62 



I rcspecttuily invite your uttoiition to au evil of considerable magnitude, whicli every 

 yea* grows more aggravated, and in certain regions, at times, is the occasion of serious 

 apprehension. I refer totlie wholesale destrnctiou of our forests, the stripping of our 

 jnonntaius and hills of their trees, resulting in an enormous diminution of water for 

 mechanical and fertilizing purposes, and in great changes in the normal conditions of 

 temperature and moisture, atfecting the general health and at seasons bringing about 

 devastating floods. These consequences, as the eiil^cts of this indiscriminate waste, are 

 demonstrable, and a wise legislation will forecast the future and establish such regu- ' 

 lations as will rescue our descendanls from the ills a perseverance in this practice will 

 certainly entail upon them. 



Pennsylvania Fish Commission. — In liis recent uies.sage, the gov- 

 ernor of Pennsylvania eommiiuicates facts and conclnsions of general 

 interest respecting tbe transactions and anticipated results of the fish 

 commission of that State. Assuming that the success of fish-culture is 

 now a.ssured : that its extent is to be limited only by the wants of con- 

 sumers and the capacity of the streams, rivers, and lakes of the coun- 

 try, and that Pennsylvania has superior advantages for producing fish, 

 not only of ordinary but of rare and most delicious varieties, he gives 

 the following summary of the doings of the State commissioners the 

 past year: At Newport, Perry County, where the water is especially 

 adapted to the ])urpose, they succeeded in hatching, by the aid of Mr. 

 Seth Green's patent, 2,700,000 shad, which were turned into the Juniata 

 at that point. They also, during July and August, distributed in the 

 Susquehanna, Lehigh, and Juniata, L',600 black bass. Through the co- 

 operation of Professor Baird, United States Pish Commissioner, 27,000 

 California salmon were planted in the Susquehanna and its tributaries. 

 In 1870 two or three hundred bass, which are represented as not migra- 

 tory, and very prolific, were placed in the Susquehanna near Ilarris- 

 burgh, and the great number now found in the river in that vicinity af- 

 fords evidence of the rapidity with which they multiply. The law cre- 

 ating the commission directed that four fish-ways should be constructed 

 at different dams on the Susquehanna and Juniata, but the commis- 

 sioners regarding the question whether fish will ascend an artificial way 

 as still a mooted one, have thus far constructed only one ; that is at the 

 Cokimbia dam, and is 120 feet long, GO wide, very gradual in the ascent, 

 and made as nearly as possible to imitate a natural fish-way. If in the 

 spring it is found that shad pass up this, the construction of the 

 others will immediately follow. The commissioners have erected and 

 properly furnished, near Marietta, a hatching-house, supplied with 

 water from an inexhaustible spring, and having a capacity equal to the 

 proper care of 700,0(fO young fish. 



Bate of exhaustion of 3IANUKes. — At a late meeting of the Ayr- 

 shire Farmers' Club, Scotland, the subject discussed was, compensation to 

 outgoing tenants for permanent improvements and unexhausted ma- 

 nures. By way of illustration an agreement with his tenantry entered into 

 by Sir Patrick Keith Murry was introduced. Among the principal points 

 were these : the beneficial effects of horse, cow, and town manure, guano, 

 bones, and coprolites are held to last four years, and the rate ot exhaus- 

 tion to be j% the first year, and jL less each succeeding year; of lime, 

 applied to arable laud, to last ten years, and the rate of exhaustion i§ 

 the first year, and Jj less each succeeding year; applied to permanent 

 pastures to last twelve years, and the rate of exhaustion i| the first year, 

 }i the second, and JL less each succeeding. Nitrate of soda and sulphate 

 of ammonia are held to be exhausted by the crop to which they are 

 applied. For oil-cake or any similar substance of equal manurial value 

 except grain of all kinds, purchased and used by the tenant in feeding- 

 sheep or cattle on thefarnu I of the entire cost of all so used during the 



