The morning journal-courier., 1908-02-22
PINE SEEDLINGS
How Waste Land Around Brat tleboro, Vermont, is
 Utilized. :.
MANY PINE. TREES IN SIGHT
The Cost of Getting Them Started Is Not Great and They
 Grow Fast.

Few people have any knowledge, or at least any realization of what half a dozen Brattleboro (vt) business men have done or are planning to do in the way of what might be termed the reclamation of waste or pasture land in and around Brattleboro, says a cor respondent of the Springfield Repub- lican. Mention has been made of the apple orchard of F, B. Barrows of this town, which is located in Marl boro, and of the orchard on Ames Hill, owned by E. l.. Hildreth and o. l.. French, of Brattleboro but the subject of pine tree planting by these and other men has not yet been touch- ed upon Four years ago Mir. Hildreth and Mir. French began setting out pine tree seedlings on their Ames Hill farm, and they have continued the work ever since, so that they now have five thousand handsome little trees growing, which are a delight to all who see them. Others have now be- come interested in the subject of pine tree growing, and henceforth thous- ands of pine seedlings will be set out on farms within eight or ten miles of Brattlehoro village each year. From 30,000 to 10000 sedllngs will be set out the coming spring and in addition large number of seeds which have been collected from the cones of na- tive trees will be planted
 Harry L. Emerson, who has recent ly bought about four hundred acres of land in this town and in Marlboro. has placed an order for ten thousand seedlings, which he will set out in May. The farm which he has bought which is in Brattleboro and half in Marlboro. A large part of. the farm is growing spruce timber and other va rieties, but there are on the farm one hundred and fifty acres or more of open land. Mir, Barrows owns up to about half mile south of Marl- horo south pond. It is located on War ren Hill, and about one hundred acres are available for setting out trees. He will put In from five thousand to ten thousand pine seedlings the coming spring. Clarke c. Fitts will utilize the open land on the Ward Estey place in Dummerston. which he bought several years ago for pine tree growing, and will set out ten thousand seedlings for a starter Lucius Richardson and his son Charles W. Richardson, sold the timber on their wood lots in the southern part of the town, near Gull ford, recently, and the timber Is now being cut off There are forty acres in the lots, and the timber Is largely pine The Richardsons have saved the cones from the old trees. and have secured large amount of seed there from, which they will plant with a view to reforesting these same lots. and in addition to the seed they will set out a large number of seedlings. All these men are prominent busi- ness men of Brattleboro, and while the matter of reforesting these lands is but side issue with them, it be- trays a spirit of enterprise which is highly commendabe They will en- joy seeing the trees grow, though the material benefits may go largely to the succeeding generation, and while others are devastating the forests of New England they will have the aldi. tional satisfaction of knowing tha; l they have contributed something tr ! the country at large. They intend tc i keen on setting out seedlings year af- ter year for several years at least.
 Pine forests are of course, in dan 1 ger of fire and blight, but while the i result is not certain the cost Is moi 1 heavy the cost of the seedlings and i the setting being around SIP to s15 ar acre. The seedlings may be procured at the nurseries and experiment sta tions. and one thoussnd of them will pack into an incredibly small space i They are really lo be set out at abou two years old, and al that age they l can scarcely be seen above the gras. but after two or three years more
 they will grow rapidly, increasing II I nelEnt lWtlNe llCneS, tlEHtttn iiltflSS twenty inches and even more than tha
 m a single yeaf. They are set six fec
 apart or about twelve hundred to al
 acre. Height rather than thickness, i
 the end to be attained, and if the tree
 are set further than six feet apart the.
 vii grow stock rather than tall. Fron
 go per cent. to 95 per cent. of tn
 seedlings live. and In from thirty t
 forty years, depending upon condition
 the timber is ready to be cut. There
 a pine timber lot of about three acre
 on the Putney Road. and another 0
 about the same extent in Chesterfield
 where there are good sized tree
 growing from hand-set seedlings, bu
 these are the only instances of tn
 kind in this locality. Besides thei
 pine seedlings. Mir. Hildreth and Nil
 French have set out five hundred lo
 cust trees on their Ames Hill prop
 erty.