HOW FARMERS CAN BIPROVE. 73 



they can be properly stocked with fish, and thus be made 

 even more profitable than if the same area were land. 



5. Farmers can improve their condition by exercising more 

 care for the forests ; not only in preserving the present for- 

 ests, but also in planting new ones. The people of the State 

 and of the country at large, are using the material of the for- 

 ests faster than nature produces it ; and therefore, every 

 possible means should be taken lest there come a time of 

 want in regard to wood for fuel, and in regard to the greater 

 want of timber and of lumber. The fewest possible number 

 of trees should be cut down ; and every tree cut should be fully 

 utilized, and a tree should be set out for every one cut down, 

 unless the number in the forest be already as numerous as can 

 well come to maturity. And every rod of ground that is not 

 fit or not needed for other purposes, should be set with a tree 

 or trees. There are to-day tens of thousands of acres in 

 Massachusetts that are next to useless, except for a forest, 

 and every one of these acres should be covered by all the 

 trees it can sustain. 



Above all things the farmer should preserve his forests that 

 are upon the hilltops. They keep the soil now there from 

 washing away, and they shelter the ground so that it gives 

 up slowly the waters that are left there by the rains, and 

 which so gladden the hillsides and the meadoAVS, and the 

 thirsty laborer and traveller when the heats and droughts of 

 summer have come. 



And here allow me to remark, that the manufacturer, no 

 less than the agriculturist, is interested in the preservation of 

 the forests, not only on the hilltops and on the hillsides, but 

 everywhere. Should the present reckless destruction of for- 

 ests go on, the time will come, and not long will it be in com- 

 ing, when the millions of spindles and the thousands of looms 

 that are now moved by water-power will cease their motion ; 

 or some other power than the water-wheel will move them. 

 When forests are cut away, the soil is no longer spongy, but 

 becomes dry and hard, evaporation increases, and except dur- 

 ing the seasons of rains and freshets, the springs and brooks 

 and all the former constant feeders of the river are dry. 



6. Finally, when farmers are ready to put as much care 

 and skill into their pursuits as are exercised by manufacturers 



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