firewood it now seldom comes to the Boston market, where it readily com- 

 mands, however, $16 the cord, and in nearly every part of the State it is worth from 

 $S to $10 a cord for curing hams and bacon, for which purpose no other wood supplies 

 its place. The shagbark hickory (Carya alba, Nutt.), which also produces the finest 

 fruit, and the pignut hickory I^Carya porcina, Nutt.), are the most valuable species for 

 cultivation in Massachusetts.' 



The efforts made in Massachusetts to promote the cultivation of forest 

 trees by premiums date from a relatively remote period. Among the 

 prizes offered by the State Society for Promoting Agriculture, in 1804, 

 was the following : 



6. To the person who shall produce from seed the best growth of trees, not less than 

 600 in the whole, and in the proportion of 2,400 to the acre, of any of the following 

 kiuds of forest trees, viz: Oak, ash, elm, sugar-maple, beech, black or yellow birch, 

 chestnut, walnut, or hickory, $25 ; if all of oak, $50 ; claims to be made on or before 

 the 1st of October, 1806. 



A prize offered in Essex County, Massachusetts, by Eichard S. Fay, 

 of Lynn, September 25, 1847, of $100 for the best plantation of oaks, 

 " not less than one acre, the prevailing species to consist of the white 

 and the black or yellow oak, to be grown from the acorn planted this 

 autumn, cr in the spring, on land not now under tillage or in mowing." 

 The prize was to be awarded in 1852, and the money in the mean time 

 was to be placed at interest for the benefit of the successful competitor. 

 Notice was to be given of intention to compete, so that the premises 

 might be viewed and registered. 



The gentleman offering the prize remarked: 



" I name a small sum and a small piece of land, in order to bring it within reach of 

 every farmer's son whose father has — and what farmer has not ? — an idle acre and un- 

 profitable land. It will require no great expenditure of time and no money to enable 

 any person to plant out an acre, and the advantage to the person so doing would far 

 exceed the labor bestowed, even if an unsuccessful competitor. Should there be ten or 

 more entries for this year, I pledge myself to renew the prize for the next ten years upon 

 the same terms. 



The Massachusetts Society for Promotion of Agriculture, in April, 

 1876, offered premiums of $1,000, $600, and $400, for first, second, and 

 third best plantations of not less than five acres, to be made of European 

 larch, except in Barnstable, Dukes, and Nantucket counties, in which 

 the Scotch pine or the Corsican fir, or both the latter, must be used. 

 The plantations must originally consist of at least 2,700 trees to the acre, 

 and the land must be poor, worn out, or unfit for agricultural use. 



They also offered $600 and $400 for first and second best plantations 

 of five acres, or more, of American white ash, at first having 5,000 trees 

 to the acre. 



The plantation must be made in the spring of 1877, and the prizes are 

 to be awarded in the summer of 1887.^ The directions for planting were 

 as follows : 



Larch and pine. 



When the nature of the soil will permit, shallow furrows 4 feet apart should be 

 run one way across the field to be planted. This is best done during the autumn pre- 



^ Agriculture of Massachusetts, 1875-76, p. 268. 



2 We learn by correspondence, dated November 16, 1877, that but two competitors 

 have appeared for the prizes offered by this society, one in Andover and the other in 

 Groton. In each of these cases five acres of European larch have been planted. Smaller 

 prizes were offered in the summer of 1877, ranging from $75 to $250, but no entries had 

 been made. A prize offered by the society some sixteen or seventeen years ago, amount- 

 ing to $1,000, was paid in 1870 to the Hon. Ben : Perley Poore, the only competitor who 

 did not withdraw from the contest before payment was due. 

 27 F 



