THE FARMERS' REGlSTEK. 



591 



tience havinfj recovered, if wns crrnHiially increased 

 eo OP 10 s\vr. enrh one {iCiy-iwo (uniiulg ol' corn in 

 ihe len diiyp. when they were weighed, and llie 

 fbllowinir is the resnll : — 



Mr. Taylor's JJIack Berkshire eow 



Beh'nda, trained - - - 21 lbs. 



Dr. JVlariin's Woburn Patience, 



sainfld 21 " 



Dr. Martin's Woburn Courtenay, 

 gained - - - - - 30 " 



Jamks Weathers, Jr. 

 Clarke County, A'y., .4ug.23, 1841. 



A PHENOMENON IN GRAFTING. 



From the Yanltee FaritiRr. 



Van Mons, one of the most intelligent horticul- 

 turists that ever lived, once tried an extraordinary 

 experiment in grafting ; that of inserting an entire 

 tree on the stump ofanother. 



A neighbor having in the spring season cut 

 down an apple-tree, about fifteen feet high, which 

 Van Mons considered a desirable kind, and a 

 good healthy tree, he immediately selected a 

 stock of similardimeneions, and cutting it off near 

 the ground, placed on it, by the mode of peg 

 grafting, the foster tree ; supported the tree by 

 stakes ; and excluded the air from the place of 

 junction, by plastering it with clay, and afterwards 

 heaping earth around it. The experiment suc- 

 ceeded perfectly ; the tree becoming in the course 

 of the second season nearly a.s vigorous as ever. 

 This experiment was more carious than useful, 

 but as a fact in natural history it is deserving of 

 notice. Few men would probably succeed in the 

 attempt. 



CULTIVATION OF THE PINE ON THE SHORES 

 OF GASCONY. 



From the New England Farmer. 



Economy is the welfare of states, as of individu- 

 als. By economy, in its best and widest sense, is 

 meant that just and wise distribution of means 

 and efforts, which, out of the given conditions, pro- 

 duces the largest sum of good and happiness. 



To spend little, is but one and a very meager 

 branch of economy — in many instances no econo- 

 my at all. In states, especially, to gather much is 

 at all events equally important. When we look 

 around upon the world, survey the numbers in 

 vyani almost of their daily bread, while the earth 

 given to man to be subdued and rendered produc- 

 tive by the labor of his hands, is still, in an infinite 

 number of cases, totally without culture, and 

 never, with a lew rare exceptions, producing what 

 it is capable by skill and industry of being made 

 to produce, it is impossible not to believe that our 

 knowledge of the science of political economy is 

 in its very infancy— its true principles little prac- 

 tised or understood. Man is seen on all sides in 

 that most affiecting of all situations, willing to 

 labor, crying for the privilege of being allowed to 

 work, starving in want of the merest^necessaries 

 of life, while the bounteous earth is spread 

 around him, offering her liberal rewards for labor, 

 and not finding hands. 



What inexhniipiible mines of wealih, yetiinex- 

 plored, does the; eiirlncc <<von ofour own well-peo- 

 pled and vvellciiliivaied Briiish islands present ; 

 what sources of richer', sirength and happiness lie 

 buried in the bogs of Ireland alone ! 



Soils (hr more ungrateful have, by a judicious 

 and economical cnlinre, been made the Iruitlul 

 source of wealih and (elicity, and perhaps there is 

 no contemplation more useful and agreeable, than 

 I hat of such a picture. 



The manner in which sand hills, such as those 

 which, covered wit!) wiry gras.s, line many of our 

 shores, have on the souihwesiern coasi of France 

 l>een rendered useful and productive in a high de- 

 gree, is a striking example ol well-directed and 

 successful efforts of this nature. 



In the departments of the Gironde and of the 

 Landes, on the shores of that stormy ocean which 

 raves between the mouth of the Gironde and Bny- 

 onne, the most magnificent pine forests are at this 

 day waving, where not many years ago was 

 nothing but a dreary and threatening desert of 

 sand. 



These forests cover an immense extent of land 

 round Teste and the basin of Arcachon, and might 

 be extended so as to cover the whole of the above 

 mentioned coast, an extent of sixty French 

 leagues, or about one hundred and filiy English 

 miles. 



Teste and the basin of Arcachon will be fotind, 

 on consulting the map, to lie on the shores of the 

 ocean, in the southern part of the department of 

 the Gironde, from which the department of the 

 Landes extends southwards. Every one in the 

 least acquainted with French geography has 

 heard of the Landes; of those immense level 

 plains— and has pictured to himself their dreary 

 monotony — their shepherds elevated on stilts and 

 wrapped in gray sheep-skins, leaning upon their 

 staffs, and watching, motionless, the flocks scat- 

 tered over the measureless pasture. 



The force of the western wind has raised upon 

 litis coast, as upon many others, hills of sand, 

 li-om thirty to sixty metres in height, (a metre is 

 something more than an English yard.) The 

 French give these sand hills the name of Dunes : 

 they are composed entirely of the dry sea sand, 

 driven inwards in various places, as upon some of 

 our own coasts. 



These sand hills having attained a certain ele- 

 vation, fall — are driven (hrward by the wind, and 

 invading the plains behind them, menace the 

 Landes with inevitable destruction. 



Populous towns have fallen victims to the ad- 

 vance of this slow, but as it was long thought, 

 irresistible enemy. The Dunes advanced annual- 

 ly, and the gradual destruction of the productive 

 plains might be predicted with mathematical cer- 

 tainty. Even the city of Bourdeaux itself seemed 

 doomed, sooner or later, to perish under this de- 

 luge of sand. 



This state of things at last excited public at- 

 tention, and towards the end of the last century, 

 the means of arresting this fatal progression were 

 sought (or, and, as is the usual consequence of 

 being sought !br, found. 



A man of the name of Bremontier, we do not 

 know whether he is yet living or not, imagined a 

 method of staying the plague, and of rendering 

 this element of desolation and despair a source oi 

 wealth and population. He formed and executed 



