302 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER, 



MARCH 84^,1841. 



AND HORTICULTURAL RF.GISTER. 

 BosTOK, Wednesday, March 24, 1841. 



TENTH AND LAST AGRICULTURAL MEETING 

 AT THE STATE HOUSE. 



Mr Geo. B. Emerson, of this city, who has been em- 

 ployed by ihe Commonwealth to collect and dis^seminjite 

 infornialion relalive to the Forest Trees of llie btate, in- 

 formed the meeting tijat he had long been interested in 

 the subject ; for more than twenty years he has been 

 accustomed lo take his recreations, in roaming the Pir- 

 ests and sludving their constituents. Titese forests 

 Jiave been liis benefactors in point of health and enjoy. 

 inent. Once our do nain was almost an unbroken for- 

 est. He laments to .see it so rapidly wasting away, and 

 would rojftice to see ne\,^ forests rising up in our mi«^t. 

 Compared with the native trees of old England, Massa- 

 chusetts is rich in what Iter soil produces. We have 

 given to the mother land more than bOO varieties of trees 

 and shrubs. A long table was here given by Mr E. of 

 the number of oaks, maples, &c. of Mass. and those of 

 England. We omit the table, but give the footing of 

 the columns, which shows that our tall timber trees 

 amount lo 5G. While tiiose th:t are itutivcs in old Enfr- 

 land numbir only 27, 



He has no Ijelief that our 360,000 acres of unimprova- 

 ble lands, are in fact unimprovable. Some of our trees 

 would grow on every soil. Tiie most unpromising sands 

 in France have been made to grow the pine. '1 here is 

 no such tiling as absolutely barren sands; the rains and 

 snows will deposile Fomething favorable to vegetable 

 growth wherever they fiill. The pitch pine is best suit- 

 ed to the sandy plains. Our bare and rocky hills would 

 bear the larch. The Duke of Athol has covered 10,000 

 acres of such land with the larch. Our wet marshes 

 or meadows are the most difficult to operate upon, but 

 these will bear the white crdar, which may be introduc- 

 ed by sim[dy sowing the seed. 



General nses of the Forests. Climate is affected by 

 ihem. As the forests are stripped away the climate be- 

 comes drier. Our streams dry up as the woods— great 

 reservoirs of water — are removed. These woods prevent 

 the escape of water by evaporation ; they soften the cli. 

 mate. They are conductors of electricity from the 

 clouds, and thus are contributors to the fertility of the 

 soil. Over a bare country the winds have nothing to 

 break their force, and consequently sweep with violence. 

 A bare hill gives no protection, while one covered with 

 trees breaks the force of the wind. By their annual de- 

 posits of leaves and wood for decomposition, the forests 

 contiibute steadily to the fe; tilily of the soil. As fuel, 

 our forests are worth to the Commonwealth $5,000,000 

 annually. Their worth as limber, and as furnisliing 

 materials for furniture, &c., are well known. 



Wo desire tliat the briefness of our report may not 

 lead to the inference ihat the address was not deemed 

 worthy of more extended notice. We were muih fa. 

 tigued by the labors of the day, and feel unable to make 

 our notes as full as usu-tl. And so many days have 

 elapsed since the meeting, that we fear our memory 

 may not servo us faithfully if we attempt lo draw f.om 

 that alone. The remarks of Mr E. were both interest- 

 ing and instructive. 



Dr. C. T. Jackson remarked, that he had very recent- 

 ly learned a curious fact, vvhieli might be appropriately 

 stated. Chemists in France have f(« nd that by cutting 

 down a tree when the sap flows freely, coating the end 

 where it has been cut with pitch or some other similar 

 substance, boring with an auger to the heart of the tree 



near the butt, arirl pouring into the hole a colored liquid, 

 that the liquid will be carried up by the sap vessels, and 

 will color the wood and the leaves. In this way you 

 give any color you choose. Linseed oil was thus dif- 

 fused through the wood in one instance, and it was 

 found 10 add much to tb > durability of the timber. 



EDUCATION OF SHEEP. 



We were highly pleased a day or two since, by hear- 



paper, and to obtain subscribers for it, we shall esiec.i 

 their good word and their labour in our behalf a persun;t 

 favor. 



ing an intelligent farmer from New .Sileni state, that 



the dispositions <if shee|i in regard to leaping f,;nces and { county 



OBJECTS OF AN AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



(From Mr Huntington's ..Address before the Essez .Agri- 

 cultural iioeiety.) 



