84 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



remunerative, and let the exhausted lands upon the hills 

 grow up to wood for the next generation. It would be well, 

 I think, to devote a very considerable portion of our most 

 exhausted lands to the growth of wood. Fuel and timber 

 are becoming of steadily increasing importance, and the effect 

 of a growth of trees on the redemption of land from sterility, 

 is very considerable ; their roots exert great power in decom- 

 posing the rocks in the soil, evolving from them the mineral 

 of plants, and besides deepening and mellowing the soil. A 

 forest growth would add to it, by an annual deposit of leaves, 

 a great amount of vegetable matter. In fact, no small part 

 of the productive power of newly cleared lands is attributable 

 to this very process, having gone on year after year ; and 

 why may it not be the part of w^isdom to profit by the hint 

 thus furnished in the operations of nature? Besides this, a 

 colhiteral advantage of no mean worth would result from the 

 lessening of the number of acres under cultivation, which 

 would enable the farmer to work the remainder more thor- 

 oughly and of course more profitably. 



Discussion. 



Mr. Flint. This is a question of much importance. I 

 think we have communications enough in our papers on agri- 

 cult ure to convince our farmers that waste and wet lands can 

 be drained, in many cases. By doing this, fields may be 

 united, and a great improvement made. The cost of drain- 

 age is an item which varies much in respect to the manner in 

 which we handle it. To hire labor would sometimes cost 

 more than the land is worth after the work is completed. 

 Where the ditches can be made with the plow and scraper, 

 the oxen and horse do it ; and if they can be filled in the 

 same way it is a much easier and cheaper mode than to do 

 the same amount of work by hand. Such work has been 

 done to great advantage, and at a great saving of cost. 

 These things all depend upon the skill and ingenuity of the 

 worfier, and we find it is the same in all professions. The 

 man of the most brains is the man who is most likely to 



