294 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



adjoins the railroad. This land will be planted the coming spring. 

 We have on hand at this time about 500 acres of land for plant- 

 ing in 1913, and expect to add materially to this amount. 



We feel that that portion of the reforestation law which limits 

 the price of land to $5 per acre should be amended to read $10, 

 because with the present low limit it is difficult to obtain land 

 situated in places where the plantation can be seen by any con- 

 siderable portion of the public, so that the educational effect of the 

 law is largely lost. 



Forest Nursery. 



Our special appropriation of $4,000 for nursery work has enabled 

 us to reach the goal which we have long desired, namely, to raise 

 in our own nursery an amount of transplant stt)ck sufficient for 

 our own needs and also be able eventually to supply forest nursery 

 stock to State institutions and commissions. During the past 

 year we furnished the Metropolitan Water and Sewerage Board 

 with 250,000, the Mt. Wachusett Reservation Commission with 

 20,000 and the Westfield State Sanatorium with 5,000 two-year- 

 old white pine seedlings. 



During the past few years we have lost a portion of our seedling 

 and transplant stock from drought, and have been handicapped 

 because there was no water supply at the nursery. This last 

 spring we laid a water pipe, with uprights for hose connection at 

 regular distances, in the Amherst nm-sery. This system was con- 

 nected with that of the Massachusetts Agricultural College. At 

 Sandwich we draw the water from a pond, and make use of one 

 of the old discarded power sprayers transferred from the gypsy 

 moth division for pumping purposes. This works well. 



The seedlings of this year promise to make a fine stand and the 

 transplants have also made remarkable growth. We have tried 

 the experiment this year of doing a large amount of fall trans- 

 planting, and the small trees appear to be in fine condition and 

 able to stand the coming winter weather. In addition to the 

 stock at our Amherst and Sandwich nurseries we have at Hop- 

 kinton about 125,000 four-year-old white pine transplants which 

 were not used this past year. The equipment at Amherst has 

 been increased by a large shed to hold boxes and baskets, and at 

 Sandwich a shed was built to hold the sprayer pump mentioned 

 above. 



