No. 4.] TIMBER AS A CROP. 35 



was cut off from it. The land was poor and the deciduous 

 trees small. There were scattering pines over the lot of a 

 hundred acres. In the next fifteen years I sold oft' from 

 that some three thousand dollars worth of white pine lum- 

 ber. It had ffrown from the little trees left bj the lumber- 

 men. 



The best number of trees to grow to the acre would de- 

 pend much upon your market and on the kind of lumber 

 you wanted to grow. As for a specific statement for any 

 case, I cannot give it. I have studied the question for 

 years, and am studying it yet. 



Mr. B. P. Ware (of Marblehead). Is it practicable to 

 transplant seedling pines ? 



Mr. Lyman. The other day I went to visit a plantation 

 where the late Isaac Adams set out pines, and they were 

 doing admirably well. The trees were some six or eight 

 inches high when he transplanted them. He hired boys to 

 collect them. Douglass & Sons have covered hundreds of 

 acres with pines from their nurseries. The only trouble in 

 growing pine from the seed is that the hot sun is apt to kill 

 the tree in the first year or two of its growth, and it needs a 

 little shade. Therefore I was particular to say that the 

 Shaker sowed rye for shade. My friend Pratt planted land 

 that was covered with huckleberry bushes. I think I would 

 generally sow rye. If I had rag-weed seed I would sow that 

 for shade. I would in some cases plough, setting the 

 plough at the west and running it to the east, and plant the 

 seed in the south side of the furrow, so that the shade of the 

 furrow would fall upon it, and sow rye in the furrow. I 

 planted pine seed in very poor, dry grass land, turning a 

 little bit of turf to the south and planting the seed close to 

 the south side of the hole, to have the turf shade it as much 

 as possible. On some of these bits of turf I put a stone to 

 increase the shade. Where I \nit the stone I got a pine, one 

 or more (I put three seeds in a place), and where I did not 

 put a stone I got but few pines. An earl}^ severe drought 

 may have been the cause of my partial failure. 



The Secretary. Your talk has been confined to the 

 white pine? 



Mr. Lyman. Yes, sir. But the same general principles 



