10 



for the sandy soils in France, is not adapted to the climate of 

 New England. It has been amply tried, and though growing 

 rapidly for a season or two, is likely to winter-kill. But our 

 native pitch pine, and still better the Scotch pine, are specially 

 adapted to sandy barrens. 



Daniel Webster planted many pines at Marshfield, and 

 induced farmers in Plymouth and Barnstable counties to try 

 the same experiment. This has been done very extensively 

 by Mr. J. S. Fay, in Falmouth, near Wood's Hole. In visit- 

 ing Falmouth I was happily impressed with the beauty and 

 remarkable growth of his tree plantations. There, is a tract 

 of over one hundred and twenty-five acres now densely cov- 

 ered with fine trees. When purchased by him, Mr. Fay 

 says, "It was a barren waste, the soil dry and worn out. 

 On a hundred acres there was not a tree of any kind, unless 

 an oak sprang out from the huckleberry bushes here and 

 there, but hardly lifting its head above them. Indeed, when I 

 bought my place in 1853, except a few stunted cedars on Par- 

 ker's Point and in the swamps, there was not an evergreen 

 tree within three miles of my house, and hardly any tree of 

 any kind in sight of it. It was maintained that trees could 

 not be made to grow there. The seeds sown were of the 

 native pitch pine with some white pine, tlie Austrian, Scotch, 

 and Corsican pine, the Norway spruce, and the European 

 larch- — in all about thirty-five thousand imported plants, and 

 many thousand native pines. As to the kinds which have 

 done the best, the Scotch pine from the seed, including 

 prompt germination, has proved the best grower, and very 

 hardy. The Norway spruce and English oak have done well. 

 The larch did not start well from the seed, but from the nurs- 

 ery or as imported it has grown remarkably. The llardy 

 Scotch pine does finely either from tiie seed or the nursery. 

 All these imported trees have done better than the native pitch 

 pine. The larches are about forty feet high, and fourteen 

 inches in diameter one foot from the ground. Some Scotch 

 pines from seed sown in 1861, , well situated and in good soil, , 

 are thirty feet high, and ten inches through, a foot from the 

 ground. As to profits, one thing is sure. The land, originally 



