The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1885-05-06

VI DOulh OllCdnos
My experiments in tree-planting have
been made on over hundred acres now
covered with trees from one to thirty-fve
years old, chiefly pitch pine. / am now
trying Scotch and Corscan pine and Euro
pean larch. My first aim has been to cover
my worn-out lands with beauty and YER
dure, and it has proved a successful and
economic experiment. The seed of the
pitch pine Is worth from one to two dollars
a pound, the higher price being in the end
the cheapest. Fresh seeds cdrefuiU gath
cred are as sure to vegetate as corn / have
tried every method of tree-planting, trans
planting trees from the smallest to those
that are two feet high. This is costly
plan, but may be adopted when one wishes
to save time, or desires a few trees a
wind-break or otherwise. In transplanting
trees immediately from my own nursery to
the fields, my favorite time is just as the
buds begin to start in the spring. | have
planted seeds both with a planter and by
hand. On our light sands a man and boy
will plant three acres in q day--dropping six
seeds in a hill, it will take about one-half a
pound of seed to the acre. This is my
favorite method and is more satisfactory in
results though more costly than that of using
the pillow and planter. When the ever
green's are two feet high | would thin them,
leaving one thrifty plant in each hill. | do
not trim till they get large and then cut off
only the dead branches"
In the small town of Brewster fifteen
hundred acres had been planted. Bought
for fifty cents an acre, after from fifteen
to thirty years these lands with their
growth of young trees are worth from
go to $40 an acre. In Eastman, land
bought in 1870 for 81 an acre and
planted to pine was valued at IS an
acre ten years later. Daniel Webster
planted many pines at Marshfield and
induced the neighboring farmers to try
similar experiments. j. S. Fay, in
Falmouth, had plantation of trees of
remarkable growth and beauty. A
tract of over one hundred twenty-five
acres was densely covered with forest
trees. Mr.. Fay's account of his expe-
rience is interesting and instructive. OF
his plantation he says:
cit was barren waste, the soil dry and
worn-out. On a hundred acres there was
not 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 | bought my place in
1858, except few stunted cedars on Parker'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. 1t was maintained that trees
could not be made to grow there. The
seeds sown were of the native pitch pine
with some white pine, the Austrian, Scotch
and Corsican pine, the Norway spruce and
the European larch--in all about thirty-five
thousand imported plants and many thou
sand native pines. AS to the kinds which
tn1, bo
seed, including prompt termination, has
proved the best grower and very hardy.
The Norway spruce and English oak have
done we'll The larch did not start well
from the seed, but from the nursery or as i'm
ported it has grown remarkably. The hardy
Scotch pine does finely, either from the 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
foot from the ground. AS to profits, one
thing is sure. The land, originally poor
has been enriched by the deposit of thou
sands of loads of leaves upon it, and by the
shade afforded, while the soil has been
lightened and lifted by the permeation OF
the roots of the trees; and though no pres
ent profit has been yet realized (Which
already might have been by sales of the
wood, it should be considered as an invest.
ment for future results. Considering the
position of my place, on coast exposed tC
violent sea winds permeated with salt spray
the vigorous growth and promising appear
ance of my forest plantations are very en-
couraging to those more favorably placed
Not only may the destruction of our forests
be partially remedied at cheap cost, but
the WdSte and SterHity of our land by long
cultivating be replaced with fertility by the
simple process of nature"
OF the Scotch fir or pine DR.. North,
rop says: q" 1t will thrive in most dis
similar soils and on poorest sands where
most evergreens will not flourish, and
makes an excellent wind-break." r
Douglass e. Sons of Waukegan, Hi
nois, began several years ago the eX
pertinent of retaining the barren
shores of Lake Michigan, trying pine OF
several varieties, but finding the Scotch
pine the best. These are not isolated
instances; they are few only, of ne
| exceptional character selected from 6
great number in the East and West.
The rule to select the species that
grow naturally in the country and arc
hardy is safe one to follow, but there
may be exceptions. The above exam
Piles show what has been done with
pine to recuperate barren wastes. II
another exception to the rule were tC
be made, it would be in favor of the
European larch. 1t is more rapit
grower than the Scotch pine. 1t is sim
liar to the tamarack, which is some
times called the American larch. Its
leaves are decduous and have remark
able fertilizing qualities. In an article or
} Forestry" last fall we referred to the
J larch plantations of the dukes of Atholt
J in Scotland. They first planted this tree
on their estates nearly century and {
: half ago. Now they have more thar
twenty-seven million trees, covering
over sixteen hundred acres. Land origin
ally worth from 81 to S4 an acre has beer
, sold with matured crops of larches fol
J from $3.50 to $4,000 an acre. The tree
is native of the Alps and Appenine'
and is sat home on any well-drainet
} soils, especially on rough, rocky o.
orayellv oround and the most ruupef