140 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER, 



November 11, 1832. 



finite damage vliicli has been done in tliis way- 

 Now if forest trees are thus sacrificed, if some 

 means are not taken to perpetuate their growth, 

 the increasing demand for them, occasioned by tHe 

 advance of taste aud the conscquc-nt desire of enj- 

 bellislring, and by the multiplication of steam-boatl, j 

 buildings, «Scc, will soon exhaust the supply, r 

 there no fear of this ? Let then the examples d 

 Eilropcan countries excite it. Already has thl 



From the Connecticut Mirror. 



AMERICAN FOREST TREES. 



This is the title of a very able and interesting 

 article in the last North American Review. The 

 author examines the comparative quantity of forest 

 trees in this and other coimtries, and their value, 

 gives a pleasing account of Vegetable Physiology, 

 and of the manner in which trees may he trans- 

 planted and cultivated, exhibits their imiw'^nce L„ppij. j^gpome so small throughout Germany an 

 in many points of view, aud the danger of final | p,.„^pg a^j England, that laws have been enactc 

 extirpation to which they are liable, and urges the 

 duty of a general interest in their preservation. We 

 propose to say a few words on some of these top- 

 ics. 



Forest trees, as sources of ornament, of emo- 

 tion, and of utility, alike merit the deepest interest. 

 Nature has bestowed them in such wide varieties 

 and with such a liberal hand, as to adapt them to 

 all the exigencies of man, and, unless he rudely 

 destroys, or needlessly consumes them, has provi- 

 ded for a perpetual supply. When used for shade, 

 every one has experienced the beauty of their pur- 

 pose ; and with many the patriarchal oak or pine, 

 or button-ball, or elm, is associated with their 

 most pleasant recollections of home, and closest do- 

 mestic ties ; and though they do not shade the im- 

 mediate vicinity of a household, but are scattered in 

 groups over a farm, or are clustered in dense mass- 

 es on the long hill side, or over the far extended 

 plain, yet their foliage, their forms, their statures, 

 all ■'ive rise to a thousand emotions of grandeur 

 and joy. As affording materials for ship-building, 

 for dwellings, for furniture, and for fuel, their 

 service is invaluable and absolutely necessary. 

 For the last purpose, however extensive may be 

 the use of coal, and however inexhaustible the 

 resources for this mineral, yet the necessity of 

 forest trees is equally manifest, for there are many 

 puriioses, as is well known, which a coal fire 

 cannot answer, and besides there is much proof 

 that coal itself is the result of wood, the mineralized 

 form of decayed vegetable matter 



Considering then the inestimable importance of 

 forest trees, how much care is requisite for their 

 Towth and preservation, and yet how little is in 

 fact taken ! On the other hand, how much has not 

 been done towards destroying them ! From the 

 first moment that our ancestors set foot in this 

 country, the axe and the plough, and fire, have 

 been ceaselessly at work, till now the whole line 

 of forests ou the Atlantic shore is greatly dimin- 

 ished, in many places entirely thinned off, aud 

 even to the far West, the broad woodland is ex- 

 tensively broken. To a certain extent, so far as 

 the demands of tillage are concerned, this wilder- 

 ness is necessarily and very auspiciously made, to 

 " bud and blossom as the rose." It is a blessed indi- 

 cation of the active industry and perseverance of 

 our countrymen, though even in this case it might 

 be easily proved, that the work of clearing away 

 trees is much more thorough than is necessary or 

 ■will in the end be advantageous. But often there 

 is a needless waste. Gangs for procuring timber of- 

 ten cut down trees unfit for their purpose, and 

 the husbandman, by a very incautious and rash 

 application of fire, perhaps only with the expec- 

 tation of clearing a few acres, devastates areas of 

 many miles in extent. The terrible conflagrations 

 in our forests are familiar to all. i\[any have wit- 

 nessed the immensely expanded sheets of flame, 

 as they rolled up through the tall oaks and pines, 



in these countries for the very purpose of prescrv 

 ing forest trees, and for the additional purpose 

 promoting their cultivation. In Germany this cul 

 tivation has been made a science, schools havi 

 been established for the purpose, and a forester'; 

 education requires a long period of study and o 

 close application ? In France, the preservation o: 

 trees is pretty weW secured by rigid economica 

 enactments, while in England, except a law re. 

 serving the finest timber for naval uses, the object 

 is left, and with peculiar success, to the interest 

 of individuals. But if other proofs are wanting 

 to show the danger of a final exhaustion of forest 

 trees, the cases might be cited of Scotland, of Ire- 

 land, of Lapland, and of many parte of America 

 which formerly, as is proved by the decayed re 

 mains of trees now found, and by tradition, pos 

 scssed large forests, now entirely lost. It is cer 

 tain that an injudicious use of forest trees, or ; 

 neglect to cultivate them, will ultimately produc 

 deficiency in thesu|)ply of a want, certainly amoH; 

 the most important in life. The reviewer prO' 

 poses some excellent plans by which this defi 

 ci(Micy may be prevented and at the same tiini 

 umch beauty and utility be gained. We shall 

 briefly notice some of them in our next, in tli 

 meantime recommending the article on this sub- 

 ject, in the Review, to the close attention of all 

 who can procure it. 



