430 TREE-PLANTIXft IN BARNSTABLE CO,, MASS. 



the intersection. Unless the land is very much exposed to the -wind, 10 feet is near 

 enough, as even then, in about seven years, a, man could hardly -walk between the 

 rows. If there are bleak hills to be planted, then the trees should be nearer together 

 say 6 or 7 feet, so as to shelter each other more ; but, when they get up and are doing, 

 ■well, they onglit to be thinned. But for this need of shelter in exposed places they 

 would do better in view of a 25-years' growth to be 20 feet apart each way. Up to a 

 certain point they help each other by proximity, but it takes great courage to cut 

 down strong and thrifty trees to make room. Yet on a farm the thinnings may be 

 useful, and when near 'large towns, would be salable for cheap rustic fences and in- 

 closures, and certainly for kindling stuff. It is also to be considered that if planted 

 too far apart, the growth would be more lateral than vertical in proportion, and the 

 trees would be more spreading, and tend less to taper form and slenderness. 



In planting out at once on rough land instead of first in a nursery, though the trees 

 may take a year or two to get a start, for the roots to find their way into the closer 

 soil of an old field, there is a great saving of labor and not much loss of time, as each 

 transplanting checks a tree in its growth. One thousand trees will cover an acre well, 

 if planted six or seven feet apart, and five hundred, if nine or ten feet from each other, 

 and after the furrows are made two active, handy men could plant one to two acres a 

 day. Care should be taken not to plant too near other older trees, lest they overshadow 

 and kill out the new planting, or ihe overhanging limbs chafe and keep down the 

 leading shoots. I have wasted a great many trees by planting them in the old woods 

 where the spaces seemed large and open, by their being overgrown and shaded out. 

 If I were again to set out young trees among the old woods, I should cut the latter 

 pll down clean, and let them start again from the stumps with the new planting. If 

 this is not done, and it is desirable to keep the old trees, they must then be carefully 

 watched and trimmed and lopped, as the young ones grow up under and about them. 

 And I have lost many trees by their being jilanted or sowed too near each other. 

 When trees are two or three feet high, it seems quite safe to plant them five feet apart, 

 hut soon they are too close, and the most vigorous crowd out and destroy the weaker. 

 In my seeded plantations in many spots, they have come up at the rate of 40,000 trees 

 to tlie acre; hence my advice to mark off the fields in furrows and sow in them 

 rather broadcast. It would be a great saving every way, except in a little labor at 

 the start. Nor in sowing should I now mix the seeds of dilierent pines, as I have done, 

 but sow each kind by itself distinctly. For as a Scotch, for instance, comes up 

 promptly, it is likely to get the start of the Austrian, the seed of which sometimea 

 lies dormant two or three years, and so overshadows and crowds it out. If the latter 

 ■were sowed by itself, though it would be slower in germinating, all would be likely to 

 start together, and when fairly rooted make up for lost time. It would not be amisa 

 to plant hero and there some desirable kinds of acorns or nuts, for while the piues 

 would grow faster and keep them down, If for any reason the pines were cut off, the 

 o«^ks and hickory would come forward very rapidly when open to tlie sun. A few 

 chestnuts that I have planted under the lee of other trees, have made an extraordinary 

 growth, and in the interior, their habitat, they must be a very profitable tree to plant. 



You will bear in mind that I have given you my experience as a planter of trees, much 

 as an incident of farming and not as a business. Were it taken up as a thing of itself 

 then it might be advisable to start seed-beds and raise one's own trees, and nurse them, 

 instead of importing them. I have endeavored to raise a forest about mo at the least 

 possible cost of labor, and not looking much to the hurrying of the result or to count 

 up- an early profit. The land was denuded, and exhausted, and moss-grown, and I 

 took this method to cover it with verdure and restore it, believing that the wood would 

 compensatemeor my heirs sooner or later. * * * In closing my discursive remarks, 

 1 would say that, considering the position of my place, exposed on the northwest to the 

 violent winds of winter sweeping across Buzzard's Bay, and in summer to the strong 

 breezes from the southwest, bringing salt sliray from Vineyard Sound, the vigorous 

 growth and promising appearance cf my forest plantations is very encouraging to 

 those more favorably placed. Not only may the destruction of our forests be partially 

 remedied at a cheap cost, but the waste and sterility of our land by long cultivating 

 and pasturing, be removed and replaced with fertility by the simple process of nature. 

 It is much, also, to restore shade in summer and shelter in winter by the renewal of 

 our forests. 



Mr. Fay, in writing in August, 1877, says: "I have this spring 

 planted out 3,000 ol seedling larches, obtained of Robert Douglas and 

 Sons, of Waukegan, 111., which promise as well as the foreign ones. Mr. 

 Henry CofiBn, of Nantucket, has planted 30,000 of the same this last 

 spring, which are doing well." He mentions the red or slippery elm, 

 the catalpa, yellow locust, American elm, sugar- maple, varieties of the 

 spruce, English sycamore, Norway maple, and Linden, as cultivated 

 w ith success in his vicinity. The Scotch elm did not grow well, perhaps 



