At the end of the third summer's growth, the roots will have increased so as to 

 be taken up, which is usually done by commencing at one side of the field and 

 trenching over the ground. The roots can be immediately sold to the brewers, 

 druggists, and other consumers and venders ; or they may be preserved in sand 

 till wanted for use. If, however, they are intended for transportation, they should 

 be dried and tied in bundles. 



Licorice is used very extensively in brewing porter, and in medicinal, and vari- 

 ous other preparations, where saccharine matter of this description is desirable. 



WHAT MAKES A DESERT. 



BY YARDLEY TAYLOR, VIRGINIA. 



N a late number of the Southern Planter is an article, 

 credited to Hoveyh Magazine, by Wilson Flagg, on 

 '•'trees — their general character and advantages." The 

 object of the writer appears to have been, to point out 

 the beauties and the advantages of our forest trees, and 

 to encourage their propagation. Too much cannot well 

 be said on this subject; pleasure and profit would be 

 promoted by it, and most of whaHs said in this essay is 

 well said, but there is one view taken that appears to me 

 to be incorrect. In objecting to the destruction of our 

 forests, the writer says: "The consequence of depriving 

 a country of its wood, is the drying of the soil in about the same proportion ; 

 and were a country to be completely deprived of its timber, in the interior of a 

 large continent, it would be converted into a dry desert." This assertion does 

 not appear to be supported by facts. It may be asked, how came the interior of 

 any continent to be covered with timber at all ? The earth was formed before 

 vegetation could have grown upon it, and were it even now deprived of timber, 

 would not the same cause again produce it, that produced it at first? All parts 

 of the earth appear to be composed of very near the same inorganic matters, and 

 under the same circumstances would have produced nearly the same results. The 

 rocks and sands of the desert of Sahara, had they been subjected to the same 

 influence of rains and moisture that the more central portions of Africa along the 

 line of the equator have been, there is every reason to suppose would have 

 been equally productive. There are general physical causes, acting over every 

 part of the earth's surface, and these causes, when fairly understood, will account 

 for the varied effects we behold. 



Why are the eastern sides of the Andes Mountains in South America covered 

 a most luxuriant vegetation, and deluged at certain seasons with rain, 



