THE FARMERS' REGISTER. 



363 



and New York, near the line dividing (he two oilier limber iban beach.Vuc/armanle'anH'Tpm'' 

 states ; they are generally 1-8, rarely 3 4 or a lock ; and some stately cheetnuls on the 



there were indeed other trees growing amont^ 

 those, but Irom iheir appearance very few of them 

 would attain to a large size except some birch, 

 and I have no doubt, that if culiivaling the coun- 

 try does not make some alteration in it, in another 

 century, the beech, sugar maple, hemlock, &c. 

 will be as scarce in those parts of the country, 

 where they now abound, as the oak is at pre- 



sent. 



'—42-45. 



A later communication to the same publication 

 from Judge Peters furnishes the Ibllowing pas- 



" In a conversation with Mr. Rembrandt Peale, 

 who adds to talents promising to render him great- 

 ly eminent as a portrait painter, a knowledge of 

 natural history, in some of its most curious 

 brann.hes, the subject ol changes of timber was 



growth of oak and hickory." 



* * » # # 



A letter from Kembrandt Peale saye, 

 " ' In addition to this paragraph, I need only re- 

 mark, that these morasses contain abundance of 

 pine burs,* together with the trunks and branches 

 of wood evidently pine (specimens of both 

 are now in the Museum, case No. 4,) of which I 

 do not remember to have seen a tree growing in 

 the neighborhood, and that it is only (rora the "cir- 

 cumstance being so universally known by the in- 

 habitants that it is not often spoken of.' "—p. 300. 

 * * # # # 



Dr. Charles Caldwell, formerly of North Caro- 

 lina, writes as follows : 



" In other parts of North Carolina, where the 



mentioned. He iiilbrmed me ol the circumstances I g'"'^^^'.^^ of timber consists almost entirely of oak 



attending their search for the bones of tiie mam 

 moth, in Orange and Ulster counties, in the state 

 of New York, in 1801. He was so kind as to 

 gratily me, by presenting to me two pamphlets ; 

 accompanied by a letter, which I send lor the pe- 

 rusal of the society. I transcribe the passage he 

 alludes to, relating to the timber." 



# * * # # 



" ' Many of the cavities (says Mr, Peale's pam- 

 phlet between these knolls are dry, others are in a 

 in a state of ponds, but an infinite number con- 

 taining morasses, which must originally have 

 been ponds, supplied by springs which still 

 flow at their bottoms, and filled in the course of 

 ages with a 6ucce^?sion of shell fish and the decay 

 ol vegetables ; so that at present they are covered 

 with timber, and have been so within the memory 

 of man. An old man, upwards of sixty, inlbrmed 

 us that all the diH'erence he ecu d remark between 

 thesemorasses now, and what they were fifty 

 years'ago, was, that then they wtre generally 

 covered with firs, and now with beech. This 



and hickory, if this be removed, it will be succeeded 

 in a lew years by a general and plentiful crop of 

 young pines. Nor is it necessary to the success 

 ol this experiment, that the place cleared should 

 be in a piny neighborhood. The event will take 

 place with equal certainty, though there be not a 

 pine within many miles." 



* * * # # 



*■ Certain tracts of that state (New Jersey) are 

 covered entirely with forests of pine. If these be 

 cut down, and the land not put immediately under 

 cultivation, they are succeeded in a lew 3'ear8 by 

 a plentiful growth of young oaks. I am told that 

 in some parts of New Jersey, nurseries of young 

 oaks produced in this way are to be found in the 

 centre of extensive forests of pine. I will not 

 vouch for the truth of this (act. All I can say re- 

 specting it is, that I received it from a very re- 

 spectable source, and that it perfectly comports in 

 principle with what 1 have myself seen. 



"In the course of the last century, the white 

 pine sprang up spontaneously in a place called 



was verified by ihe branches and logs of fir which Duxborough, in the state of Massachusetts, 

 we Ibund in digging ; many pieces of which had without having been previously a native of the 

 been cut by beavers, the former inhabitants of | "^'=hborhood. Between twenty and thirty years 



these places, when in the state of ponds. Scarce- 

 ly a fir is now to be found in the country.' "—298. 



# # * # •' # 



Judge Peters continues, 



" My son Richan), who, with Mr. Adlum, ac- 

 companied me, in 1797 or 1798, on a tour into Ihe 

 wilderness in Lycoming county, to view some of 

 my new lands, reminds me, that on these lands, 

 lovariably, the old decayed timber long blown 

 down, or fallen with age, was of an entirely differ- 

 ent species from that standing. We found flou- 

 rishing ash, 6 feet diameter, sugar maple 6 leet 

 through ; and we measured one buttonwood, on 



ago, there was a man still livmg who ' had a 

 perfect recollection of the first pine that ever made 

 i's appearance in the township ; whereas, at 



*" This not only proves the pre-existence of a growth 

 of pine timber, on the lands now occupied by a spe- 

 cies entirely different ; but it goes much further, in 

 support of the analogy between natural and artificial 

 producte. This ' abundance of pine burs,' which 

 we know contain the seed, found on these lands, is an 

 indisputable evidence of there having been seed in 

 plenty to produce pine timber, if the land had not been 

 pine-sicl{ : — to use a country phrase, applied to lands 

 which will no longer admit of a repetition of the sainv 

 jiind of crop. R, Peters," 



