The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1897-01-05

PLANTING TREES ON WASTE
LANDS.

C0USoGGS Obhg0 oOdEO u ASAASNSOAS
held in Greenfield, Dec. 8, amor the
addresses given was one by Hon. John
D. Lyman, of Exeter, N. h, on the
growing of timber as q crop on the
waste and other cheap lands In Massa'
chusetts.
We give the following abstract Of
MI. Lyman's remarks. He had al
hand a number of small pines, with
which he illustrated practical points
ir his address. He spoke somewhat as
follows: Savages leave everything to
nature. and are satisfied with its fruits.
Civilized man undertakes to improve
upon nature. A few years ago children
trampled down acres Of grass and wan,
dered long distances to gather a few
quarts of small, inferior strawberries
Now we gather in our gardens quaint
ties of the large, luscious fruit. Science
and common sense have wrought the
change.
These have never been applied to the
production of timber, a strange fact,
when it is evident that we can raise
trees as well as corn. Some contend
that nature is the best forester, but ma
ture produces in the prlmeval forest
about 5, 900 feet of poor timber to the
acre. This is the average in the great
Southern pine belt in Michigan and In
northern New Hampshire. Men, with
the exercise Of care, can in 40 or 30
years grow 40, 600 to $4,000 feet of pine
to the acre. There is no crop that will
feel the touch of the hand OF science
more effectively than the timber crop,
none that will better repay the careful
selection of species, or can better be
moulded, as the potter moulds the clay.
One of the first principles is to get the
proper number Of plants to the acre.
Our New England States have thou
sands of acres of waste land, which will
produce crops Of trees.
The census of 1880 showed $50, 900
acres of waste land in Massachusetts,.
That land is not barren, and only waits
for the right crop. 1t is ready for the
Gscl of pine trees. The pine is prob
ably best adapted to most of it, because
it demands little of the soil, and takes
its substance largely from the atmos
phere, absorbing through its leaves
the carbonic acid gas thrown out by
all decay, relieving the air Of this poison,
exhaling the oxygen, but retaining the
carbon for its growth. The little that
the pine absorbs Of the chemicals of
the earth is shown by burning 1t, the
email amount of ashes showing what
ia taken from the earth, while the
great bulk returns to the air, whence
it came. So it is true that poor lands
are we'll adapted to the growth of pine.
All the pine requires is a foothold and
q little water. There is no land in this
climate which will not sustain pine
growth.
'sIn January, 1870" said Mr.. Lyman,
'T bought an abandoned farm In New
Hampshire. 1t vas two or three years
later that I noticed a small clump Of
sapling pines. They occupied not over
1Os equare rods of land, which would
not have sold for 81. 1 trimmed out a
portion of them, and left them IN
touched for five years, then to find
that l had neglected them too long.
The trees we're too crowded. They
were again thinned out, with as much
wood taken as now stands, and pro
ducing shingles enough for all the
buildings in the neighborhood, and to
build two small buildings. measured
the trees in 1894, and again in 1896, and
found them growing at the rate of
1900 feet of inch boards to the acre.
Two trees removed cut 500 feet of inch
boards each. There are now over 81
600 feet of inch boards to the acre.
The trees averaged Is inches in diam
eter four feet from the ground, one
measured is 80 feet in height, another
70 feet six inches. There are no limbs
within 90 feet of the ground, and the
rpber is worth s. a thousand feet on
stump"
Mr.. Lyman cited an example of pine
Ioresty in Massachusetts,, where a Mr..
Pratt planted 13 acres. When the
trees we're 40 years old he was cutting
40 cords of box board lumber per acre
at s. per cord. A New Hampshire
man scattered pine cones over d acres
of land, on the sod, with the result thai
in 1891 there was standing a beautiful
pine grove, in which two trees meas
ured 66 feet in height and IL inches il
diameter four feet from the ground
Another example was in Enfield. Ct.