152 STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



lias an important work to accomplish, ere our American sovereigns will have 

 acquired sufficient wisdom to fully comprehend that the importance of this 

 object would warrant them in conceding to their rulers so direct a control over 

 what they have come to esteem as part and parcel of the right of individual 

 ownership of property. Admitting, therefore,, the impracticability of securing 

 governmental control, in this particular, we come next to consider the possi- 

 bility of accomplishing the result through voluntary agency. 



Our farm owners, almost universally, consider a certain portion of timber 

 preserve as an essential element in the making up of a good farm. The pro- 

 portion requisite for this purpose will vary in accordance with the taste or fancy 

 of the farmer. For our present purpose, we will assume that ten acres will be 

 sufficient, as a permanent preserve, upon each farm of eighty acres. It is the 

 more common practice to locate such preserve in a compact body, at the rear 

 of the farm ; but let us consider the effect, if, instead of so doing, the tim- 

 ber were left in a belt, or windbreak, extending the entire length of the west 

 and north sides of such farms, and that in case of larger or smaller farms the 

 general purpose had been carried out of preserving a windbreak as above pro- 

 posed, about each eighty acres of such farms. A moment's consideration will 

 suffice for the discovery that the entire country would in such case, be cut up 

 by such timber belts into parcels about seventy rods east and west by one hun- 

 dred and fifty rods north and south. 



The fact will doubtless be urged that throughout a very large portion of the 

 State it is already too late for the preservation of such belts, the lands having 

 long since been cleared and improved. This difficulty, although serious, as far 

 as immediate results are concerned, may be remedied by planting; and, if im- 

 mediate results are judged important enough to warrant the increased expense, 

 trees of considerable size may be employed, or by sowing the seeds of timber 

 trees if preferred, — both practices being already in vogue, for kindred purposes, 

 in many of the older sections of the State. It will also be readily seen that this 

 object may be farther subserved by the free planting of roadside trees; also by 

 planting rows of trees along the sides of lanes and fields, where the location of 

 such is intended to be permanent ; and especially by the grouping of trees and 

 shrubs about dwellings and other farm buildings — an act for which the tenants 

 of the farm yard will not fail to return their thanks, if in no other way, by the 

 diminished expense of their keeping, and doubtless, also by their improved 

 thrift. We are certain to be reminded that the cutting away of timber, and 

 the leaving of a belt of forest grown trees suddenly exposed to the full force of 

 the wind, is likely to result in the uprooting and death of many such, as a con- 

 sequence of such exposure. With densely grown timber suddenly exposed in 

 fohis manner such loss must doubtless to some extent occur, and such trees be 

 removed and the timber utilized as best they may be ; but the younger growths 

 will develop all the more rapidly, in consequence of such removal, and when 

 grown will be little liable to such objection : while if the stock be kept away from 

 such preserve, it will very soon become densely filled with a young and thrifty 

 timber growth, ready to take the place of the older trees as they shall fail and 

 require removal. It must also be borne in mind that the process of clearing 

 the lands along the sides of such timber belts will usually be a gradual one, 

 giving time for growth to, at least partially, adapt itself to the change of 

 circumstances. 



Having thus pointed out a possible means of evading, at least in part, the 

 unfavorable climatic results under consideration, wo next come to consider the 



