MY FARM OF EDGEWOOD 



sufficient size for farm repairs and fencing 

 material. A half acre of average growth will 

 supply at least one roaring winter's fire, be- 

 side the chestnut for f3,rm purposes. And thus 

 with twenty acres of wood, cut over each year, 

 half acre by half acre, I have forty years for 

 harvesting my crop ; and then, the point where 

 I entered upon my wood field is more than 

 ready for the axe again. Indeed, considering 

 that thirty years are ample for the growth of 

 good-sized fire wood, I have a margin of ten 

 years' extra growth, which may go to pin 

 money ; or may be credited to some few favor- 

 ite timber trees that stand upon the edge of the 

 pasture, and pay rental in the picture they 

 give of patriarchal grace— to say nothing of 

 an annual harvest of chestnuts. 



Woodland, again, gives dignity to a country 

 place; it shows a crop that wants a man's age 

 to ripen it; a company of hoary elders — con- 

 servatives, if you will — to preside amid the 

 lesser harvests, and to parry the rage of tem- 

 pests. Mosses plant their white blight, as gray 

 hairs come to a man ; but the core is sound, and 

 the life sap swift, and in it are the juices of a 

 thousand leaves, 



A wood, too, for a contemplative mind is 

 always suggestive. Its aisles swarm with 



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