and forty years of age. When I alluded to his public spirit and disinterested benevolence, he replied in a tone of mingled satisfaction and regret, "I now wish that I had planted a hundred trees where I only planted one."
There is reason to believe, that the late Timothy Pickering held the larch-tree in high estimation, and thought of it as a suitable tree for covering the bare hills of his native county. At any rate, he was among the first to give it a trial. Something like five and twenty years ago, he imported two hundred of these trees. They now form the ornament of his late estate at Wenham. I have known them for more than eighteen years; and, during that period, they have exhibited a growth of great promise. Their seeds ripen kindly in this climate, and a second generation of spontaneous growth has arisen from these imported trees. We may now reckon this valuable timber-tree among the naturalized products of New England.
If the individual who plants a common tree deserves the thanks of posterity, how much larger is the debt of gratitude due to him who introduces and blesses his country with a new and useful race of trees!
Those who visit Wenham in the middle of the summer, and behold the original range of larch-trees, cannot fail to be struck with their appearance. Their light foliage and fine pyramidal forms, differing materially from the pines around us, suggest at once their exotic origin; while the richly ornamental and tasteful manner in which they are disposed, tells at once that their planter was no ordinary individual.
There is something peculiarly affectionate and grateful in associating the remembrance of a great man with some particular tree. Who has not heard of Pope's willow, or of the mulberry that Shakspeare planted?—and who could have stood beneath the shade of the one, or have gazed upon the other, with ordinary emotion? Something of this reverence will be felt by those who ride by the larches of a Pickering's planting; and time will not diminish the interest. I do not wish to be understood as particularly recommending the German larch, though I think it highly worthy of a trial on poor land. Nothing but experiment can determine the trees
