214 



Three Millions of Dollars saved to Pennsylvania. Vol. IV. 



that they maybe rendered profitable to them- 

 selves and those who may succeed tliem. 

 Suppose a few quarts of chestnuts were de- 

 posited in proper situations in these blank 

 places, an inch or two below the surface of 

 the ground, at a proper season of the year, 

 (which I sliould say would be at the time 

 they were ripe in the autumn,) what do you 

 thmk would be the result 1 Would they not 

 grow up and become trees, and make rails or 

 posts that would be worth ten or twelve cents 

 a piece ] Aye, that's what they would, and 

 that without any further labor or attention on 

 your part. I have often thought that if boys 

 would plant some of their chestnuts instead 

 of eating or selling them, they would gain 

 more by it in the end. There arc thousands 

 of acres of land which have had all the mar- 

 row taken out of them by ignorant and con- 

 ceited people; I will not call them farmers, 

 because they are a disgrace to the profession, 

 which it would be mucli better to plant with 

 chestnuts or some other valuable description 

 of trees, than to attempt to keep it under that 

 species of wretched cultivation which will 

 sooner or later bring its occupant within the 

 confines of the county poor house. 



In Scotland and other parts of Great Britain, 

 but particularly the former, the business of 

 planting forest trees has been prosecuted to a 

 great extent for a long period of time, and 

 the profits arising from it have been very 

 great to the proprietors. The planting of 

 course has been on grounds not adapted to 

 profitable cultivation of grass or grain crops. 

 Those who engage in this business either 

 have nurseries where they bring forward the 

 young trees, or they purchase them at a low 

 rate from nurserymen who cultivate them for 

 sale to planters. 



" The value of the planted woods of Dar- 

 naway in Scotland in 1830, was £130,000 

 sterling (about 8600,000.) The annual in- 

 crease in growth of oak and fir, exceeds, in a 

 threefold ratio, the amount of timber thinned 

 or cut out every year; and as the system pur- 

 sued is, for every fir that is cut down to plant 

 two oaks, in the course of fifty years the whole 

 forest of Darnaway will be one mass of oak. 

 The total number of trees planted in this for- 

 est in forty-three years, was 12,187,550, viz. 



Oak, - 



Scotch Fir, - 



Ash, Elm, Beech, &c. 



1,114,200 



10,346,000 



728,290 



Since the sprinc" of 1829, there has been 

 planted in it 911,000 oaks." 



Tlie above e.xhibits the i)lanting of timber 

 trees on a grand scale, and there are many 

 others in Scotland that fall but little below it ; 

 and it is said to bo attended with large and 

 profitable annual returns, for the business of 



cutting out and replanting is constantly go- 

 ing on. 



It is not expected, neither do our situation 

 and circumstances require that we should, at 

 least in the present generation, go to work 

 and plant whole forests, but the destructive 

 propensities of the people of this country have 

 been such in regard to timber trees, that we 

 are already beginning to feel the effects of 

 our folly in the neighbourhood of our house.s, 

 when obliged to buy materials for fencing, 

 and the sooner we retrace our steps the bet- 

 ter : I would therefore propose to make a com- 

 mencement by planting of chestnut or other 

 valuable trees in vacant spaces in wood lands, 

 or in situations where profitable cultivation 

 cannot be carried on. Tiie expense Vv'ill be 

 small, and the profit, I suspect, will not fall 

 below that derived fi'om the raising of multi- 

 caulis trees. 



Agricola. 



For tlie Farmers' Cabinet. 



Tlirec Millions of Dollars saved to Penm" 

 sj'lvaiiia. 



" A iienny saved is two pence earned." 



Assum.ing that one-half the population of 

 the state of Pennsylvania belong to the class 

 of Agriculturists, and that on an average each 

 family is composed of six persons, we arrive 

 at the conclusion that there are one hundred 

 and fifty thousand farmers with their families 

 carrying on the great business of producing 

 food for man and beast, within the boundaries 

 of the commonwealth. Now if any plan can 

 be sufigested by which each of these families 

 can either save or produce twenty dollars n 

 year more than heretofore, it v/ill make an 

 aggregate amount of three millions of dollars 

 per annum, added to the wealth of the agri- 

 cultural community alone ; and this sum would 

 pay the interest on the state debt, and liqui- 

 date the principal in a few years. Every 

 farmer who will introduce water into his barn- 

 yard by means of a pump, cistern, or by direct- 

 ing a small rill of water into a ti-ough for the 

 purpose of furnisliing a regular supply of 

 water for his stock during the winter season, 

 to obviate the necessity of permitting the ani- 

 mals to wander forth in search of drink, and 

 by that means wasting their manure, will 

 certainly save more than ten dollars worth 

 of the most valuable article that is to be found 

 on a farm annually. Sam Slick would say, 

 "that's a fact;" for animals always make 

 their dejections most copiously immediately 

 after drinking, and lieing driven. Well tlien, 

 there we iiavc a million and a half of dollars 

 saved already, for one hundred and fifty tliou- 

 sand multiplied by ten, makes that sum. But 

 perliaps it may be said tliat it is only made 

 on paper ; well, so be it, but now let every 



