No. 10. 



Rotation in Forests. 



303 



mals, which a few years since commanded 

 from 25 to 31 cents each, in market, will now 

 scarce sell at ten cents apiece; thus depriv- 

 ing home industry of a profitable employment 

 during the winter season, and paying the cash 

 to foreign traders. As the fashions govern 

 in these respects, and our fashions are gov- 

 erned by our enterprising mechanics and 

 tradesmen, it is to these that we must look 

 for a reform in this matter ; and he who would 

 again show this invaluable article before the 

 public, in agreeable and serviceable forms 

 and shapes as clothing, would deserve a medal 

 for his public service, and the good wishes 

 and patronage of all those who own " musk- 

 rats or embanked meadows." 



Tariff, 



Third mo. 23d, 1842. 



Rotation in Forests. 



Every man who has seen half a century or 

 more, and has spent all or a part of his days in 

 the country, in the neighbourhood of forests, 

 and has been a careful observer of the pro- 

 gress and productions of nature, has seen a 

 succession of the different species of forest 

 trees, or varieties of the same species succeed 

 each other on the same tract of land without 

 man's aid or interference. 



When the first settlers took possession of 

 the soil which we now occupy, they found it, 

 in some places, covered with the different 

 kinds of oak and other hard wood, and in 

 other places with the pine varieties and other 

 evergreens. After the removal of the origi- 

 nal growth of hard wood, we have found it 

 succeeded by evergreens, if evergreens com- 

 posed the original growth, succeeded by some 

 of the varieties of hard wood, or of a different 

 variety of the evergreen from the original 

 growth. In the state of Maine, I have seen, 

 Dn the removal of a heavy growth of beech, 

 birch and maple, immense crops of hemlocks 

 springing up; and in my own neighbourhood, 

 on chopping off an oak growth, a pitchpine 

 one has succeeded, and on cutting that off, 

 white pines have sprung up in multitudes. 



Every kind of soil has a constant tendency 

 at production, even our most grain-worn fields, 

 on suffering them to lie without cropping, are 

 soon filled with young pines, which spring up 

 in such numbers as to surprise us. The Al- 

 mighty formed the soil for activity, as well 

 as the animals which inhabit it, and it being 

 destitute of the fertilizing power which pro- 

 duces grain, is no hindrance to the growth of 

 the pine varieties. The above remarks sug- 

 gest that every vegetable and every distinct 

 species of tree, with all their varieties, flourish 

 in consequence of a specific fertilizing prin- 

 ciple imbibed from the earth by a peculiar set 

 of absorbent vessels adapted to the nature and 



wants of each, which cause their gradual 

 growth and ultimate maturity ; and that on 

 the exhaustion of the nutriment which pro- 

 duces one distinct species of vegetable or 

 tree, the nutritive principle which is required 

 for the growth of other species is left unim- 

 paired in the soil to be applied when called 

 for by others, and that the earth, while in the 

 progress of exhaustion by the production of 

 one species of trees or vegetables, is accumu- 

 lating a supply of nutrition which will be 

 required by trees and vegetables of other 

 species to promote their growth. The nou- 

 rishing principle which produces the varieties 

 of hard wood has no affinity for the ever- 

 greens, and therefore the evergreens will 

 flourish afler the hard wood growth has done 

 growing, in consequence of the soil being 

 exhausted of that nourishment which pro- 

 duced it, and so one variety of the evergreen 

 will succeed another for the same cause. I 

 have known a field completely exhausted of 

 its power to produce corn by a repetition of 

 that crop in succession, and the same field 

 being laid down to grass has produced fine 

 crops of hay. 



We frequently hear complaints of the 

 "running out," as it is called, of many kinds 

 of vegetables, and the deterioration is sup- 

 posed to be owing to a degeneracy of the 

 seeds sown, when in fact it is caused by a 

 want of the knowledge of rotation, and put- 

 ting this knowledge into practice. We are 

 taught the doctrine of rotation by nature her- 

 self in the arrangement which she makes in 

 the natural forests, if we would but observe 

 her laws. 



All vegetables exhaust the soil in propor- 

 tion to the nourishment which they afford : 

 oats, which are so nourishing to horses, ex- 

 haust the soil more than any root crop with 

 which I am acquainted. I have seen four or 

 five good crops of corn and rye grow upon 

 pine plains in succession, without manure, 

 when a heavy growth had lately been taken 

 off, and but little brush left on the ground to 

 make ashes, which is evidence sufficient to 

 convince any one that the same kind of food 

 which feeds the forest is not the favourite of 

 the different kinds of grain. 



Thus it seems that every kind of vegetable 

 extracts some peculiar principle of nutrition 

 from the earth congenial to its own wants, 

 and differing from that required by others, 

 and this accounts for the necessity of rotation 

 in raising our crops, if we would wish to real- 

 ize the greatest profit from our labour. — Cult. 



There is no quality which commands more 

 respect than integrity — none, more freedom 

 and independence than economy: these, with 

 industry, are all that a man needs to depend 

 upon. 