The direct and main object of our union, Dnder the 

 form of a society, is to improve, and extend, as far as 

 may be, the agricultural resources and wealth of the 

 This object cannot be fully accomplished, until 



rambling', are the result.'! of education. On his fnrm, 

 sheep have fed quietly for thirty years, in a pasture en- 

 closed b)' n common stone wall, and have never shown 

 any disposition to get out. One of his neighbftrs thought 

 he must have exercised the powers of a witch fiver the 

 flock, to make it so contented. .\nd what, reader, think 

 you was the process by which he charmed them .' it 

 was simply confining them to a yard in the winter. His 

 flock are of his own raising. They have never been 

 allowed to leave their pen in the winter. Where per- 

 ntission to do this is granted, especially when snow is 

 on a jiarl of the ground, arid i.s dei'p and solid undiT the 

 walls, the sheep pass from place to place with ease, and 

 find the rich spots in the fields; as the snow wastes 

 away gradually, they learn from day to day to leap 

 higher, and when the snow has entirely disappeared, 

 lliey have so practiced and leained the arts of dimbino- 

 anii jnmpinjr, that a cominon stone fence is no barrier 

 against their reaching the spots where the best feed is 

 to be found- After this it is exceedingly diffiiuilt to 

 keep them where you would hare lliem feed. A young 

 flock, with no badly educated old ones to lead Ihem 

 astray, will never give you trouble, if you do not shame- 

 fully neglect your fences, or suffer the sheep to roam 

 wheti the snow-banks reduce the height of the fences. — 

 Is there not good sense in this farmer's advice to his 

 brother farmeis, that they gire their sheep a good edu- 

 cation ? 



COMPARATIVE WORTH OF POTATO AND 

 ROOT CROPS. 



An intelligent farmer from beyond tlie Connecticut 

 river, with whom we have had a pleasant acquaintance 

 as an associate in legislation, has lefl with us the fol- 

 lowing questions, which we should be happy to have 

 any one of our correspondents answer. 



Can there be raised more iccight of roots, such as tur- 

 nips, ruta bagas, sugar beets, &c , than of Merino or oth- 

 er prolific potatoes on the same quantity of ground .' If 

 so, liow much ni'iri'. 



Which will fatten the most, make the most beef or 

 pork, pound for jjound ? 



Allowing the fact that you can raise more weight of 

 roots than of potatoes, is not the additional expense of 

 cultivating the roots, and of cutting them np so that 

 the slock can eat them, more than the extra profit, to 

 say nothing of the injury done to the land by the roots.' 



all its members, and especially the practical farmers, 

 lonsider it a personal and imperative duty to bring out 

 and place upon record in our annual publication, all the 

 valuable results of their experience. * * The wis- 

 dom of the world is founded on the experience of the 

 world. This is emphatically true of the art which it is 

 our design to promote. Every fanner, who pursues his 

 calling with that zeal, enlerprize and intelligence, which 

 all men should endeavor to bring to the prosecution of 

 their lawful business, will Warn someth ng every year, 

 which it is important that otheis should know. That 

 something should be communicated lor the commor. 

 benefit. The lights of experience and true knowledge 

 should not be suffered to expire in one's own breast, tint 

 should shine forth on our published records for the illu- 

 mination of the general mind. To this end, let every 

 farmer who has good reason to believe that in any one 

 thing he is wiser this year than he was the last, brin" 

 up here a brief narrative of the matter, to whatevei 

 branch of husbandry it m.ay relate ; and if this duty 

 should be fully discharged by our intelligent yeomanr\ , 

 abstracts might be prepared for publication, from such 

 narratives, which would be of invaluable service in ad- 

 vancing the agricultural interests of the county. * " 

 II our farmers will bring out to the public view, from 

 time to time, the results of their own experience, the 

 boundaries of knowledge will be enlari;ed, and an actual 

 progress will be made in the promotion of this great and 

 paramount inlerest of society. • « J cannot press 

 this subject too earnestly on your attention. I believe 

 this to be the great sphere of our u-efulness as a society. 

 Notloidiing to premiums or gratuities, as the objects of 

 our labcjr«, but to a greater recompense of reward, the 

 cohsciousni ss of having discharged our wfiole duty, let 

 us press forward, in the anxious iindi'avor to extend the 

 boundaries of a just and true agricultural knowledge, Ic 

 be applied in making our own ancient and honored coun- 

 ty the gsrden and ornament of the State — rich in its va- 

 rious and useful productions, and the home of a content, 

 ed, moral, intelligent and ihrifiy yeomanry. 



MASSACHUSETTS LEGISLATURE. 

 Being released fiom any farther duties at the House, 

 we hope to do better fir our readers in futuri- than we 

 have been able to thus far. To those who have been 

 associated wilh us in legislation, we give an invitation 

 to call upon us at our office whenever they may be in 

 the city ; to furnish us with any mailers that may be 

 useful and interesling to the farming community; to 

 say among their neighbors and friends whatever they 

 may honestly think of us and of our paper, in connexion 

 with the farming interests; and if any of them find it 

 convenient and agreeable to say a word in favor of our 



Sowing Grass Seeds. — If there is one point of hus- 

 bandry more than another in which farmers are general- 

 ly defective, it is the niggardly way in which they use 

 grass seeds in their tillage. If any seeds are sown not 

 more than half the quantity required is often used thc- 

 fields are left bare, and the unoccupied ground becomes 

 a fit place for the vile weeds that are ever ready la 

 spring up, where the husbandman does not anlicipaie 



them, by giving the earth something more valuable. . 



Jllb. Cult. 



Times of general calamity and confusion, have ever 

 been productive of the greatest minds. The purest ore 

 is produced from the hottest furnace, and the britrhiest 

 thunderbolt is elicited from the darkest storm. Lacon. 



None are so fond of secrets as those who do not 

 mean to keep them ; — such persons covet secrets as a 

 spendthrift covets money — for the purpose of circula- 

 tion. — Jb. 



