146 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



Discussion. 



0. B, Hadweu expressed the exceeding gratification afforded 

 him b}^ listening to Professor Rothrock's lecture. He believed 

 the present forestry agitation might prove of great benefit to New 

 England. There used to be dry times when the country was, so 

 to speak, completely covered with forests, but there was compara- 

 tively little barren land. 



There is more forest in Massachusetts today than there was 

 fifty years ago. This is partly due to the desertion of farms, 

 which have naturally become wooded again, but in part also 

 to this forestry agitation, which was begun move than half a 

 century ago, and has been persistentl}' urged by wise, far-seeing 

 men. 



No doubt other material for buildings has been used in conse- 

 quence of the exhaustion of native pine. So also in the matter of 

 fuel ; farmers, as well as residents of cities, now use the coal of 

 Pennsylvania, instead of the products of their own woodlands, for 

 home comfort. 



He believed that as a result of the spread of knowledge of the 

 principles of scientific forest culture, we shall 3'et grow timber, 

 largel}' increased in size, and, through early pruning and thinning, 

 now little thought of and rarely practised, the amount of clear 

 lumber in the forest product will be greatly increased. 



Because of ignorance of the science involved, there is no enthu- 

 siasm among our farmers, in this branch of their business. They 

 are too eager to turn into money everything available in that 

 direction, and will sell their pine trees as soon as they are suffi- 

 ciently large for box boards. A wooden house is the best in this 

 State, because it can be kept dryest and therefore most healthful. 

 He hoped the time would come when the Commonwealth and the 

 towns would relieve owners of woodland from excessive taxation. 



John M. Woods said that he was much interested in the subject 

 before the meeting. For twenty-five years he had been a dealer 

 in hard wood lumber and he had learned considerable about it. He 

 thought the policy upon which the saw-mill business had been 

 permitted to go on in this country illustrated the point about 

 locking the stable doors after the horse was stolen. 



Prior to twenty-five years ago Albauy was a centre ©f the 

 lumber trade, but about that time, Cleveland, Ohio, came to the 



