FOREST FIRES. 287 



Mr. Slade. In relation to the experiment mentioned by 

 Mr. Manning, tliat was tried in Raynham by Mr. John A. 

 Hall, I happen to know something a])oat that. I am not 

 particularly familiar with the plantation that Mr. Hall made, 

 but I am familiar with one that another man set out in con- 

 sequence of Mr. Hall's experiment. It was set out in 1840. 

 I saw it in 1844, and in 1874 I saw it again, went over it, 

 and it was certainly a remarkable production. The trees 

 were very tall. They were set six by ten feet apart, if I 

 recollect rightly. The gentleman had an offer for it then 

 which people advised him to take. The owner of a box- 

 factory had been trying to get it. I think he was offered 

 something like live hundred dollars for it at that time. The 

 last I knew of it, which was a year or two ago, he was offered 

 spven hundred and fifty dollars for it. I have not seen the 

 trees since 1874. I think then they would average fourteen 

 inches in diameter. They were tall and straight ; they had 

 been kept trimmed pretty well. And here I want to say 

 that, to my positive knowledge, the land that those trees 

 were planted on was not worth six and a quarter cents an acre 

 to cultivate. It was so poor that a weed would not grow 

 on it ; but still that crop of wood has been produced upon 

 it. In consequence of the success of that experiment there 

 have been hundreds — and I don't know but thousands — of 

 acres planted to white pine. The piece to which I refer 

 was planted by Mr. Hall on a contract at six dollars an acre. 



Mr. Hersey. The other day I had the curiosity to meas- 

 ure a pine tree which was set out twenty-seven or twenty- 

 eight years ago. The tree when set out was not more than 

 six inches high, and it girths to-day, one foot from the 

 ground, four feet two inches and a half. That was the 

 largest tree of quite a number of trees which were set out at 

 that time. But all of them, I think, will girth over three 

 feet. The man who set out those trees was over sixt}'- 3'ears 

 of age at the time, and yet he lived to see them girth — one of 

 them, at least — over four feet. He lived to a good old age, 

 it is true. 



Mr. Myrick. If any of the gentlemen have visited the 

 Enfield Shakers, they have seen one of the best examples of 

 white pine planting that there is to be found in New Eng- 



