LOCUST-TREE. 



195 



through the bark into the centre of the trunk, and, for the 

 space of a foot, mmes it in every direction, so that it is 

 easily broken by the wind. This inconvenience is already 

 so serious, as to induce many people to forego all attempts 

 to form plantations of locust. In Virginia, I have not 

 learned that trees of the natural growth have been visited 

 by this destroyer, but those that have been reared about the 

 plantations have already felt its ravages. This evil, which 

 it appears difficult to remedy, will be more sensibly felt 

 when the destruction of the forests now on foot, an inevita- 

 ble consequence of the neglect of all measures of preserva- 

 tion, shall force the inhabitants to have recourse to planta- 

 tions, which they will wish to form, in a certain proportion, 

 of the locust. Hence it may result, that, disappearing suc- 

 cessively from the American forests, by constant consump- 

 tion, and not being reproduced on account of the insect, the 

 locusts will become extremely rare in their native country, 

 and abundant in Europe, where no similar catastrophe for- 

 bids their propagation." 



The Massachusetts Society for the Promotion of Agriculture 

 have offered a premium of fifty dollars " for a mode of ex- 

 tirpating the worm that attacks the locust-tree, which shall 

 appear to the satisfaction of the trustees to be effectual." 



The following, copied from a report of a committee of 

 the Essex Agricultural Society^ on farms in Essex county, 

 Mass., (published in the N, E, Farmer^ vol. iii. p. 145,) 

 places the advantages to be anticipated from the culture of 

 the locust in a fair, and, we believe, just point of view. 



" A practical illustration of the advantages of cultivating 

 the locust tree presented itself on the farm of Dr. Nichols. 

 Several acres, that were, a few years since, barren and 

 gravelly pastures, are now covered with a good coat of 

 grass, almost entirely by reason of planting and permitting 

 a growth of locust trees upon the land. This is easily done, 

 after a few trees have taken root, either from the seed, or 

 by being transplanted, and taking care that horned cattle 

 do not go upon the land while the trees are young. In 

 addition to the increase of feed, the trees themselves are 

 well worthy of cultivation. No growth is more rapid, and 

 none more in demand, or of greater value when arrived at 

 maturity. It may be doubted whether an acre of land can 

 be made to yield more in the course of twenty-five or thirty 

 years, without the application of any manure, than by plant- 

 ing it with locust-trees. On a fair computation, the num- 

 ber of serviceable posts that might be obtained in this time 



