170 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
scorches the hills which are no longer shaded or shel¬ 
tered by trees, the springs and rivulets that found their 
supply in the bibulous soil of the forest disappear, and 
the farmer is obliged to surrender his meadows to his 
cattle, which can no longer find food in his pastures, 
and sometimes even to drive them miles for water. 
Again, the vernal and autumnal rains, and the melting 
snows of winter, no longer intercepted and absorbed b/ 
the leaves or the open soil of the woods, but failing 
everywhere upon a comparatively hard and even surface, 
flow swiftly over the smooth ground, washing away the 
vegetable mould as they seek their natural outlet, fill 
every ravine with a torrent, and convert every river in¬ 
to an ocean.”* 
Several successful attempts have been made within 
my observation, in improving rugged and exhausted 
lands by planting them out to trees. Within sight 
while writing, is a knoll that has been completely re¬ 
novated by a plantation of the white locust. It was 
originally, a coarse worthless gravel, barren of herbage 
of any kind. I remember that the proprietor was 
laughed at by his neighbors for attempting to grow 
trees on his barren gravel. The locusts got root how¬ 
ever, and although their growth was slow and feeble, 
they gradually formed a soil by the annual shedding of 
their leaves; and as the soil became thus strengthened, 
their growth became more vigorous, new shoots sprang 
up in all directions from the roots; and after awhile, clo¬ 
ver and other grasses, began to appear on the open 
ground. I have been curious to observe the gradual 
improvement of this land. Last summer I noticed that 
the grass was very luxuriant, and would have yielded at 
the rate of a ton or more of hay to the acre, in the open 
spots. The locust wonderfully endows a poor soil with 
new energy and fertility. It seems to make its demands 
for nourishment more largely upon the atmosphere than 
any other tree, and gains foothold in soils absolutely bar¬ 
ren of fertility. Then again, its leaves are small, with 
very rough edges, lying perfectly still where they fall, 
while those of most other trees are blown about by the 
winds, collecting in hollows or in large heaps. 
In my notice of Mr. Rice’s farming, last year, I re¬ 
marked that he plowed up a large tract of unproduc¬ 
tive hill-side, several years ago, and planted it with 
chestnuts, in rows four feet apart every way. The first 
sprouts coming up rather crooked and scrubby, he went 
over the field and cut them down close to the ground, 
which caused new sprouts to shoot up straight and vi¬ 
gorous. The trees are very thrifty, completely shade 
the ground, and grow more and more rapidly as the 
soil becomes strengthened by the annual deposit of 
leaves. So well satisfied is he with the experiment, 
that he is now placing other worthless lands in a simi¬ 
lar course of improvement. 
The late Hon. John Lowell, the first and most zeal¬ 
ous advocate for improvements of this kind in New 
England, planted three acres of waste land on his es¬ 
tate at Roxbury, Mass., to a variety of forest trees,— 
the whole value of the land not being $10 per annum. 
In a communication upon the subject, he says, ‘‘The 
land was about half of it plowed and kept open with 
potatoes for two years, and then abandoned to the 
course of nature. The pines were taken up out of the 
forest with great care, not more than five feet high. 
Wherever I had the cupidity or impatience to introduce 
a larger tree, I either lost it or it became sickly. In 
some places I planted acorns, and as to my hard-wood 
forest trees, transplanted from the woods, finding they 
looked feeble and sickly when they shot out, I instantly 
sawed them off at the ground or near it. This requir¬ 
ed some resolution, but I have been abundantly paid 
for it. 
June, 
“ The result of this experiment is this, that in a pe¬ 
riod of from thirteen to fifteen years, I have raised a 
young, beautiful and thrifty plantation, comprising, 
almost every variety of tree, which we have in Massa¬ 
chusetts, which are now from twenty-five to thirty-five 
feet high, and some of which, the thriftiest white pines, 
actually measure from nine to twelve inches in diame¬ 
ter. The loppings and thinning out of these trees, now 
furnish abundance of light fuel for summer use, and up¬ 
on as accurate a calculation as I am able to make, I 
am convinced that the present growth, cut down at the 
expiration of 14 yrs. from the time of planting, would am¬ 
ply pay for the land at the price it would have brought,” 
Mr. S. Brown, in a communication to the Boston 
Cultivator, says—“ I have one acre of land which, 30 
years ago, was not worth more than ten dollars; I have 
no recollection of there being a tree upon it, with the 
exception of one apple tree, and some scattering bush¬ 
es ; the appearance of the soil was such as to forbid 
any attempt at cultivation, and my cattle have rambled 
over it from that day to this; in the mean time, the 
young pines voluntarily sprung up and became a forest, 
and now, I would not thank any man to pay me $60 
for the standing wood on that acre. Now, if any man 
can tell me how to improve such land to better advan¬ 
tage, I would thank him for the information.” 
Mr. Webster has a great variety of thrifty promising 
young forest trees on his estate at Marshfield, which he 
lias raised by planting the seeds. There are several 
reasons for preferring this mode of cultivation to that 
of transplanting. The expense of planting seed is 
less than that of transplanting trees; the trees will 
be straighten and more vigorous; they neither require 
staking nor watering; and at the end of eight or ten 
years they will ordinarily have acquired a much larger 
growth than trees transplanted at the same time. 
The success in attempting improvements by planting 
waste or exhausted lands to wood and timber, will very 
much depend upon choosing those kinds of trees that are 
most naturally adapted to the soil. Prof. Johnston has 
some very interesting remarks upon this point, a part 
of which'I will venture to quote. Speaking of the im¬ 
provements going on in Europe, in renovating exhaust¬ 
ed lands by planting trees, be says: 
11 The most precise observations on the subject with 
which I am acquainted, are those which have been 
made in the extensive plantations of the late Duke of 
Athol. These plantations consist chiefly of white larch, 
and grow upon a poor hilly soil, resting on gneiss, mi¬ 
ca-slate, and clay-slate. In six or seven years the low¬ 
er branches spread out, become interlaced and com¬ 
pletely overshadow the ground. Nothing, therefore, 
grows upon it till the trees are 24 years old, when the 
spines of the lower branches, beginning to fall, the first 
considerable thinning takes place. Air and light being 
thus re-admitted, grasses spring up and a fine sward is 
gradually produced. The ground, which previously 
was worth only 9d. or Is. (rent ?) per acre as a sheep 
pasture, at the end of 30 years becomes worth from 7s. 
to 10s. per acre. 
“ On the soil planted by the Duke of Athol, the larch 
shot up luxuriantly, while the Scotch fir lingered and 
languished in its growth. Thus the quantity of leaves 
produced and annually shed by the former was vastly 
greater than by the latter tree. Had the Scotch fir 
thriven better than the larch, the reverse might have 
been the case, and the value of the soil might have 
been increased in a greater proportion by plantations of 
the former tree. 
l ' In regard to the relative improving power of the 
several species of trees, the most rational natural rule 
by which our practice should be guided, seems to be 
contained in these three propositions: 
9 Address of Hon. Geo. P. Marsh. 
