198 WISCONSIN AGRICULTURE. 



being prevented by settlement and occupation, trees arc now 

 springing up rapidly in all waste places; and in this way nature 

 is already making efforts to prevent the disasters we are thought- 

 lessly bringing upon ourselves by the destruction of the forests. 



These new growths should be protected as much as possible ; 

 in many cases by a good, substantial fence. The value of these 

 waste places, will, in a few years, exceed that of the cultivated 

 land ; and this with but very little cost to the owners. 



But it would be idle for us, as a State, to rely entirely upon 

 this natural restoration of the forests ; we must sooner or later 

 commence the cultivation of wood for the purposes of fuel, lum- 

 ber, timber, &c., or suffer very much from the neglect. 



From a recent report of the Board of Agriculture of the State 

 of Massachusetts, we learn that the experiment of tree-planting 

 has already been tried in that State. Mr. Whiting Metcalf 

 planted pitch pines about twenty years ago, when he was nearly 

 sixty years of age, and he still lives to reap the mental satisfac- 

 tion and pecuniary returns, from the entirely successful experi- 

 ment. From one and three fourths acres ten cords of small 

 wood was thinned out; and there is left about fifteen cords per 

 acre of good merchantable wood. It is estimated that the an- 

 nual growth Avill equal at least one cord per acre hereafter ; and 

 that the result will be a profit of about thirty per cent, per an- 

 num upon the cost of the land, and of the original planting. 



In the first and only volume of Transactions of the Illinois 

 State Agricultural Soctety, there are a number of valuable es- 

 says on various subjects connected with the agricultural interests 

 of the " Prairie State," and among them is one by Mr. Edson 

 Harkness, on Tree-Culture. The arguments used apply with 

 almost equal force to Wisconsin, and we cannot do better than 

 to copy a few of his closing remarks : 



" One great inducement for entering upon the general culti- 

 vation of evergreen trees upon the prairies, is found in the pro- 

 tection they must afibrd from the severe winds of winter. A 

 belt of cedars, pines or firs, only two rods wide, on the north 

 and west sides of a quarter section farm, would, even at twenty 

 feet high, materially lessen the force of the winter blast — would 



