286 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



Mr. Manning. They were four or five years old from the 

 seed. White pines do not bear seed every year, — not more 

 than once in three or four years. I wish I could be a little 

 more definite about that. I remember that fifty years ago 

 my grandfather, who was famous for catching pigeons, used 

 to say they were more abundant certain years than others, 

 and that svas when the white pine bore seeds, once in four 

 years. I expect a large crop of seed next year. Last year 

 there were none, in my observation ; the year before, none. 

 On my way from the West, in 1880, along the north shores 

 of Lakes Superior and Huron, down the St. Lawrence and 

 along the western shore of Lake Champlain, and all the 

 way home to Boston, I did not see a single cone of the 

 white pine. 



Mr. Jewett. I would like to state one item as the result 

 of my own experience in regard to the damage caused by 

 forest fires in Massachusetts. Thirty-eight years ago I 

 cleared off" a lot of heavy oak, pine and chestnut timber on 

 land that produced from fifty to seventy cords to the acre. 

 This winter, on cuttino- the same lot again, I found that until 

 I got to a certain point about half-way across the lot, the 

 trees that had been growing thirty-eight years — almost 

 entirely chestnut — were very tall, straight, handsome tie 

 trees, worth, perhaps, a hundred dollars an acre ; but when 

 I got to that point I found the effects of a fire Avhich ran 

 over half of the lot after the trees had been growing from five 

 to ten years, when the sprouts and young trees were from 

 ten to twenty feet in height, if I remember right. The 

 effect of that fire has been to cause the wood on that part 

 through which the fire ran to be worth not more than twenty- 

 five dollars per acre to-day ; whereas the tie-timber part that 

 was not burned is worth, perhaps, a hundred dollars per 

 acre. That fire ran miles and miles over a laro;e tract of 

 our hilly, moist land, which grows chestnut very rapidly. 

 I think the previous growth was mostly pine and oak, some 

 large chestnut trees, but no sprouts amongst the large 

 growth. This fact of the reduction of the value of that land 

 seventy- five per cent, where the fire ran for miles and miles 

 over a large extent of hill country, is an item that may be of 

 value in this discussion. 



