246 



THE GARDENERS' MONTHLY 



[August, 



come to many of our farmers, some pin money to 

 their wives, besides making farm work and farm 

 life both pleasant and profitable to their children. 

 But this pleasant prospect cannot be realized as 

 long as the extraction of perfumes is not under- 

 taken, because the Acacia flowers, like most of 

 those flowers whose perfume is extracted, must be 

 treated while fresh and on the spot." 



Figures in F'orestry Pi.anting. — More than 

 anything else we need just now exact figures of 

 the income from forestry planting, and we have 

 much pleasure in giving from the pen of Mr. J. T. 

 Allen to the Country Gejitlematt the following ex- 

 cellent note: " Mr. J. T. Griffin, near Omaha, is 

 just thinning a tract of 15 acres planted in i860. 

 The trees are 50 feet high, and average 10 inches 

 in diameter one foot from the ground. Taking out 

 the poorest, he is getting from each tree an average 

 of 2^ posts, worth 25 cents each, and two posts 

 for wire fence worth 12 % cents each, giving #96.25 

 per acre, and leaving 324 of the best trees. The 

 tops for fuel more than pay interest, expense of 

 cultivation, &c. The remaining trees have straight 

 bodies, 12 to 15 feet to a limb. His plan of culti- 

 vation has been to plant the nuts ten feet apart 

 each way and cultivate in corn for three years. 

 The corn at 35 cents per bushel would amount to 

 )p73.5o, or a total, with posts, to date of $175. 75 per 

 acre. At the end of five years the tract was seeded 

 to blue grass, furnishing excellent winter pasturage 

 and protection for sheep. In commencing again a 

 plantation of walnuts, at the age of two or three 

 years he would plant between each two a poplar 

 to act as nurses to draw up the wahiuts. These 

 should be cut down as soon as a body is grown, 

 leaving a young saw-log in form, if not in size. 

 The value of the cottonwood for fuel, fencing cat- 

 tle yards, or roofs for cattle and sheep sheds, would 

 be considerable." 



Timber on the Pacific Coast. — Fir, pine, oak 

 and cedar of unsurpassed quality and practically 

 unlimited in quantity clothe the mountains, over- 

 hang the rivers, and shadow the plains of the Puget 

 Sound district, Washington Ter. On a moderate 

 estimate it is calculated that this region will yield 

 the almost unimaginable quantity of 160,000,000,- 

 000 feet of valuable timber. The trees attain a re- 

 markable development both in height and beauty. 

 The yellow fir is frequently found growing to a 

 height of 250 feet, the white cedar to 100 feet, with 

 a girth of over 60 feet; the white oak is 70 feet in 

 height, while ordinary sized specimens of the sugar 

 pine yield from 6,000 to 8,000 feet of cut lumber. 



The unfortunate part of the reflection is that the 

 greater part of it will be old and rotten — perhaps 

 cleared off as an incumbrance to the ground — be- 

 fore any use can be made of it, and perhaps not 

 fifty years will go over before even this rich ar- 

 boreal region will be clamoring for encouragement 

 to the planting of more trees. 



Clearing Ground of Stumps. — We cut down 

 trees, and then spend a great deal in blowing out 

 or tearing out the stumps. A machine for taking 

 down the trees, stumps and all, has been invented 

 in Australia. Perhaps it would cost less to saw oft' 

 the stumps after the tree fell than to blow them 

 out afterwards. However, the machine is thus de- 

 scribed : 



" A machine, or rather apparatus, for pulling 

 down trees has recently been introduced with suc- 

 cess into Queensland. The machine consists of 

 chains, iron rods, a powerful lever, and an iron 

 plate with holes in which to place iron pins on 

 which the lever works. A ladder of 20 or 30 feet 

 in length is also necessary for placing the chain 

 sufficiently high on the tree to be pulled down to 

 enable a good strain to be obtained. The whole 

 affair can be easily carried about on a light spring 

 cart,, and only weighs about 3 cwt. The rods are 

 not more than five-eighths of an inch in thickness, 

 the chain links are about the same, while the rods 

 along or at each side of the iron plate are three- 

 quarters of an inch in thickness. The first experi- 

 ment was made with a tree about seventy feet in 

 height and six feet six inches in girth, which 

 yielded quickly to the strain which the lever 

 brought to bear upon it, was very shortly removed 

 out of its equilibrium, and fell to the ground with a 

 crash in a few minutes from the commencement of 

 the trial, bringing the roots out of the ground with 

 it for a depth of three feet and several-feet in cir- 

 cumference. Another tree of larger proportions 

 and apparently a more difficult one was next 

 tackled. It was a closely-knit box tree, situated 

 on the side of a hill and evidently had a firm hold 

 of the ground by the extensive roots attached. In 

 twenty minutes after the chain was put around it 

 this monster of the forest, which must have reared 

 its head and withstood the storms of many years, 

 was laid level with the ground. In another in- 

 stance the doomed tree withstood an enormous 

 tension. Three times was the length of the lever 

 plate (which is 7 ft.) exhausted before its roots 

 would give up their liold of the ground. It at last, 

 after having been held by the branches of a neigh- 

 boring tree, fell to the ground. An examination 

 of the powerful roots showed the cause of the great 

 pull that was required to unseat it. On applying 

 the tape it proved to be 66 feet long, with a girth 

 of 4 '/, feet, and the wood was of a most tough de- 

 scription. The machine was manufactured at Cam- 

 perdown, in Victoria, in which district similar ma- 

 chines have been at work and have done such ef- 

 fective service that they have earned the name of 

 'The Forest Devil.'" 



