380 BULLETIN OF THE BUSSEY INSTITUTION. 
on very strong soil. As a rule, in this locality, white pines grow- 
ing on a light, sandy soil, should be cut for box-boards when they 
have stood from thirty to thirty-five years, if the greatest profit is 
to be secured; after that time, the decay of the smaller trees, and 
the amount of interest money which would be lost, would not be 
made up by the growth of the larger ones. In a rich soil well 
adapted to the growth of the pine, it would, no doubt, sometimes 
pay to let the trees stand for fifty or seventy-five years; but such 
cases would be rare in eastern Massachusetts, and would apply 
only to small groups of trees. 
To grow on our worn-out pastures, large pine trees for clear 
lumber, equal to the primeval growth, as advocated by some 
writers, would be as difficult as to grow large potatoes on a sand- 
bank. Nature has a way of her own of preparing the soil for the 
growth of large trees as well as small plants; her first efforts are 
to cover the barren soil with very minute plants, and she changes 
the species as the decayed vegetation prepares the soil for larger 
plants. The first growth of trees on a soil where the growth of 
vegetation has been limited, is of medium size for its species, and 
a very large growth only comes when the soil is fully prepared to 
carry out such growth. It is well to remember this truth when we 
start a plantation of pines for the growth of logs three or four feet 
in diameter, and trees one hundred feet in height. A little investi- 
gation will lead a close observer to the conclusion, that on most of 
the soils of Massachusetts where the land has not been covered 
with forests for many years, pine timber of medium size can be 
grown to a greater profit than large trees for clear lumber. 
We should not overlook the fact that in Massachusetts the larger 
portion of the rich lands adapted to the growth of the white pine, 
are already utilized for the cultivation of farm crops which find a 
ready market in from one to three years after planting. Such 
land would be too valuable to set with trees which would require 
from seventy-five to one hundred years to mature. ‘The lands 
which are left that can be bought at a low price, and which seem 
to promise the best for the profitable production of pine lumber, 
are the light lands of the plains, which have been cropped so 
many years that they have been abandoned, and left to nature to 
perform the work of restoring them to their former richness. Man 
is impatient, and unwilling to await the slow process of nature; 
EO 
