428 TREE-PLANTING IN BARNSTABLE CO., MASS. 



ing of the Austrian, Scotch, and Corsican pines, Norway spruce, Norway 

 maple, English sycamore [Acer pseudo-platanus), English oak, alder, 

 Scotch birch and larch, wych elm and Huntington and red Germain 

 willows. There were also set several thousand native pines from the 

 eastern part of Falmouth. 



This plantation is between Buzzard's Bay on the west and north, 

 and Martha's Vineyard Sound on the east and south, the highest eleva- 

 tion being about 150 feet above the sea. The surface is uneven and 

 made up of abrupt hills and deep hollows, sprinkled over with bowlders 

 of granite, and the soil a drift formation of clay and gravel with a yellow 

 or sandy loam. It was, before seeding, an old pasture ground, with no 

 tree except an oak, that springs out of the huckleberry bushes here and 

 there, but hardly rising above them on account of the wind, and from 

 being kept down by browsing. The annual rain-fall in this section is 

 about 45 inches, and the prevailing winds in summer are southerly, and 

 in winter northerly. 



The native pines of Mr. Fay's plantation were set in 1853-1856, and 

 imported trees were set in 1852, 1853, 1855, 1871, and 1872. Native 

 pine seeds were sown in 1858, 1861, 1864, and 1868. The foreign seeds 

 were sown in 1861, 1862, 1868. The results are stated as follows i^ 



The Scotcli pine from the seed have proved on the whole, including prompt germi- 

 nation, the best grower and very hardy ; but the weevil affects the symetry of many 

 trees. The Norway spruce and English oak have done well, and the white pine; but. 

 all three suffer when much exposed, as on the outside of a plantation, to the strong 

 salt winds. The Austrian pine does well, but is slow and irregular in germinating, 

 and makes a later start from the seed. The larch has not come well from the seed ; 

 from the nursery or as imported it does remarkably well ; so with the Scotch birch and 

 alder. The Scotch pine does finely from the seed or the nursery, and from the latter 

 the English sycamore does well. All have done better than the native pitch-pine. 



One kind of pine, though not fully tested by me, promises better than the rest, 

 namely, the Corsican {Finns laricio). In my first importation I ordered five hundred, 

 but when transplanted in my absence they were mixed with the Austrian, and I lost 

 sight of them for ten years. I was then so struck with their great vigor, Ijeauty, an I 

 fine promise, that in 1868 I imported some seed and commenced sowing them, mixed 

 with other kinds, upon vacant lands, and have since kept it tip. Some of those that 

 came up are very strong and healthy, while others are affected by some insect or a 

 kind of blight. They are very hardy and beautiful when not so affected. I think that 

 some of the nurserymen have imported and sell them under the name of Austrian. Of 

 those sown in 18(i8 some are (in 1875) over eight feet high, of which nearly or quite 

 five feet grew in the last three years. At an early day I tried some seed of the French 

 maritime pine (Pinus innastcr maralima) which were so successfully planted on the 

 west coast of France under the first Napoleon ; but, after germinating and growing 

 thriftily to the height of six feet, they were winter-killed. This was the experience on 

 Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard Islands, where they were tried extensively. 



Some of the Scotch and Austrian pines, Norway spruces, and Scotch larches which 

 I obtained from my brother, Mr. Richard S. Fay, of Lynn, in 1853, probably imported by 

 him in 1850, are about 40 feet high, and from 10 to 14 inches in diameter or^e foot from 

 the ground. Some native white pines set out about the same time have done as well. 

 Of tliose imported in l>-'53, many are about 35 feet high, and 8 to 12 inches in diameter 

 one foot from the ground. Of the Scotch pines from seed sown in 1861, some, favor- 

 ably situated — that is, not crowded and in fair soil and shelter — are 30 feet high and 

 10 inches through the butt a foot from the ground. Most of them were not too thickly 

 sown in 1862 and 1863, are upwards of 20 feet high, and 6 inches in diameter one foot 

 from the ground. 



All the pines have done well from the seed, on the whole, except the native pitch- 

 piues, which became sickly, and which, after a good growth to a certain point, I am 

 cutting out for fuel, as not worth keeping. Some, however, that I transplanted in 18.53, 

 1654, 1855, are very strong and healthy, being at least 30 feet high and 10 to 12 inches 

 in diameter. I am told that the seedling native trees, of which many acres have been 

 planted on Nantucket, are proving worthless and are being cut dowu. 



My first importations of trees were in 1871 and 1872, and consisted of English alder, 

 Scotch birch, Scotch larch, English sycamore, Norway spruce, and Austrian, Scotch, 



1 Massachusetts Floughman, February 26, 1876, in answer to inquiries by Prof. C. S. 

 .Sargent. 



