422 



FARMERS' REGISTER 



[No. 7 



is aimed at, as if the forest was ready to receive 

 and fatten ihem now, as formerly. The size and 

 appearance of ourneal cattle, compared with those 

 for which nature or good husbandry has provided 

 sufficient Jbod, are prools that their food is not in 

 proportion to their number; and (hat where the 

 food cannot be increased, the number ought to be 

 reduced. 



VII. Of all the errors in our rural economy, 

 none is perhaps so much to be regretted, because 

 none is so difficult to be repaird, as the injudicious 

 and excessive destruction of limber aiidfirewood. 

 It seems never to have occurred that the fund 

 was not inexhaustible, and that a crop of trees 

 could not be raised as quickly as one of wheat or 

 corn. 



Here again, we are presented with a proof of 

 the continuance of the practice tor which the rea- 

 sons have ceased. When our ancestors arrived, 

 they found the trees of the forest the great obsti- 

 cle to their settlement, and cultivation. The 

 great effort was of course to destroy the trees. It 

 would seem that they contracted and transmitted 

 an antipathy to them; for the trees were not even 

 spared around the dwellings, where their shade 

 would have been a comfort and their beauty an 

 ornament; and it is of late years only, that these 

 -advantages have been attended to. In fact, such 

 has been the inconsiderate and indiscriminate use 

 of the axe, that this country is beginuino; to feel 

 the calamity as much as some of the old coun- 

 tries of Europe; and it will soon be forced to un- 

 derstand the "lifficulty of curing it. A vast propor- 

 tion of the farms on the eastern side of the Blue 

 Ridge, and some even, on the other side, have but 

 a scanty fund lor present use, and are without a 

 fund for permanent use. And to increase the evil, 

 the remnant of timber and fuel on many farms, in- 

 adequate as it is left in situations remote fi-om the 

 dwelling, and incapable of being divided, accord- 

 ing to the divisions, and sub-divisions, into which 

 all the large farms must be rapidly forced by the 

 law of descendants, the impulses of parental af- 

 fection, and other causes. 



It is high time for many farmers, even in this 

 quarter, and still more so in the country below us, 

 to take this subject into serious consideration. 

 Prudence will no longer delay to economize what 

 remains of wood land; to foster the second growths 

 where taking place in convenient spots; and to 

 commence, when necessary, plantations of the 

 trees recommended by iheir utility and quick- 

 ness of growth. 



I wish I could more satisfactorily estimate the 

 proportion of wood land which ouixht to belong to 

 every farm, as a permanent fund of timber for 

 building and repairing houses; for fiances, where 

 live or stone ones may not have been introduced; 

 for wheel carriages, and the other apparatus 

 needed on farms. The estimate is the more dif- 

 ficult, because it must be varied according to ma- 

 ny circumstances; particularly according^ to the 

 nature of the soil, and the kind of trees at once 

 suited to it, and to the uses to be made of them. 



Estimating the crop of wood yielded by an 

 acre at twenty cords, the period of re-production 

 at twenty years, and the average number of cords 

 annually consumed at a fire place, including the 

 culinary consumption, at ten cords; everv fire 

 ■place on a farm will require ten acres for a per- 

 manent supply of fuel. For the other necessi- 



ties of the farm, several acres more ought to be 



added. 



An estimate in a very sensible publication, enti- 

 tled "the New England Farmer," makes seven- 

 teen acres necessary for a fire place. The win- 

 ters there are longer, and the climate may be lesa 

 favorable to the quick growth of trees. JBut their 

 houses are generally closer than with us; to say 

 nothing of a more judicious management than 

 can be enlorced on most of our farms. 



To this catalogue of errors in our rural econo- 

 my, considerable as it is, many, I flear. might be 

 added. The task of pointing them out, I gladly 

 leave to others, less incapable than I have shown 

 myself to be by the very imperlect manner in 

 which I have performed the one on which I ven- 

 tured. 



A PLAIN EXPLANATION OF THE DIFFERENT 

 OPERATIONS OF BANKING, AND THEIR EF- 

 FECTS ON THE INTERESTS OF THE COM- 

 BI UNITY. 



Extract from the. Report on the Renewal of Bank 

 , Charters, 



Made to the Senate of Pennsylvania, by Mr. Raguet, Chairman, 

 on the 15tli of January, 18-21. 



The numerous evils which have been inflicted 

 upon the people of the United States, within the 

 last lew years, by the abuses of the banking sys- 

 tem, make a strong appeal to the fet-lings as well 

 as to the understandings of those, who are invest- 

 ed with the power of legislation ; and imperiously 

 demand of them, so to direct their attention to the 

 subject, as that their constituents may not again 

 be visited by so destructive a calamity as that 

 which has involved so many thousands in irre- 

 trievable ruin. Your committee are aware of the 

 difficulties with which this subject is surrounded — 

 of the confficting opinions in relation to it enter- 

 tained by our most respectable citizens — and ofthe 

 impracticability of'their beino-ubleso to elucidate the 

 question, as to carry conviction to the minds of all. 

 They flatter themselves, however, that they have 

 it in their power to advance some principles con- 

 nected with the matter referred to them, which, if 

 adopted by the legislature, will in a great degree, 

 if not eti'ectually, guard the community against the 

 inordinate and dangerous influence of raonied in- 

 stitutions. The present moment is one peculiarly 

 adapted for a cool, dispassionate investigation of 

 this momentous subject. Some of the banks, 

 whose charters will expire io the years 1824 and 

 1825, have already made applications for renewals 

 of'their charters, and as the public mind is in a 

 great degree divested of those tumultuous passions, 

 which during the pressure arising from the rapid 

 reduction ot bank loans, every where prevailed, 

 our citizens can now soberly reflect upon their 

 condition, and deliberately judge ofthe true merits 

 ofthe case. 



An opinion is almost universally entertained. 

 That banks are useful to the public, inasmuch 

 as they afford facdities in the safe keeping of 

 money — in the payment of large sums by checks 

 or translers on their books — in the transmission of 

 funds — in the furnishing of a convenient and por- 

 table currency — and in the loaning of money to 

 merchants, farmers, and others who have occasion 

 to borrow. 



