4 
THE NATIVE TREES OF RHODE ISLAND. 
places m this State, and is perfectly at home as a planted tree. Of 
the evergreens, mention may be made of the hemlock spruce, one 
of the most useful trees of the northern woods. It grows here in 
a few cool, moist locations, showing all the grace and beauty for 
which the tree is noted. 
It is here, then, in territory not far from Narragansett Bay, that 
conditions seem to meet and mingle, which favor and ensure, the 
growth of trees covering, in their native habitats, a wide range of 
latitude and corresponding difference in climate. 
The variety of soils in the State is an effective element in pro- 
ducing variety in tree growth. In some regions of our country 
one might travel many miles and find but a single kind of tree, in 
forest masses, others, if they grew at all, being dwarfed and use- 
less. In Bhode Island the limits of a single farm sometimes show 
vigorous specimens of most of the nearly fifty native species found 
in the State. Much of the picturesqueness of the country scenery 
in Bhode Island comes from constantly changing variety in the 
arboreal growth, noticeable as one travels the highways leading 
from town to town. This fact is not appreciated as it well might 
be. There is no element of natural beauty so freely exposed to our 
view as that seen in our native trees and shrubs; and there is 
none so easily and so cheaply manageable about home grounds 
and dressed highways as that derived from the same source. 
The economic value of the woodlands of this State is greater 
than what might be inferred from its limited area. Although no 
mountains appear, much of the ground in the northern and 
western sections is exceedingly rough and full of troublesome 
rocks for the farmer. A large part of this land is, and should be, 
given up to growing wood. Portions have been subjected to two 
or three clean choppings, and there are probably but few acres of 
woodland in the State which have not been culled of the best 
trees. But the lands thus devoted to this crop have been left to 
chance-seeding, or to growth of sprouts from stumps of trees 
removed. 
According to the State census of Bhode Island, taken by the 
