PRACTICAL ARBORITCULLURE 5 
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general pilgrimage to that beautiful spot by the farmers and their families, 
and also that every school should visit it in a body—to learn how many 
thousands of trees and shrubs that never before were known to New England 
have been made to thrive on Massachusetts soil. 
When you give these same trees forest conditions, instead of park ar- 
rangement, where grass must be maintained for appearance sake, and you will 
succeed still better than you now dream in growing forests for profit on your 
abandoned farms. 
During the summer of 1901 I was requested to examine the lands adjacent 
to the railway on Cape Cod, with a view to determine what might be done to 
check the shifting sands which threaten to bury portions of the roadbed. 
There is a very large area of this peninsula, which is now absolutely 
worthless, yet all can be made to become productive of valuable timber 
trees, and under the protection of these timber belts may be successfully 
cultivated with cranberries and crops suitable for sandy locations. 
The mere planting of beach grass and sowing seeds of pine and oak will 
not accomplish the reclamation of these sandy wastes, but this process must 
be supplemented with extensive plantings of quick-growing, hardy trees, set 
quite thickly. One-year-old rooted trees should be used, and planted 8 by 
8 feet. 
A moderate quantity of beach grass set at the same time will effect an 
entire change in this region of shifting sands. Sumac, bay, yucca and similar 
strong rooted plants of shrubby or herbaceous character will resist the action 
of the wind, breaking its force at point of contact with the sand, and gradually 
produce a soil in which important forest trees will thrive. 
Abele is growing well about the cape, and I found catalpa as perfectly at 
home as in Indiana. Red oak will quickly mature in this locality if given an 
opportunity. Ailantus is hardy and a strong grower in the vicinity. The 
small cost of these plants and the fact that they may be obtained in unlimited 
quantities make it advisabie to do extensive planting, as it will insure to the 
state a large income in future from an expanse which is now practically 
valueless. 
SOIL FORMED BY FOREST. 
But trees form a soil, either shallow or deep, depending upon the root 
system. 
By penetrating the subsoil with their tap roots, allowing air moisture 
and frost to enter and silently break up the hard crust, one class of trees forms 
a deep soil. As leaves die and fall away, so roots decay, new ones being 
formed, and thus the subsoil becomes filled with vegetable mold, creating a soul. 
Such trees as have only surface roots form a shallow soil. This latter 
class comprises the alder, gray birch, scarlet maple and dwarf oaks, while 
hickory, walnut, catalpa and the large oaks are deep-rooted forms. 
Cultivation in farm crops for a long period of years exhausts the humus 
or vegetable mold, which is decomposed and absorbed by the growing 
crops, and such soils become less and less productive. Besides, erosion 1s 
