34 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



wood, then into stakes and fence poles, then shmgles and 

 box-boards. My own idea a few years ago was this : that 

 when forty-live years of age I would have my pines thinned 

 down to one hundred trees to the acre, and that I would ex- 

 pect that in fifteen years from that time, when they were 

 sixty years of age, they would make five hundred feet to the 

 tree, — I mean inch boards always. That is fifty thousand 

 feet to the acre. I am satisfied that I can do that, and more 

 too, but perhaps that is thinning them a little too much ; I 

 am not certain of it. By cutting out thirty of these trees 

 and leaving about seventy to the acre, in twenty or twenty- 

 five years they would make a thousand feet of inch boards 

 to the tree, and there would be something like seventy thou- 

 sand feet of inch boards to the acre. Then, l)y cutting out 

 twenty-five or thirty more, and letting them stand thirty 

 years longer, I conclude they would make two thousand feet 

 of inch boards to the tree. They will vary on different 

 lands. You will grow more trees to the acre probably on 

 dry land than you will on moist land, because they will be 

 smaller. j\Iy experience is not like Brother Hersey's, — 

 that poor land will not grow large pines. It certainly does, 

 and has, in New Hampshire. There is no question about 

 that, so far as my observations go. Generally speaking, I 

 think where the land is dry the trees grow slower than on 

 moist land. In my brother's pasture was as poor land as I 

 ever saw. The railroad took off six feet of the top of that 

 ground and left the open sand, and that is now covered with 

 thrifty pines. That was thirty or forty years ago. If the 

 ground is over dry, I should not expect the pines to grow 

 fast ; but I think there would grow rather more and smaller 

 trees to the acre in a given number of years. One forester 

 in New Hampshire says he can grow one hundred and sixty 

 l)retty good timl>er trees to the acre. You can grow more 

 to the acre than you expect to cut at once, and by cutting 

 out the l)io;oest have a succession of trees coming to ma- 

 turity. This may be the best policy in some cases. 



In 1854, when I was sick on my bed, I bought, with my 

 uncle, land that had been lumbered a few years before. I 

 knew nothing about the lot. AVe gave six hundred dollars 

 for it. AMicn I got up they laughed at me : said everything 



