Miscellanies. 161 
springs, there the extreme want of groves of wood, and evidence of 
the facility with which they might, with a little care, be supplied, were 
almost every where observable. Little copses, say of the white pine, 
along the road side, on farms almost naked every where else, had 
their branches and leaves almost lying on the ground, forming a 
thicket through which a bird could hardly fly, and a green wall of 
foliage from twenty to fifty or more feet inheight. With such models 
before their eyes, supremely beautiful, a perfectly natural growth, 
I know not how it can have escaped these people, to provide such 
belts of evergreens, as skreens for their orchards, gardens, barn and 
farm-yards! They would be singularly beautiful and ornamental, 
besides being of much use, as well to each farm, as by providing 
stopping places for the winds, thus beautifying and benefiting the 
whole country, by an amelioration of its climate. In its primitive 
state, this sandy region whose surface is elegantly diversified, was 
covered with pines of gigantic stature. With plantations of the oak, 
chesnut, &c. which would grow rapidly, and some belts of-ever- 
greens, as above proposed, both of which are much wanted, these 
sandy plains and knolls would become again delightful. They have 
now an aspect of dreariness, which could soon be remedied by cor- 
rect taste and spirited effort. There are many farms which would 
be beautiful except for these very features of unbeautiful nakedness ; 
some of the proprietors are spirited improvers, on whom I hope these 
suggestions will not be thrown away. S 
Horatio Garrs Sparrorp. 
Dec. 31, 1831. . 
3. Spontaneous Combustion. 
To tHE Eprror.—Sir—A very novel case of spontaneous com- 
bustion, (novel at least to me,) which has recently occurred under my 
own observation, seems to merit a passing notice, by way of precau- 
tion to others; and it is the more alarming, and therefore the more 
entitled to attention, by reason of the increasing use of cotton in car- 
peting and floor cloths. The facts are submitted to your own discre- 
tion, as a Journalist in science and the arts. 
We have, in our family-room, adjoining the kitchen, a Philadel- 
phia cooking stove, in which, when the weather is cold and the price 
of fuel is high, some little culinary processes are at times carried on. 
Vor. XXIL—No. 1 21 
