--Q,^^^;^& 



TKEATMENT OF WOODS. 



"We do not, however, believe that this process is such, in any case, as to unfit the soil 

 to reproduce the plants which grew in it. The fact, with which we all are familiar, 

 of the failure of successive crops of any given tree or plant in the same soil, is unques- 

 tionably due, in the main, to an exhaustion of the soil, or its loss of the elements 

 essential to the growth and perfection of such trees or plants. Our American agricul- 

 ture exhibits thousands of instances where, owing to the extraordinary fertility of the 

 land, twenty successive crops of corn have been grown in the greatest perfection, with- 

 out any renewal of the soil by deep tillage or the addition of manures. In other soils 

 two such crops could scarcely be taken in succession. So in regard to other crops. 

 In the case of nursery trees, we have known instances where a single crop of apple 

 trees of four or five years growth so exhausted the soil, that a succeeding one of the 

 same trees was a perfect failure, notwithstanding the most liberal culture. 



notation of crops is an established principle in field, garden, and nursery culture ; 

 and this, not because plants excrete matters unfavorable to their growth, or favorable 

 to the growth of a different class of plants ; but chiefly, as we have already said, 

 because they exhaust the soil of certain elements which are necessary and indispens- 

 able to their particular structure, composition, and mode of growth. Excretion to 

 some extent is, however, possible and even probable. 



The question is full of interest, not only in a scientific point of view, but as havino- 

 a direct bearing upon one of the most important branches of culture — the nutrition 

 of plants. — Ed.] 



TREATMENT OF WOODS. 



BY WM. H. SCOTT, .VDEIAN, MICH. 



No branch of agricultural industry is of greater importance than the forest in all its 

 appliances. In most of the States the question now is not how the woodlands shall 

 be most speedily cleared of the trees, but by what management shall the necessary 

 calls for wood in its difl"erent uses be most economically answered, with the smallest 

 inroad upon the standing timber? Even in our new States a good "wood lot" is 

 often considered the most valuable on the farm. 



Two questions are involved in the preservation of these forests : How may the 

 uses of building material and fuel be economized ? How far may the products of the 

 forest be increased, and improved in quality, by proper management ? 



With the greatly improved modes of generating heat for domestic and manufac- 

 turing uses, not more than half the amount of fuel is required now that was consumed 

 ten years ago. Iron and glass are displacing wood for the frames and finishings of 

 buildings, water craft, carriages, furniture, and many other branches of art. Iron and 

 glass are fast gaining ground where strength is more needed than bulk, and where 

 durability is an important consideration. 



I do not now wish to discuss the economies of wood after it has been taken from 

 the forest. How much and what quality of wood may be taken from woodland, con- 



