224 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



utmost caution should bo exercised, for, at whatever season in 

 the year the work is done, if the green bark is marred or 

 scratched, bleeding is sure to ensue. Should the growth be of 

 a kind valuable for timber at a more advanced stage, we would 

 advise another thinning ; this time so thorough as to give free 

 ingress and egress in almost every direction. If you do not live 

 to see the third crop removed, your successors will hold you in 

 grateful remembrance, on account of the interest and forethought 

 manifested in their behalf. 



Having hinted at pruning, we cannot forbear to remark, in 

 addition, that in no case should the practice be resorted to when 

 the timber is large, and especially, if intended for ship-building, 

 for which purpose, a sound knot is much less objectionable than 

 a hollow, or such a bulge as a tree would naturally make in 

 closing up where a branch had been dissevered. 



If, for any reason, it becomes necessary to remove a live limb 

 from a tree of that sort, saw it off a foot or more from the 

 trunk, unless it is a little sap-shoot, so called, in which case it 

 may be closely cut. 



We have cited some of the benefits accruing from woodlands 

 and forest-trees, and briefly glanced at and recommended a 

 course of treatment for such, while in a growing state. 



This has not been done in the belief that all whose eyes shall 

 meet this will be as firmly convinced that the subject is an 

 important one, and worthy of consideration, as are the members 

 of this Board. Some less thoughtful and more improvident 

 persons may be found in all communities, who will regard this 

 talk and writing about using up, exhausting all the valuable 

 timber, and ruining the soil and climate, as extremely visionary. 

 Why, say they, see the growing wood-lots all round, in every 

 direction. 



Well, we do see them, and regard them (the trees,) as 

 pigmies, compared with the growth forty to seventy-five years 

 gone by. 



In order to show those who are disposed to treat these warn- 

 ings against the destruction of our beautiful forests as so many 

 acts of supererogation, that our fears are well grounded, we 

 have taken the liboi-ty to procure a few statistics, which we 

 think, by analogical comparison with others in the State, multi- 

 plying by the whole number, will show pretty clearly and con- 



