432 TREE-PLANTING IN EASTERN MASSACHUSETTS. 



inches in diameter 3 feet from the ground, and the average of many trees examined is 

 over 40 feet in height and ]2 inches in diameter. The broad-leaved trees have also 

 made a most satisfacrory growth, and many of them, on the margins of the planta- 

 tions, are fully 40 feet high. During the past 10 years about 700 cords of tire-wocd 

 have been cut from these plantations, besides all the fencing required for a large 

 estate. Fire-wood, fence-posts, and railroad-sleepers, to the value of thousands of dol- 

 lars, could be cut to-day, to the great advantage of the remaining trees. The profit of 

 such an operation is apparent, especially when we consider that the land used for 

 these plantations did not cost more than $10 an acre, and probably not half that 

 amount. {Prof. C. S. Sargent, director of the botanical garden and arboretum of Har- 

 vard College. Agriculture of Massachusetts, 1875-76, p. 260.) 



Nantucket County. — This island was originally timbered with oak, 

 &c., but was entirely cleared off long ago. The temperature is some 10° 

 to 12° cooler in summer than at Boston, and about as much warmer in 

 winter. It is exposed to heavy winds, and therefore trees must be set 

 close together to shelter one another. Some 20 or 30 years ago about 800 

 acres were planted in common pitch-pine, from seed. Much loss occurred 

 among them a year ago, from a very warm time in February, which 

 started vegetation, and heavy frosts in March and April, which did 

 most harm in the warmer and more sheltered places. 



In the town, which is closely settled, the elm, ailanthus, maple, Euro- 

 pean sycamore, willow, and ash grow well. There are 10,000 acres of 

 wild lands on the island, suitable for timber culture, that can be had at 

 $5 to $10 the acre. In the spring of 1877 Mr. Henry CofiBn planted 

 30,000 European larch trees of one and two years' growth from the 

 Douglas nursery at Waukegan, 111., which are nearly all doing well. 

 He also planted 10,000 European fir-trees which were iDJured on the 

 voyage, so that some were mouldy, and about one quarter are dead. A 

 thousand larch trees set the year before, have had two years' growth, 

 and look well ; they are set four feet apart, with a two-handed dibble, 

 one man making the holes along the line, while the other follows, setting 

 the trees and pressing the earth well down. They are set on light 

 sward, on sandy soil, and in wild land. (Letter of H. C, November 26, 

 1877.) 



Experience of Mr. George B. Emerson. 



Suffolk County. — I have been cultivating without special care for more than 

 twenty years, on land excessively poor, and exposed to all the winds, a few rods from 

 Boston Bay, all the varieties of the English oak, beech, birch, linden, maple, elm, 

 ash, mountain ash, and pine, and find them more hardy than the corresponding Amer- 

 ican trees, with a single exception. Our canoe-birch grows equally well with the 

 beautiful European birch (Betula alha). Our hardiest oaks, the red, the black, and the 

 pin-oak, in the same situation, do not do so well as the English. Our white maple 

 alone, does as well as the two best European, the sycamore {Acer pseudo-pJatanus), and 

 the Norway {Acer platanoides). Our best maple, the rock-maple, can with difficulty be 

 made to live in the same situation. The English pine, or Scotch pine {Pinus sylvesiris), 

 does much better than our white pine {Pinus strobus), our pitch-pine {Pinus rigida), or 

 our red pine {Pinus resinosa), all of which have the reputation of being hardy trees. 

 {George B. Emerson, in preface to the second edition of his Trees and Shrubs of Massa- 

 chusetts, p. xiv.) 



A row of the Uhrms canipesiris, planted by Major Paddock, a carriage- 

 builder by trade, was planted in front of the Granary burying-ground 

 in Boston, about 1762, from a nursery in Milton. In 1860, one of these 

 measured 12 feet 8 inches around at 3 feet from the ground. 



Several trees in Brookline, which were planted in 1805, when they might have been 

 10 years old, are now (1875) 80 feet high, and average from 8 feet to 8 feet 6 inches in 

 circumference at 3 feet from the ground. It would, from these examples, seem that 

 the European elm not only grows rapidly in the eastern part of the State, but promises 

 to attain" its largest dimensions and full span of life. I have been unable to compare 

 satisfactorily the rapidity of its growth with that of the American elm, but probably 

 in its best condition the latter is of far more rapid growth, although in the ordinary 



