STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
733 
PINE. TWIGS. 
the lands of the State of New-York were originally granted by 
the British crown, with an explicit reservation of “All mines of 
Gold and Silver, and also all White and other sorts of Pine trees 
fit for Masts, of the growth of twenty-four inches diameter and 
upwards at twelve inches from the earth, for Masts for the 
Royal Navy of us, our heirs and successors,” under the stringent 
condition that “If they, our said grantees or any of them, their 
or any of their heirs or assigns, or any other person or persons 
by their or any of their privity, consent or procurement shall 
fell, cut down or otherwise destroy any of the Pine trees by 
these presents reserved to us, our heirs and successors, or 
hereby intended so to be, without the Royal Lycence of us ’our 
heirs or successors for so doing first had and obtained, that 
then, and in any of these cases, this our present grant, and 
every thing therein contained, shall cease and be absolutely 
void, and the lands and premises hereby granted, shall revert 
to and vest in us, our heirs and successors, as if this our pre¬ 
sent grant had not been made, anything herein before contained 
to the contrary in any wise notwithstanding.” Now the per¬ 
fect straightness of the pine, which has adapted it so eminently 
for this important use, and has caused it to be thus valued, 
depends upon the healthy growth of its leading shoot for a long 
succession of years. If this leading shoot is destroyed the on 
ward growth of the tree is checked until one of the lateral 
shoots starts upward and becomes the leading shoot. But this 
causes a crook in the body of the treo at the place where this 
lateral shoot originally arose, and thus the main value of the 
tree is destroyed. And it would appear to be a spirit of pure 
malevolence that instigates the White pine weevil to select the 
leading shoot of this tree in which to deposit its eggs, when its* 
young can be nourished equally well in the lateral shoots, where 
they would do little injury, or perhaps would be a direct bene¬ 
fit to the tree by cutting off the ends of the branches, and thus 
promoting the upward growth of the main trunk. 
The weevil deposits her eggs in the bark of the topmost shoot 
of the tree, dropping one in a place at irregular intervals 
through its whole length. The worm which hatches from 
lese eggs eats its way inwards and obliquely downwards, till 
