446 THE HOME, FARM AND lU'SINKSS CYCLOPAEDIA. 



THE ADAPTABILITY OF SOILS AND CLIMATE TO RAPID RESULTS, 



for nature herself has already shown us what to do both in repeating the 

 same kin- 1 of crops, and in the proper rotation of trees, by sections of the 

 country. But that nature lias been the best guide in most things is not 

 admitted. We cannot follow her in the mode of thinning out so main- an- 

 nually, in making branchless stems, and therefore leafless and shelterless 

 trees, comparatively. It is sound in practice, though not in theory, that 

 ten trees, of certain kinds, standing within a given area, will afford less 

 shelter, less wind break, than three trees of exactly the same sort, properly 

 managed on the like area. We have soils and climates wherewith to do 

 almost anything in tree life from the pine of the north, which luxuriates 

 in an apparently bare rock cleft, to the walnut of the south, that must 

 send its carroty root several feet into a rich soil. European forest reve- 

 nue begins, on an average, fifteen years after planting ; that of America 

 ten years afterwards. 



As the subject grows upon our attention, we are next concerned with 



WHAT PARTS OF THE COUNTRY SHOULD BE CONSERVED on REPLANTED 



and in this part of the study it is obvious that our views cannot be con- 

 fined to single farms, or even special sections. Referring, as we must, to 

 the great over- ruling influences, as previously indicated, we have to deal 

 with geographical features that may embrace thousands of acres that have 

 to be subserved by one, or more, massing of trees. Just where to con- 

 serve or replant, how much on the spot, or spots, in what particular form 

 belt, clump, or block and with what kinds of trees, so as to gather and 

 dispense all the virtues that trees are known to possess, is the great prob- 

 lem of the future. To say that we should replant only our less valuable 

 soils is nonsense, though sensible enough from the cultivated standpoint ; 

 that high lands should be conserved or reclad as against lower parts is 

 largely true, though not generally applicable, and that conserving and re- 

 planting must go hand in hand, and take place anywhere as found neces- 

 sary through experience, is correct in every sense. 



Following this view of the subject there is naturally that of 



SUITABILITY OF CERTAIN KINDS AND FORMS OF TREES FOR SPECIAL 



PURPOSES, 



Whether for neighbourhood of dwellings, road-side shade, shelter-belts, 

 field clumps, or for more extensive planting, efficiency and permanency in 



