CHAPTER VII. 



CLEARING OF TRKES, STUMPS AND STONES. 



1 EMEMBER there were only about 35 acres on my 

 farm that were reasonably suitable for tillage. 

 Of these about 10 had timber on when I came 

 here. It was not thick, heavy timber, but rather 

 scattering. The best had been sold out. I thought 

 I could hardly do anything worth while on less 

 than all of this land, and so decided to get rid of the timber. 

 When I talked with some meighbors about it they said they would 

 not think of cutting off that timber. ' ' Why what would a farm 

 be without a wood lot, or somewhere to go and get some logs 

 when lumber is wanted ? ' ' Everyone advised strongly against my 

 plan. " What will you do for wood? " says one. " You never 

 can sell your farm without timber," says another. Well, after 

 getting all their advice I thought and figured a little for myself, 

 no, not a little, but a good deal. I did not want to do an unwise 

 thing, and financially I could not afford to make the slightest mis- 

 take. I did not figure out as good results as actually came, but 

 they were good enough, so I began on the clearing. Of course, I 

 could not do it all at once, without capital, but had my plans 

 laid and worked to them as fast as possible. Some told me that 

 it wasn't right for a man to cut off all his timber ; that every one 

 ought, for the public good (to break the wind, increase the rain- 

 fall etc.), to keep some timber on his farm. It seemed to me that 

 when the State became satisfied that such a course was necessary 

 for the benefit of the public, she might pay for it. An individual 

 certainly had a moral right as well as a legal one to manage the 

 matter for his individual interest. How otherwise could each bear 

 his just share of the burden, unless it was controlled in some 

 way by law and inducements offered to land owners to keep 

 such a percentage of their farms covered with timber ? But does 

 cutting off the timber really have anything to do with decreasing 

 rainfall or changing temperature ? 



I have before me a carefully prepared paper by Prof. I. O. 

 Baker, using data collected by the Smithsonian Institute of 

 Washington, D. C., representing in the aggregate 249 years of 

 observations. This paper shows conclusively that we have had 

 very dry periods and very wet ones, nor is it possible to trace the 

 cause to the clearing of the land or draining, not in the least. 

 For example, from 1832 to 1844 the rain-fall was below the 

 average in the wide expanse of territory where record was kept. 



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