464 WOODY PLANTS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 
great age. The various kinds of pine are better adapted to the 
poorest soils. But in rich, sandy loam, locust trees of a moder- 
ate timber size may, probably, be produced with greater ease 
and in a shorter time than any trees possessing the same valu- 
able properties.* 
As an ornamental tree, it must continue to be cultivated. It 
is true that it is liable to be broken by the wind, and that it 
never is full enough of branches to cast a deep shade. But the 
beauty of its foliage is almost unrivalled, and such pendent 
racemes of fragrant flowers are found on no other tree. 
The locust may readily be propagated by the suckers which 
spring up in great numbers, to some distance, around the tree. 
But the readiest way is by seed. ‘This, which is ripe in Octo- 
ber, may be sown immediately, and will come up the following 
summer. Cobbett recommended that the seeds should be pre- 
viously steeped in hot water. He was, however, speaking of 
seeds which had been sent from this country to England; but 
he professed to have received the suggestion from those ac- 
quainted with the cultivation on Long Island, where it has been 
planted more extensively than in any other part of this country. 
If the seed is to be kept over the winter, it should be preserved 
in the pod, in which it retains its vegetative power much longer 
than when separated. 
It shouid be sown in a rich, loamy soil, and covered lightly 
to the depth of one fourth or one half of an inch. The plants 
will often grow from two to three or four feet high in a single 
season, and may be immediately transplanted, and with less of 
root than almost any other tree—(Loudon, Arb. 624). The 
most agreeable effect is produced by trees standing alone or in 
groups of a few together. If planted for the timber, it should 
be, as has already been said, in plantations of several acres. 
In the same family is found the Gleditsia, a native of the 
south, one species of which, G. triacénthus, the Sweet Locust 
or Honey Locust, is sometimes found in this State, growing 
* Wilham Buckminster, Esq., states, in the N. E. Farmer, of July 16, 1830, that 
a sprout from a young stump of Yellow Locust grew sixteen and a half feet in one 
summer; and that it is not uncommon, on good land, to witness a growth of eight 
and ten feet 
