1868. 



NEW ENGLAND FARRIER. 



465 



The American Stud Book: Containing full Pedi- 

 grees of all the Imported Thorough-bred Stallions 

 and Mares, with their Proauce, including the Arabs, 

 B-irbs and Spanish Horses, from the earliest Ac- 

 counts of Riicina in America to the end of .the year 

 1867; Also all the N^i'.ive Mares and their produce, 

 Alphabetically arranged. With an Appendix, giving 

 Pedigrees of all the Native Slatlior.s whose Dams have 

 no Kara<s, with a full and copious Index to produce 

 of The Mares. By S. D. Bruce, Edit..rofthe Turfy 

 Field and Farm. Vol.1. A to L. Chicago: K.B. 

 Myers K Co. 1S68. Price $10. Large octavo, f6lpp., 

 Chnrles Rutl-ven B>ram, 323 Washington St., Boston, 

 eole agent for Nuw Ei gland. 



Thie print, paper and illustrations, mostly steel 

 or copper-plate, are in the best style of modem 

 book-making. But we are not sufficiently vrell 

 posted on Stud-books, or on the history of Ameri- 

 can horses to express any opinion as to the cor- 

 rectness or thoroughness of this work. The 

 author informs us that twenty years have been 

 occupied in gathering the information which it 

 contains, and that none but those who have in- 

 quired into the loose, obscure records of the past 

 have any idea of what a herculean task it has 

 been. From the delay in the publication of this 

 book, the writer says, complaints have arisen 

 which have been very annoying; and if the au- 

 thor had only looked to his own ease and a speedy 

 remuneration for his services, he would have hur- 

 ried it out years ago. But a feeling that the great 

 labor of his life should correspond to what he 

 knew to be the correct standard, prompted him to 

 go over and over it again ; and, in following a 

 chain which later researches gave the key to, he 

 had to throw out matter previously arranged. In 

 addition to this, his desire to remedy the slightest 

 defect led to a continual repetition of the work. 



We are assured that eminent turf men and 

 breeders in all sections, who have examined the 

 proof sheets, approve and recommend it as the 

 most complete and exhaustive work of the kind 

 extant. The publication of most of the pedigrees 

 in the weekly issues of tke Turf, Field and Farm, 

 during the past three or four years, must we think 

 have secured many corrections and hints from 

 breeders and horsemen among the readers of that 

 widely circulated journal. 



On the whole, we are much pleased with the 

 appearance of the first volume of Mr. Bruce's 

 American Stud-book. By printing the pedigrees 

 on small type and in double columns, much space 

 is saved and great distinctness secured. 



— An Ottumwa, Iowa, paper says that Rev. Dr. 

 Pa) ker, of Bladensburg, in that county, pared a 

 wart on his hand, splitting it to the quick, and 

 then mashed one of the old-fashioned potato bugs 

 on the wound, for an experiment, when he was 

 seized almost instantly with a deathly sickness, so 

 that he was unable to fill his regular appointment 

 to preach, and since then has been under the care 

 of four physicians, with but little hope of his re- 

 covery; mortification having taken place in his 

 arm, rendering it necessary to amputate. 



For the New England Farmer. 

 PRESERVATION OF FORESTS. 



Your correspondent, Z. E. Jameson, in 

 Farmer of August 1, controverts my idea of 

 the necessity of greater care for the preserva- 

 tion of forest trees. He assumes "ihat this 

 earth was designed for man's habitation, and 

 that it is his duty to subdue and replenish it." 

 This may be true in a certain sense, but does 

 it follow that it is man's duty to mangle and 

 destroy the grand old forests, the workman- 

 ship of Nature, the mother of us all, and to 

 treat every tree as a mortal enemy ? or, that 

 there is no danger of carrying this war of ex- 

 termination and subjection too far ? 



Where wood land is worth no more than, 

 according to the representation of Mr. Jame- 

 son it is in Vermont, or where it is not likely 

 to be worth any more in the future, the culti- 

 vation or even preservation of forest trees 

 may not be advisable in a pecuniary point of 

 view. Where good wood land is worth only 

 from $2 to $40 per acre, as he says it is in 

 Northern Vermont, and the farmer has not 

 already more cleared land than he can culti- 

 vate without resorting to the skinning process, 

 he may have the best of the argument ; but 

 where, as with us, it is worth $300 and up- 

 wards, per acre, and the land, from being 

 rough, is not worth more than $10 per acre, 

 when cleared, for grazing, reason as well as 

 experience teaches that the growth of the for- 

 est is more than the interest on the land. 



But, adopting the course of your correspon- 

 dent, what, in a few years, is to keep up the 

 throb of the pulse of the iron horse that fol- 

 lows the net work of railroads that, like the 

 veins of the human bcKly, branch out in ten 

 thousand ramifications, throughout the length 

 and breadth of our country, wending its way 

 over the snow fields of the Rocky Mountains, 

 and through unknown deserts to the far Pacific 

 coast ? ' 



I think, in view of this and other considera- ' 

 tions, that it is high time to begin to pra^^tice 

 economy with the forest growth. When I see ' 

 the drain that is being made on the forests in 

 my own immediate neighborhood, and see no 

 reason why the same demand for wood should 

 not exist in all parts of the country ; when I 

 consider the untold millions of dollars worth 

 destroyed during the late civil war, and the 

 fact that the lumber regions of Maine, years 

 ago, were driven back to the head waters of 

 the Kennebec and Penobscot, and when I re- 

 member that the great West is increasing in 

 railroads, but decreasing in wood and timber, 

 1 feel that it is high time to take measures to 

 secure a supply for the future. 



I am not enough acquainted with climatol- 

 ogy to say what the effect of the forest has 

 upon our climate, but I am aware that in cer- 

 tain bleak localities on our farms, a forest will 

 often shelter fields from the cold winds, and 

 make them a week or two earlier and warmer 



