67 



A very large proportion- of the materials for shipbuilding, house- 

 building and manufactures, in the towns along the coast, are now 



brought from other States Every mechanic who works 



in wood, looks every year more and more out of the State for his 

 materials. Every year we are more dependent on Maine and 

 New York and some of the Southern States, not only for ship- 

 timber and lumber for housebuilding, but for materials for tanning 

 and dyeing, for carriagemaking, basketmaking, planemaking, last- 

 making, and for furniture and the implements of husbandry. 



Even these foreign resources are fast failing us. Within the 

 last quarter of a century the forests of jNIaine and New York, 

 from which we draw our largest supplies, have disappeared more 

 rapidly than those of Massachusetts ever did. In a quarter of a 

 century more, at this rate, the supply, in many places, will be en- 

 tirely cut off. 



7. Another special use of the forests of the State is in the 

 production of maple sugar. Great quantities are already made, 

 and the manufacture might be much more generally introduced. 



In many favorable situations the cultivation of the maple 



tree would cost only forethought. The labor of planting the trees 

 might be performed late in the year, when the fall work was over, 

 and the making of sugar be attended to early, before the spring 

 work had begun. 



Of minor importance, but of much more than is usually given to 

 it, is the production of nuts of various kinds, the fruits of forest 

 trees. The produce of the shellbark, chestnut, beech, hazel 

 and acorn, already valuable, might be increased in value almost 

 indefinitely, by selecting the best native varieties, and improving 

 them by processes similar to those to which we owe the fine varie- 

 ties of apple and pear, and the cultivated varieties of European 

 nuts, and by introducing similar trees, such as the pecan nut, the 

 English walnut, and the European hazel. 



8. The most extensive and important use of the forest is in the 

 fuel it furnishes. Most of the fires through the State are still 

 cliiefly fed from this source 



[Thus far we have quoted the language of Mr. Emerson, the 

 author of the Report. We now offer data, by which it may be seen 

 how large a quantity of fuel is consumed, every Avhere, by the fam- 

 ilies in the State, and in the locomotives on the several railroads.] 



