80 " BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



hardh^ conceive how it can be done, unless it is done b}^ the 

 State, by the town or by large moneyed corporations that^ 

 care nothing for the actual dividend ; and still, as time goes 

 on, it would ultimately become profitable. 



AYhile I am not familiar with forestry planting, I am 

 somewhat familiar with tree planting. It is now sixty years 

 since I bought my Worcester farm lot, and in one little 

 corner were some pine trees. These were trees six or eight 

 years old, with limbs growing from the bottom. They are 

 now quite stately, perhaps nearly 100 feet in height, with 

 more than 2 feet of timber in the trunk. The only diffi- 

 culty I have had is, I didn't quite understand how to prune 

 a pine tree so as to have pm^e stock. It is the clear wood 

 that is valuable, and not the box boards that have been 

 spoken of. To prune pine trees properly I think requires 

 a good deal of skill, and I am yet to see the man who knows 

 how to do it. 



The trees that seem to thrive best in my section are the 

 white pine, Norway spruce, white spruce, the Scotch or 

 European larch, the bass, the tulip, black walnut and chest- 

 nut. - All those trees I think can be grown profitably. But 

 there is one point in tree growing that has not been men- 

 tioned, and that is, trees must be fed. You need not expect 



« 



to grow trees of large size without sufficient food. They 

 appreciate good care and good nourishment just as much 

 as a hill of corn, and have to have it if they are going to 

 produce large trees in a short time. I have seen the pine 

 tree grow 4 feet in one season ; but that would be under 

 good culture, it would not be on poor land. I have in my 

 buildings lumber that I planted as trees, and it has been 

 there some time. I have trees on my place that I planted 

 that will measure 11 feet in circumference 2 feet from the 

 gTound. I have black walnut furniture in my house from 

 trees that I planted. If my buildings should burn, I have 

 more trees than would be sufficient to replace t>he lumber in 

 them. I think I would rather see my buildings burned than 

 the trees destroyed. 



Mr. A. M. Lyman (of Montague) . I want to say a word 

 in regard to the yellow pine. We have it, and it has been 



