520 



FARMERS' REGISTER 



[No. 3 



learned in Nature's secrets — if they can. During 

 the winter season the whole oi" the timber was cut 

 down upon a piece of ground containin<T about 

 twenty acres. This was in what was generaiiy 

 called the beech woods, Irom tiic major part of 

 the limber being beech ; but where there were 

 also small quantities of maple, birch, ash, &c. 

 During the iollowing summer, fire was applied to 

 this "chopped lallow," as tlie prostrate tuiibcr is 

 called ; and in the course of an hour all the dead 

 leaves, the decayed timber, and the smaller 

 branches of that which had been standing the 

 previous year, were entirely consumed. Circum- 

 stances occurred which prevented tiie remaming 

 trunks of the trees from being rolled together, in 

 the usual way, and burned ; so that in the condi- 

 tion described, this twenty-acre licld was permit- 

 ted to remain for several years. After the lapse 

 of a year or two, the whole field became a plan- 

 tation ol" young wild cherry-trees, although I am 

 not aware that a single cherry tree was growing 

 on the spot, or near it, at the time the timber was 

 cut down. Some few of this species of cherry 

 tree were to be met with in various paits oi' the 

 surrounding woods ; but it was altogether an ex- 

 reedinsly scarce sort of timber. During the first 

 and second year of the growth of this young cherry 

 plantation, I took considerable pains in searching 

 for the cherry stones, (il" such there were, or ever 

 had been,) by pulling the seedlings up by the roots, 

 and then examining ihe soil as minutely and care- 

 fully as possible. But for all my labor and re- 

 search, I was not rewarded by the discovery of a 

 vsinsle seed or stone ! Had the young trees been 

 left unmolested, here was a piece of ground, con- 

 taining twenty acres, that would, in the course of 

 !6rty or fifty years, (for this species of cherry is 

 of rapid growth) have become a perfect forest of 

 cherry-trees to that extent. Now, permit me to 

 ask, is it probable that birds — fori have previously 

 stated that very few inhabit the wilderness — should 

 have brought hither all the cherry stones li-om 

 which so many thousand seedlings, (I have no 

 other name by which to designate them) sprung 

 up in this identical spot? Or is it possible that all 

 those young trees should have sprung up without 

 there being any seed (cherry stones) in the 

 ground at air? And supposing they were there, 

 irom whence, or when did they come? 



On other occasions I have known oaks and 

 hickories, and maples cut down, and instead of 

 their places becoming supplied bj' a new genera- 

 tion of their own particular species, after the 

 ground has been left uncultivated for a few years, 

 a general and full crop of young pine trees has 

 sprung up. Now here again, who or what could 

 have brought the cones of some distant pine tree 

 to this particular spot? And if they had been 

 brought, was it by mere accident that they were 

 strewn so regularly over the whole surface? 



Far into the interior of the continent of Ame- 

 rica, in the midst of immense tracts of forest, you 

 sometimes fall in with small openings, — patches 

 of ground from which the Indians, orthe early fur- 

 traders, have taken away the timber, or perhaps 

 consumed it on the spot. In some instances, these 

 places will be overgrown with immense briers and 

 iarambles ; but occasionally grass will have 

 sprung up, and there you may find as luxuriant 

 plants of the common white clover as are to be 

 met with in any part of our own island, or even 



in the rich pastures of Holland. Here again is a 

 dilemma. Either birds or beasts (and none but 

 wild ones have ever been there !) must have 

 brought the seed, or else it must have lain dor- 

 mant in the soil, for I know not how many cen- 

 turie.*!, or the soil must have produced it sponta- 

 neously. I have stated these things precisely as 

 they are; and all that I shall advance upon the sub- 

 ject, is, that I know them to be facts. 



When trees tumble down in the forests through 

 absolute age and decay, their places are generally 

 supplied by saplings, that have long been strug- 

 ling in the shade near them, either of iheir own 

 or some other species. But when a chestnut tree 

 falls its place is commonly filled by one of its own 

 kind ; lor a number of sprouts shoot up from tfle 

 root of the parent while it is still standing, one of 

 which taking the lead of the rest, grows up in due 

 time into a forest tree ; while the rest of them 

 droop and die lor wantof proper aliment. I have 

 been able to trace distinctly three or four genera- 

 tions of the chestnut ; lor, owing to its decaying so 

 slowly, the old fallen trees do not wholly disap- 

 pear until their children and grand-children have 

 grown up, flourished, languished in old age, and 

 at last fallen beside them. 



INDIA RUBBER, OR CAOUTCHOUC, 



Is slightly analogous to silk. It is a remarkable 

 fact, that all the plants the silk-worm feeds on 

 contain a larger or smaller quantity of caoutchouc 

 such as the lettuce, dandelion, nmlberry tree, &c. 

 In the Brazils, and more particularly in those 

 parts where the India rubber tree (Ficus elastica) 

 abounds, large moths, of Irom 2 inches to 3 inches 

 in length, producing excellent silk, in large quan- 

 tities, are very common. From the variety of 

 useful purposes, to which India rubber is applica- 

 ble, (from a lady's watch-guard or stay-lace, to a 

 ship's cable,) a great demand has been created 

 lor this article, which has induced the nr.ercantile 

 world to bend its attention to it, as a valuable re- 

 mittance. It is a singular fact, that, wherever the 

 teak tree flourishes, there the India rubber plant 

 may be found in abundance, namely, 20° north 

 and south of the equator. — £ng. Newspaper. 



From Loudon's Gardeners' Magazine. 

 ANTISEPTIC PROPERTY OF HONEY. 



The best mode of conveying grafts of trees, 

 cuttings of vines, &c., to a distance, is to place 

 them in a tin case or cylinder filled with honey. 

 The honey hermetically excludes the air ; and 

 cuttings so preserved will vegetate many months 

 alter they have been packedT— [JMelons, and va- 

 rious fruits, are preserved in this way in Italy. — 

 Cond.] 



From Loudon's Gardeners' Magazine. 

 NOTICE OF BIR. JOYCe's APPARATUS FOB 

 HEATING BY STEAM. 



In the first week of June last, we called on IVIr. 

 Joyce, at his market-garden, in Camberwell, New 

 Road, in order to see a mode of heating by steam 

 which he has invented, and for which, he informs 