From Holbrookes Family Ljceum. 



FARMERS' LYCEUMS. 



The long evenings which have arrived, present 

 farmers with an excellent opportunity for intel- 

 lectual and social improvement. And what |ilace 

 can furiush them with such a rich or abuncbiut 

 source of entertainment and instruction, as the Ly- 

 ceum ? How easy it would be for the farmers o:' 

 themselves, in nearly every town and village it 

 the Union, to erect a commodious Lyceum, upoi 

 the plan represented in the ninth number of our 

 l)aper; [See J'^'ew England Farmer, J\o. 17.] Als& 

 in the .imertcan Traveller, who has favored ui 

 with an insertion in his columns, of the cut repie 

 seuting a Village Lyceum. Several other papen 

 have promised the same favor; and so far as tie 

 importance of the subject is concerned, we shouU 

 be glad to see it presented and recommended o 

 the readers of every paper in our country. 



If every town in the Union were furnished wih 

 a place of resort for farmers, and of deposit for tie 

 various substances connected with their busines, 

 such as soils, minerals and vegetables, with bools 

 and apparatus, calculated to assist in the e.xamiu;- 

 tion of them, wh.at a vast amount of instructioi. 

 entertainment, and wealth, would be added to ou 

 nation ! What could be more useful to this largi 

 and respectable part of our nation, thau an oppor- 

 tunity to resort once a week to fountains of know- 



but mechanics, merchants, and all other classes, 

 with their wives and daughters, might meet, and 

 hear a lecture on some general subject, and then 

 divide themselves into several classes according to 

 their ages, or the subjects they might wish to pur- 

 sue, and occupy the other rooms of the building. 

 Among the subjects which might he brought up in 

 tliis way, Agriculture, both as an art and a science, 

 might be rendered one of the most interesting aud 

 useful. By the specimens, apparatus, and books, 

 whieh it would be easy for the Lyceum to pro- 

 vide, the i)rinciples of Chemistry, Botany, and 

 Mineralogy, might be studied, in their particular 

 connexion with agriculture, in such a way as to 

 be interesting and useful, not merely to iarmers, 

 but to persons of every pursuit, and even to ladies. 



Besides the laws of chemical science and vege- 

 tation, upon which the operations and success of 

 agriculture must depend, the experience of far- 

 mers might be communicated to each other, as 

 they were collected in a class-room or a recitation 

 room of the Lyceum, in a manner which would at 

 once be social and entertaining, and at the same 

 time have an important bearing upon all the oper- 

 ations of the field and the garden. They might, 

 at such a fountain of social instruction, learn to 

 raise more and better wheat, corn, and potatoes, 

 have better oxen, horses, hogs, and sheep, be able 

 to gratify themselves and each other with better 

 fruit, and to enjoy all the blessings designed for 

 their physical nature more fully and richly, while 

 at the same time they would cultivate their im- 

 mortal parts, and render themsclvrs more worthy 

 of their Creator, by approaching more nearly in 

 resemblance to him. 



We do not speak from theory merely ; we dis- 



!nctly recollect many delightful winter evenings 

 his spent in the society of farmers. We could 

 produce more than one volume of notes taken 

 fifom the practical remarks, made by practical far- 

 mers on many of the most practical subjects, pre- 

 sented as topics of conversation at such social 

 meetings. Wo look back with delight upon the 

 pleasures of a farmer's life, enlightened, though it 

 might be dimly, by the lamp of science, and en- 

 livened by the active industry and the neighborly 

 acts of those around us. And though deprived at 

 present of a farmer's life and a farmer's pleasures, 

 we respect their character, and wotild gladly enjoy 

 their society at some comfortable cottage in a 

 country village, and above all, at a Farmer's Ly- 

 ceum. 



_„ ..._^ _„ _ __ , ledge, and of mutual and social improvement? 



illuminating earth and heaven, and know the in- 1 In the hall of the Lyceum, not only farmers 



ACUTENESS OF THE EAR. 

 By practice, the discriminating powers of the 

 ear may be carried to the highest state of perfec- 

 tion. The success of thieves and gamblers de- 

 pends upon its quickness. Since the money has 

 been recoined, the regularity with which each 

 piece is struck gives them a uniformity of sound 

 that is very remarkable ; the half crowns having 

 the sound of Jl in alt. Bankers quickly discover 

 the least deviation from the proper tone, by which 

 they readily detect the counterfeits. In the toss- 

 ing up of money, gamblers can perceive a differ- 

 ence in the sound, whether it falls upon one side 

 or the other. I'iemen are furnished with a cot- 

 ering to their baskets, made of a smooth plate of 

 metal, by whieh they take in the unwary, as they 

 readily tell which side is uppermost by the soUnd 

 ujjon the plate, though concealed by the hand. 

 The atmosphere is the grand medium by which 

 sound is conveyed, though recent discoveries prove 



