120 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



March 



that system of culture which pushes them for- 

 ward early, that they may gtt well rooted, and 

 therefore be the better able to endure the droughts 

 of July and August, and thus arrive at early ma- 

 turity, before the frosts of Sej)tember, we think 

 must be the best system. Could v;e add another 

 month to the summer of our climate, we could 

 cultivate many crops, with a much less amount 

 of stimulants than Ave require at present. Now 

 we have to guard against the droughts of sum- 

 mer, and the early frosts of autumn, and I do 

 not esteem it safe practice, to deposit the manure 

 for the corn so deep in the soil that the growing 

 crops cannot reach it till late in the season. 

 When stable manure or compost is plowed in 

 deep, we would recommend the application of 

 well diluted guano, ashes or fine compost in the 

 hill. In this v/ay, with a season at all favorable, 

 the crop will rarely fail. 



This essay is valuable, because in preparing it, 

 the writer has had the advantage of a practical 

 experience on the soil to blend with his chemical 

 acquirements in the laboratory ; and this varied 

 knowledge has so tempered both as to give them 

 a value which a mere theorist cannot impart to 

 his productions. 



TH^ DESTRUCTION OF FOHESTS. 



By Robert Demcker. Landscape Gardiner in Cincinnati. 

 Translated for ttie Ohio Farmer, by Dr. C. A. Hartman, from 

 the German of the Cincinnati llochwcechter. 



The social life of the plants has recently given 

 rise to many contemplations and experiments, 

 the results of which are of the highest importance 

 to the tiller of the soil, as well as to th" horti- 

 culturist. We have learned, that the existence 

 of a great many plants depends on their associa- 

 tion in large masses, while others, small herbs 

 and even shrubs, need the protection of their tall- 

 er relation, the trees, under the shade of which 

 the carbonic acid finds the necessary temperature 

 for its decomposition, and proper assimilation by 

 the smaller plants ; for these the trees also pre- 

 pare the humus wanted for their further nour- 

 ishment, in the leaves and other parts fdlling ofi" 

 every year. Many social plants deprive the 

 ground of certain inorganic ingredients, which 

 are absorbed p.gain and given back by other 

 plants partly in their decomposition, partly in the 

 secretions of their roots. All these plants live 

 harmoniously together, supplying each other; 

 the life o*f the one kind wholly depends upon the 

 existence of the other. These facts have led to 

 the alternation of crops, and have made agricul- 

 tural chemistry one of the most important assis- 

 tants on the farm and in the garden. 



The large associations of high-grov/ing woody 

 plants, commonly called forests, are the genera- 

 tors and regulators of the vital air needed by the 

 animals ; they are also the fathers of the springs, 

 attracting the rain and spreading it successively 

 as well as proportionately over the ground where 

 mosses, and other herbs, with densely arranged 

 roots, detain the water so received for quite a 

 long time, and retard its evaporation. The dis- 

 appearing of the forest causes not only want of 

 wood and v^'ater, a dry and poor vegetation, but 

 usually promotes inundations. The falling rain 

 then washes down unhindered the soil from hill 



and mountain. Moss, turf, shrubbery, and trees 

 formerly took hold of the moisture, forming it 

 into lively springs, and quiet brooks ; now the 

 water runs down unimpeded, breaking loose and 

 carrying oft" the ground, spreading sands and 

 stones all over the fields and meadows, swelling 

 the rivers and inundating the surrounding coun- 

 try. In ilat regions and closed valleys, where 

 the forests are destroyed, the waters accumulate 

 and form unhealthy swamps. Formerly the trees 

 consumed, in these places, all superfluous fluidi- 

 ty, and the obnoxious gases arising from the 

 stagnant waters. The lluman Campagna, for in- 

 stance, once the well cultivated home of whole na- 

 tions, where nov/ the most pernicious fevers are 

 raging, the dreaded malaria drives off in summer 

 time the few inhabitants to the neighboring 

 mountains, where in ancient times was the cele- 

 brated granary of Rome. This, and the present 

 condition of Spain, Greece, a part of upper Italy 

 and of the southern part of France, shov/ in the 

 most evident manner, the productiveness of soil 

 and men is diminished by the destruction of the 

 forest ; islands like England may overcome to a 

 certain degree the fatal consequences of such des- 

 truction. 



The forest is the greatest benefactor of man- 

 kind; it is a necessity everywhere, and still it is 

 everywhere more and more destroyed. Room is 

 wanted for the fields and meadows ; wood is 

 wanted in great quantities ; the forest has to fur- 

 nish both, without regard to its own preserva- 

 tion ; human wickedness and foolishness, political 

 storms, and other causes, destroy inexorably 

 those great means oi national welfare and gen- 

 eral blessing. All wise governments have com- 

 prehended long ago the utility of the forest, and 

 have provided a regular protection and care for 

 it. This regular management of the forest is, at 

 present, preserving and culturing the few re- 

 maining mountain-forests in Germany, France, 

 and Belgium, is producing new forests in desert- 

 ed and swampy districts. Such a scientific and 

 general care of the forest in this country is rath- 

 er difficult, not to say impossible. The farmer 

 destroys unconditionally, unscrupulously, not 

 considering that he destroys with it the well-se- 

 cured future welfare and the riches of the coun- 

 try. "Fields as well as lungs," says Bettzieck- 

 Beta, (a German author,) "are here destroyed by 

 consumption, produced by the reckless endeav- 

 oring to get rich in the shortest time possible " 



Now we do not want to quarrel with ihe far- 

 mer for cutting down his trees, be it for the pur- 

 pose of making money out of them, or to get 

 more room for his agricultural propensities ; we 

 deem it his duty, however, to repair the damages 

 inflicted by it as far as possible, and the much 

 more so, as this can be done in a manner the 

 most useful to himself. We will show how it 

 may be accomplished, supposing a man is willing 

 and perseviu-ing enough to try it. 



Wherever the soil is easily washed away by 

 rains, and the plow cannot be employed, exten- 

 sive orchards with high-growing trees ought to 

 be planted, and the ground covered with mixed 

 grasses, adapted to its special character. In a 

 few years the fruit trees will protect the soil 

 against drying up too quickly, the grass also re- 

 taining the humidity for the trees. All expenses 

 will be paid a hundredfold in a short time. These 



