618 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



[No. 9 



will stow when poutided — nolhincr need l)e said to 

 attempt to convince you that a mass containing the 

 greater number of loads, will keep longer than one 

 containing only the less number. But this is not 

 all — when the ice comes into use. that which was 

 packed is easily raised in large, native, solid, bril- 

 liant lumps, which will last more than twice as 

 long, alter being brought to the cooler, &c. as that 

 which has been pounded. 



I thought I would have given you the size and 

 plan of a good cheap ice-house, I have already 

 trespassed too far with the long story of my ex- 

 perience. Your obedient servant, 



Cr(esinus. 



From the Penny Magazine. 

 Till: FORESTS OF AMERICA. 



Those who have never explored the primeval 

 forests of America, can form but a very imperfect 

 conception of the depth of the gloom and solemni- 

 ty which every-where prevades them. Save on 

 some of the south-western ridses, such as inter- 

 sect the great valley of the Ohio (or instance, 

 where, beneath the outspreading branches of the 

 oak, the chestnut, ihe walnut, and the sycamore, 

 you find spots of luxuriant herbage, and myriads 

 of bright and beautiful flowers, all the rest of the 

 interminable woods that 1 ever, in my devious 

 rambles, have explored, are wholly destitute of 

 herbage, yielding neither grass nor flowers. 

 Wherever you tread, the surface of the ground is 

 thickly strewn wilh decayed and decay in"g leaves; 

 and dead branches, of various shapes and sizes, 

 are daily toppling down from the lofty stems to 

 which they have belonged. And though the 

 winds may rage, and the storm may beat,' in the 

 tops of the tall forest-trees, yet there reigns an 

 everlasting stillness near the surface of the'earth; 

 not a breath of air is there to stir the light and 

 withered leaves: where they fall, there they are 

 suffered to moulder and decay. The bouridless 

 covering of crisp and brown leaves becomes par- 

 tially enlivened by the green of the young seed- 

 lings, which spring up by thousands durmg the 

 summer season; but as the all-vivifyiui? inflirence 

 of the glorious orb of "liiiht and life" cannot 

 reach their lowly condition, for the most part they 

 pine and die, their places being supplied with ano- 

 ther crop of these "annuals"' each succeeding 

 summer. 



It would be tedious to enutnerate all the varie- 

 ties of timber-trees found in the vast wildernesses 

 of America; yet there is, in almost every section of 

 the country, some predominant species, from 

 which the woods acquire their appropriate name 

 and character. The chief of these may be com- 

 prised in the four Ibllowing, namely,— oak-woods, 

 beech-woods, pine-woods, and cedar-swamps, or 

 barrens. All these forests are g'oomy, but they 

 liave their comparative degrees of depth of shade: 

 the oak-vvoods being the least dark, because of the 

 trees standing further apart; the beech-woods in 

 the next degree; and then comes the sullen pine; 

 and, lastly, the sombre cedar. When the sun is 

 in its meridional summer splendor, a quiet, chaste 

 and mellow light is admitted throuirh the veil of 

 pale green and semi-transparent foliage of the 

 oak and beech woods. At that season, too, a few, 

 but only a very lew, summer-birds Irequent fo- 



rests of this character ; and whose song, if song 

 they have, ia wild, monotonous, and melancholy. 

 Occasionally, the ear is startled by the loud tap- 

 ping of some industrious but unmusical wood- 

 pecker ; and even in the depth of winter, its ra- 

 pid hammering may be heard from aliir, — for 

 some of the more hardy varieties of the wood- 

 pecker tribe do not migrate at the approach of the 

 most inclement seasons. Besides the lew birds 

 that usually frequent these forests, they are inha- 

 bited also by playflil sciuirrels, of three or four va- 

 rieties ; their haunts, however, being generally 

 confined to those tracts of country where mast 

 and nuts are in the greatest abundance ; lor in all 

 the northern regions of America they have to 

 store up provisions during the summer and au- 

 lunm, on which they have to depend tor a subsist- 

 ence through a long and rigorous winter. I have 

 already enumerated all of animated nature that 

 tends to lessen the gloom and loneliness of the 

 oak and beech woods ; for the larger animals 

 which are found there are but rarely seen: and 

 from their wild and savage habits and dispositions, 

 the heart of man can derive no pleasurable sym- 

 pathies or feelings. 



I have described these forests as they appear to 

 him who explores them during the sunny season 

 of summer ; but when the early frosts have 

 seared the foliage of the oak and the beech, — and 

 the autumnal tempests have scattered the leaves 

 of the walnut, the ash, and the maple, — the light 

 of day is more freely admitted through the lofty 

 branches of the ibrest trees. But the birds of 

 summer are gone ; and should the season be 

 pretty far advanced, the nimble-footed squirrels 

 will have retreated to their holes and cavities in 

 their favorite trees, no more to be seen sporting 

 and frolicking until the warm and congenial suns 

 of the ensuinir spring shall awake them to re- 

 newed life and activity. Even the larger wild 

 animals will have become more scarce by the time 

 that winter has lairly set in, lor some of them 

 will have gone into their retreat, and have become 

 torpid ; and those that remain, being now able to 

 discover man's approach at a greater distance, in 

 consequence of the foliage no longer impeding the 

 view, seldom suffer themselves to be closely ap- 

 proached. The winter snows lie smooth and un- 

 ruffled In the wilderness, save where is seen the 

 trail of some stalking deer, or the track of some 

 prowling fox or wolf. In the mountainous dis- 

 tricts, you occasionally come upon the footprints of 

 the American panther ; and in some of the west- 

 ern regions, the traveller will have an opportunity 

 of remarking upon the trails of small herds of elk 

 that have crossed his forest-path. 



I come next to speak of the pine woods, and 

 although they are not so common as the " green 

 woods," as those already described are fiimiliarly 

 called, — yet there are millions of acres of forest, 

 where pine, of two or three sorts, is the only, oC 

 at all events the generally prevailing timber. 

 When the summer sun is in its lull power and 

 splendor, the light, if light it may be called, in 

 the pine woods resembles faint and dubious twi- 

 light. This sreater degree of obscurity is caused, 

 partly by the darker and more impervious nature 

 of the foliage, and partly in consequence of the 

 pine-trees grov/ing closer to each other than other 

 forest trees generally do. Neither is there any 

 season in the year in which the trees are bare ; 



