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it, by which they can learn that unprofitable lands, even 

 very poor ones, have been and can be successfully treated, 

 and how it is done, this work also shows, for the benefit 

 of our State Board of Agriculture, one of the directions 

 in which their efforts can be turned by endeavoring to 

 promote the improvement of a large part of the surface of 

 the State which is now unprofitable and treeless. 



While Mrs. Phillips found that small seedling trees suited 

 her purposes, and on gravelly land have proved most suc- 

 cessful, examples of planting unprofitable tracts from seed 

 can also be cited which have proved a success, and can be 

 advocated. 



In support of which latter, the writer can say that he 

 visited, the past summer, a plantation of Pines (Pinus 

 rigida) on Martha's Vineyard, at Edgartown, successfully 

 planted from seed on poor sandy soil by a prominent citi- 

 zen of that town. He removed the soil with his boot, 

 dropped the seed, covered it and lightly pressed it down 

 with his foot. 



The trees appeared to bs doing well. Much more land 

 of equal uselessness, within our State limits, could be sim- 

 ilarly treated and with equal chance of success. 



The results of Mrs. Phillips' experience can be made a 

 useful example to the state by submitting it to the State 

 Board of Agriculture through the medium of our transac- 

 tions, in accordance with Chapter 114, Section 5, if our 

 officers see fit to mark such paragraphs as contain state- 

 ments in regard to them. 



Where seedling trees are thought more desirable, they 

 can be raised easily at home in the manner recommended 

 by Mrs. Jackson Dawson, of the Arnold Arboritum, in an 

 admirable essay delivered before the Massachusetts Horti- 

 cultural Society, at Boston, in 1885 ; which directions can 

 always be learned by consulting that Society's published 

 Transactions. 



After completing their inspection of the plantation your 

 representatives were invited to inspect a woodland road 



