AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 403 



they could neither cut nor saw it, and would take more time and 

 gun powder to bore holes and blow it up than they could afiurcT. 

 That tree is said lately to still occui:>y its bed, sound as ever. 



Mr. 11. L. Pell remarked ihat the utility of timber plantations 

 to a country is very great, and unless, some steps are taken by 

 our government to renew them, future generations will be com- 

 pelled to import from other countries. The woodlands of France 

 now occupy 17,000,000 of acres, nearly one seventh of the whole 

 productive soil of that kingdom. In England the forest lands be- 

 longing to the State amount to, 2,900,000 acres. 



Princes of the royal lamily, 500,000 " 



Crown, 170,000 " 



Public bodies, 4,900,000 ' ' 



Private persons, 8,700,000 " 



The royal forests of Great Britain cover 126,000 acres. The 

 crown has inclosed and planted within thirty years, 39,000 acres. 

 The United States should follow the glorious example and cre- 

 ate forests, by planting and preserving those already growing, 

 then frame ordinances, and appoint officers to take charge of 

 them. The consumption of wood is enormous — for exanjple, a 

 single railroad company, the Hudson river, consumes annually 

 between 65 and 70,000 cords, and the Central road, 200,000 

 cords. We must supply this want, and it can be easily accom- 

 plished, as there is scarcely a spot in the country too cold, or too 

 poor for successful cultivation; if we take nature for our guide, 

 we will find the birch, tlie ash and the beech growing luxuriantly 

 upon the lime formations, the elm on the alluvial bottoms, the 

 oak on clay, the pines, cedars and hemlocks on sand, chestnuts on 

 the gravel, and if we drain our peat soils, numerous valuable 

 timber trees will spring up spontaneonsly upon them. 



I would recommend plantations of cedar, as its wood is of great 

 value for posts, and other purposes, and has been neglected be- 

 cause an erroneous impression exists, that it is a slow growing 

 tree, from the fact that for the first eight years it does progress 

 slowly, but after that period, no tree except perhaps the ailanthus 

 grows fiister. Great mistakes are often made in grouping trees in 

 plantations, as it is known that all trees have certain secretions, 

 which they excrete by their leaves and roots to the detriment or ad- 

 vantage of their neighbors-the locust and ash are obnoxious to near- 

 ly all other trees; I have had gi-ape vines much injured by locusts; 

 the larch may be planted in the vicinity of any other tree with 

 advantage to it; the chestnut, fir and birch grow well together, 

 and so do the hazel, hornbeam, and oak. The Romans imagined 



