63 



MR. WHITING METCALF'S STATEMENT. 



Mj plantation of forest trees contains three and a half acres. 

 The soil is a light sandy loam, and the subsoil sand. About one 

 half of it is of pitch pine ; the other half of -white pine and birch 

 trees. I raised rye upon the land about every other year for sev- 

 eral years, but found that it would not pay the expense. I then 

 procured some pitch pine seeds and sowed them on the rye stub- 

 ble, and harrowed them into the ground, which Avas the only ex- 

 pense of the whole. This was done about twenty years ago. The 

 seeds came up too thickly, in some places, but I suffered them to 

 take their course until last spring, when I thinned out of the lot 

 about ten cords. This left the remainder good room to grow, and 

 it is the opinion of competent judges that there are now fifteen 

 cords to the acre upon the ground. 



The other half of the lot was sown three or four years after- 

 wards with white pine seeds ; but the seed did not come up well, 

 and the nejct year I sowed birch seed to fill all the vacancies. I 

 now have a handsome lot of white pine and birch trees. 



Whiting Metcalf. 



Franklin, September, 1856. 



MR. A. H. METCALF'S STATEMENT. 



The land on which my plantation of forest trees stands, consists 

 of a poor sandy loam, and was considered nearly worthless. In 

 the year 1850, on the 12th of June, I set out upon it four hun- 

 dred white pine trees. In the following spi-ing, about the last of 

 May, I set out nearly the same number. The plantation now 

 contains about eight hundred trees, and occupies two thirds of an 

 acre of ground. 



I transplanted these trees from an old pasture near by, when 

 they averaged about two feet in height, and with a sod around 

 them six or eight inches square. I ploughed furrows in the land 

 eight feet apart, and placed the trees four feet distant from each 

 other, in each furrow. Then with a hoe I drew the earth over 

 them, as far as was necessary to cover and protect the roots, and 

 the work was done. 



