BRISTOL SOCIETY. 381 



mends itself to us as a source of easy and enormous profit. It 

 has been stated that a single town in our Commonwealth has 

 produced in a year over 100,000 pounds of sugar from this 

 tree ; and the annual production of a single New England 

 State, containing not one third the population of our own, has 

 exceeded 5,000,000 pounds, which at the average price at retail 

 among us, amounts to a sum nearly sufficient to defray the 

 annual expenses of the whole judiciary, executive and legisla- 

 tive departments of our own Commonwealth. 



Last, but not least, we would mention the forest as a source 

 of fuel. To pass over the thousands of cords consumed annu- 

 ally by the various railroads and steamboats, if the average 

 supply of fuel for each family in the Commonwealth, were hut 

 10 cords a year, and there be 150,000 families in the State, our 

 annual fuel for family use alone, is purchased at a cost of over 

 $7,000,000. And this does not include the vast quantities 

 used on railroads and for manufacturing purposes, nor the thou- 

 sands of tons of coal, which are annually imported and sold 

 within our borders. 



We have not time to pursue this investigation further, but 

 enough has been given to demonstrate that the value of our 

 forest trees is far beyond our ordinary estimation or concep- 

 tion. 



In view of these facts, and because of the rapidity with which 

 our woods are disappearing, this society has offered premiums 

 for the most extensive forest of any sort of trees, suitable for 

 fuel or timber and in the most flourishing condition in Septem- 

 ber, 1851. 



The committee are gratified to see the spirit beginning to be 

 awakened among our faj-mers on this subject, and that the pre- 

 judice once existing against planting trees is fast disappearing. 



Many have commenced planting pines on barren worn out 

 land, and already their fields have advanced more than five 

 hundred per cent, in value. 



The committee have examined several handsome fields of 

 pine, in this part of the county, and award the first premium 

 of $25 to John B. Newcomb, of Norton. 



The second of $20, they award to J. Calvin Crane, of Nor- 

 ton. 



