121 



annually secured ! Surrounding the entire nine acres devoted 

 to cultivation is a single row of Norway spruces, 8 feet apart, 

 trimmed for protection in part to farm crops. 



A pasture of seven acres adjoining, is being improved by 

 shade trees. We had often observed our cows standing 

 during the heat of mid-day on the highest portion of exposed 

 land. On this elevation we have hundreds of trees, chiefly 

 white pines, for future shade, in addition to the cooling breeze^ 



In surface draining this pasture a pond has been made for 

 permanent water, in the centre of which is an island covered 

 with trees, that our pet cows may choose between shade in the 

 water or on high ground ! The honey locust — gleditchtia tri- 

 canthus — is being tried here for a live fence. 



Previous to planting any portion of even the forest trees, we 

 generally drained and trenched, or where practicable, subsoiled 

 the land. To this preparation of the soil we owe what little 

 of success has been attained — what some have thought to be 

 extra — -together with the use of ashes annually, for some years. 

 The undue anxiety of planters to see their trees set out, results 

 too often in their merely living without a thrifty growth. — 

 Draining is indispensable in some localities, but trenching is 

 not a paying operation for trees if subsoiling can be effected. 



Some years since, the worthy County society to encourage a 

 practice common abroad, ventured to offer a premium for sub- 

 soiling ; but our candid statement of the operation and the con- 

 sequent growth of trees, so astonished the fogies of that day, 

 that the representative body — the august trustees— through 

 the notorious agency of a limited number, voted not to allow 

 the prize already awarded by the appropriate committee ! — 

 They also abolished the offer for the future, meaning of course, 

 their future, not all future time ! The device of sending a 

 special committee to see the evidence was not then thought of, 

 as subsequently, in the case of Veracity vs. Marblehead 

 Squashes and Cabbages ! 



A majority of our non-fruit-bearing trees were imported 

 from France while very small, and at a moderate expense.— 



