No. 4.] NEW ENGLAND PASTURES. 17 



for any other purpose. White pine is a tree croj) that will 

 grow all over the State, and will average 800 feet per acre 

 per year from the beginning. We will not get it at first, but 

 the increase in growth after the twentieth year will make 

 up for it, and it will surely average 40,000 feet in fifty 

 years. White pine is to-day worth on the stump from $7 

 to $12, according to its distance from market. We can all 

 afford to study this subject carefully, and make up our minds 

 whether our particular lands are most valuable for pasture, 

 fruit, cultivated ground or forests. It is a simple matter to 

 get them back into forests, if desired. 



Mr. Ethan Bkooks. Do you think the effect of lime on 

 the jiasture is the same as when used on cultivated land ? 



Mr. Cotton. I am not much of an expert on the use of 

 lime. Most of my time has been spent in the west, where 

 it is not so much needed ; but in a rough way I should say 

 the effect is the same. I would refer you to your agricul- 

 tural department. 



Mr. Brooks. I have tried lime on a plowed field and 

 on a pasture, apjJied the same day and in the same w^ay. In 

 the first case there was a marked effect, and in the second 

 none that I could see. This was explained to me by a chem- 

 ist, on the ground that the plowed field was a clay soil, where 

 the lime cut the soft stones and set potash free ; and in the 

 pasture the stones Avere granite pebbles, on which the lime 

 had no effect. At one time I sent my young stock to the 

 hills to pasture; but later I tried putting the same money 

 into cleaning up the pastures and fertilizing them, also seed- 

 ing with a mixture containing a good deal of orchard grass 

 and clover, and I found that it paid very well. The seeding 

 was done in a wet time, in August, and the orchard grass 

 is there _yet, although that was twenty years ago. We only 

 treated the run-out portions of the pasture; a good deal of 

 it needed no treatment. 



Mr. H. A. Turner. In the section of the State from 

 which I come, the South Shore, the pastures are not as val- 

 uable as in most sections. Part of mine I have cut over every 

 year, and part I have let come up to wood, and it is a question 

 whether that portion has not paid the best. What I want to 



