Forest Trees for Waste Lands. 351 



are the red and 3'ellow heart varieties, while at the West they 

 have a black heart variety, which they consider valuable for tim- 

 ber. The Locust requires a g-ood soil for cultivation, and it may 

 bepropogated by seeds and then by young plants, or trees from the 

 nursery. One advantage in planting a Locust grove, is, that they 

 make a rapid growth, and so they repay the planter for his labor 

 in a few j^ears, with fine shade and valuable timber. We know 

 of but one draw-back in the cultivation of the Locust, and that is 

 the Borer is very apt to attack them, and oftentimes doing 

 much damage in this way. In regard to the cultivation of the 

 Locust for profit, we give a short extract from the Mass., West- 

 field News-Letter. The writer says that the Acacia, or Locust 

 tree, grows in twenty years, to a goodly size, perfuming with the 

 fragrance of its flowers the atmosphere all around it, yielding 

 great abundance of rich material to the honey-bee for the manu- 

 facture of his precious nectar — fit food for gods and men. Its 

 use in ship building, for fence posts, as well as for manifold pur- 

 poses in the arts and manufacture, is rendering it every year, 

 more and more valuable as an article of commerce, and it already 

 commands a high price in all sections of our country ; and it 

 will grow well in all soils and situations. It is a highly orna- 

 tal tree, as well as in many useful ways valuable. An acre of 

 Locust of fifteen years growth, will bring you $800 to $1000 ; of 

 twenty years growth, $1,500 ; of twenty-five years growth, or 

 thirty years, $3,000, more or less, without the labor of cutting and 

 carrying to market, for the buyers will take it standing and leave 

 you the branches, which, for fire-wood, will pay you the interest 

 on the cost of the land during the time the crop has been grow- 

 ing. The cost of planting and protection for the first few years, 

 with the labor of proper trimming and pruning is trifling indeed, 

 compared with the ultimate profits. Now if we allow the profits 

 on the Locust to be but one-half of the above named figures in 

 the time given, we still have a handsome profit on the time and 

 labor laid out. And we know of no better investment that can 

 be made on a rocky or waste field of pasture, than by planting it 

 out to Locust. The cultivation of the Sugar Maple, also should 

 be considered as a future source of profit, as in after years the 

 tree might be made valuable for the making of sugar. And 



