ESSEX AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 113 



Forest Trees. 



The Committee on Forest Trees regret that no competitors 

 have appeared to claim the premium offered by the society. 

 Notwithstanding the hberal action of the State in relation to 

 this subject, the publication of Mr. Emerson's report, and of 

 numerous essays, of late, upon the importance and profit of for- 

 est planting, there does not appear to be any newly awakened 

 action among the farmers of Massachusetts. The acorns still 

 fall unheeded from the few oaks which remain, the pine cones 

 still open themselves upon their boughs, the wind blowing them 

 where it listeth, the cattle are still allowed to gain a scanty and 

 hard subsistence, by grazing over lands that nature plants, but 

 plants in vain. Shall this continue '? In the hope, though al- 

 most a forlorn one, of arousing attention among the farmers of 

 Essex, upon this interesting matter, we propose to say a few 

 words about planting trees, or, more properly speaking, making 

 timber plantations from the seed. 



We have not the space allowed us to enable us to descant 

 upon the pleasurable satisfaction to be taken in seeing one's 

 trees growing from year to year, adding new beauty to our es- 

 tate ; nor to enlarge upon the inward content that fills the 

 breast, as we behold woods, of our own planting, springing up 

 around us, for which those who succeed us will bless our mem- 

 ories, and which may afford the most pure and unalloyed en- 

 joyment to generations yet unborn. We shall confine ourselves 

 to the subject, as a mere matter of thrift, and we shall speak of 

 a tree only in the light which the Laird of Dumbiedikes viewed 

 it: — " Jock, when ye hae naething else to do, ye may be aye 

 sticking in a tree ; it will be growing, Jock, when ye're sleep- 

 ing." Before proceeding, however, more minutely with those 

 considerations, which we hope will induce some few to attempt 

 forest planting, we wish to notice, and, if possible, to overcome 

 the objection that is always foremost, when we press tree-plant- 

 ing upon the notice of our friends and neighbors. It is an ob- 

 jection more deeply felt than expressed, because we are hardly 

 willing to have so selfish a hindrance appear in all its strength, 

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