92 PLYMOUTH SOCIETY, 



PLYMOUTH AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



From the Reports of the Committees of this Society, and the 

 statements accompanying the same, the following selections 

 are made. 



On Improvements. 



Some years since the Trustees of the Plymouth County Agri- 

 cultural Society offered three prospective premiums, " for the 

 most extensive forest of any kind of trees suitable for timber," 

 &c. These premiums were claimable in 1845. 



For these premiums, two claims were entered ; and the com- 

 mittee having been into, and got fairly "out of the woods," ask 

 leave to submit the following report. 



They recommend the award of the first premium of fifty dol- 

 lars to the Hon. Morrill Allen, of Pembroke, he having planted 

 and cultivated, agreeably to the requisition of the offer, nine 

 acres three quarters and thirty rods ; and the second premium 

 of thirty dollars to Mr. Pardon Keith, of West Bridgewater, he 

 having raised six acres and twenty-five rods. 



Much credit is due these gentlemen for the patience and 

 perseverance with which they have prosecuted this important 

 and novel undertaking ; and the committee were no less aston- 

 ished than gratified in noting the rapid growth of forest trees on 

 a soil so totally exhausted of all vegetable matter, that no herb- 

 age could exist. 



If he is a " benefactor of mankind who causes two spears of 

 grass to grow where but one grew before," how much more of 

 a benefactor of his race is he who causes more than one thou- 

 sand forest trees to grow on an acre of land nearly as barren as 

 the sands on the desert of Arabia 1 The committee are of the 

 opinion, that the results of those experiments alone, if rightly 

 appreciated, are worth more to the County of Plymouth than 

 all the premiums ever awarded by the Society ; as they establish 

 the fact, that certain kinds of forest trees can be advantageously 



