No. 4.] FORESTRY IN MASSACHUSETTS. 81 



a great benefit to the town. Large areas of it have been 

 cut off, which are now grown up to scrub oak ; but yellow 

 pine is coming in, and we are very friendly to it. It makes 

 good lumber and better wood than white pine. It is more 

 hardy, and will live where white pine will not succeed. 



'Mr. Ethan Brooks (of West Springfield). While we 

 are on this subject of sowing the seed of white pine and 

 shading the seedlings, I think an account of the method pur- 

 sued by our friends the Shakers, over the line eight miles 

 from Springfield, would be interesting. About forty years 

 ago they found they had more land than they wanted to cul- 

 tivate. A good deal of it was light, sandy soil, and they 

 changed the tract one way and another, and got white pines 

 to grow there until they settled on this method : they gath- 

 ered the seed and sowed it broadcast early in the spring, on 

 old, worn-out lands, and that was all. There was grass 

 growing there, wild grass, and it seemed to shade the seed- 

 lings sufficiently. They put on six quarts of seed to the 

 acre, and they had wonderful results. They had acres of 

 pine land that would pay a large percentage on their invest- 

 ment. 



Mr. J. M. Burt (of Easthampton ) . Our friends may 

 prefer white pine, but I would rather have chestnut. We 

 get $29 a thousand for chestnut, and $16 for pine, and we 

 can sell them ten times as well as pine. They make ties, 

 telegi'aph poles and all that sort of thing, and they grow 

 almost spontaneously. You can set them out cheaper than 

 you can pine. 



Mr. Dresser (of Gardner) . A few years ago we had a 

 large tract of land, about 150 acres, and some portion of it 

 was poor or light land. I mowed that land myself several 

 times. We kept it until this last year, and disposed of it 

 through fear of fire. The taxes and risk of fire were so 

 great that we thought it better to dispose of the property. 

 The land I stated I had mowed over when a boy came up to 

 sapling pines. They grew very nicely, and nothing was laid 

 out on them. They grew to be very large, and in a good 

 many places were from 3 feet and upwards in circumference, 

 and were very thrifty. In 1885 a fire set by hunters in the 



