1857. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



101 



ria, from which the following is an extract : " Our 

 trials have confirmed the view that cows, to give 

 the greatest possible quantity of milk, must daily 

 receive and consume one thirtieth of their live 

 •weight in hay, or an equivalent therefore. If more 

 food be given it gops to the formation of flesh and 

 fat without occasioning a corresponding increase in 

 the yield of milk ; but if, on the contrary, less food 

 be furnished, the amount and value of the milk 

 will be greatly diminished." 



Fo'r the New England Farnm. 



PEESERVING FORESTS. 



Messrs. Editors : — Farmers have different opin- 

 ions ;.bout cutting off the produce of forests from 

 land designed for the sole use of producing wood 

 and timber. The practice of cutting off all the 

 growth, little and great, has been the popular cus- 

 tom in this vicinity for many years past ; it is true 

 that where the design is to continue a growth from 

 the sprouts of the stumps from which the wood has 

 been recently taken, that cutting clean might be the 

 better way, but when we are to depend upon seed 

 to furnish us with saplings for the next growth, I 

 for one should dissent from cutting all young and 

 thrifty trees. I have been in the practice of cutting 

 off wood for nearly forty years, for the market, as 

 one of the most profitable jjroductions of my farm, 

 and have paid critical attention to the succeeding 

 growth : the original growth on my farm vras princi- 

 pally the different varieties of oak and pilch pine. 

 At the time of removing the old growth, young 

 white pines had sprung up, and advanced in all si- 

 zes from one foot, up to some twenty in height, on 

 some of my lots ; on other lots there was no ap- 

 l)earance of a young progeny. We were very care- 

 ful to save all the young trees possible, instead of 

 indiscriminate havo:;k. The advantage of saving 

 the saplings will be readily discerned by every prac- 

 tical wood-grower ; the young trees carefully pre- 

 served from injury, while cutting off the old growth, 

 will soon take a start and be in advance of the for- 

 est which is to spring from the seed some 5, 10, 15 

 or 20 years ; this advance in the growth is no small 

 item in the farmer's income. Oxi lots v/here none 

 of these young saplings had taken root, I have been 

 careful to select suitable seed trees of the varieties 

 I wished to propagate, and spared one or more on 

 every acre I wished to replenish with a future 

 growth. In this way I have been saved the labor 

 of sowing seed, or transplanting trees, and have 

 found about the third or fourth j ear from the cut- 

 ting off, a plentiful supply of young trees shewing 

 themselves, but greatly in the rear of those lots 

 where the young eaplings were saved. 



Every person who can discern the signs of the 

 times can foresee the importance of encouraging 

 the growth of wood upon every scrap of land which 

 is not wanted for cultivation. With all the effort, 

 care, and economy which New England farmers are 

 capable of putting into exercise, they need be un- 

 der no doubtful apprehensions of producing an over 

 supply of wood. There is a natural propensity in 

 forest lands to exhaust themselves of the chemical 

 principles which produce any one variety of forest 

 trees ; when that is the case, numerous saplings or 

 some other variety will show themselves, previous- 

 ly to removing the former growth, which is a sure 

 indication that it is necessary for a rotation to suc- 

 ceed, and that the old varietv does not find in the 



earth the necessary constituent ingredients to pro- 

 duce another crop of the same variety. 



Where land has a long time been covered with 

 the different varieties of trees that shed their leaves 

 in the fall, a plenty of evergreens will spring up for 

 another crop which require different constituent in- 

 gredients. While the properties in the earth which 

 favor the production of hard wood are being ex- 

 hausted, the properties which are requii'ed for the 

 formation of the softer woods lay dormant in the 

 earth, increasing yearly and making ready to sup- 

 ply a substitute for the former growth by a forest 

 of evergreens. 



To multiply and replenish the earth seems to have 

 been an injunction more readily obeyed than almost 

 any other command ; we see it conformed to with- 

 out apparent reluctance from the highest grade of 

 animals down to the most troublesome weed which 

 infests our fields. The tendency to restoration or 

 natural effort to recovery, we see throughout the 

 physical world ; no sooner do we lay our forests 

 low, than do others spring up to take their places ; 

 exhausted plains which have been worn to sterility 

 are governed by the same law, and by "atmospher- 

 ic infiuences" tend to restoration. If I have perpe- 

 trated ^a repetition or a contradiction in this com- 

 munication to any thing I had formerly written, I 

 think 1 must be excusable on the ground that I 

 have heard reputed good sermonizers culpable of 

 the same inconsistencies. New readers, young and 

 old, of agricultural papers, are annually increasing, 

 and every one has got to study for himself; the 

 knowledge of the experience passes away with 

 them ; knowledge, as an inheritance, cannot be 

 transmitted to an heir or a friend by a will or a 

 deed, and therefore every one in quest of it has to 

 struggle through the same course of investigation 

 to obtain it that his predecessors did. If the accn- 

 mulated knowledge of the father could be commu- 

 nicated to the son by heirship, without study, the 

 son, commencing with the father's experience, might 

 continue the chain of progression till his measure 

 was full or to perfection, and a large amount of the 

 labor of life, apparently, might be dispensed with ; 

 but for wise ends our Creator did not see fit to en- 

 dow us with such a gift. Silas Brown. 



JFUmington, January, 1857. 



STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



The annual meeting of this association took place 

 at the Rooms of the Board in the State House, Jan. 

 G, 1857. 



We are happy to find some notice, though it be 

 but a brief one, of their deliberations. The inquiry 

 is constant and earnest, "What is the Board of Ag- 

 riculture doing ? What is the nature of its stated 

 meetings? Where is its Journal, or outline of op- 

 erations, and what benefits does it intend to confer 

 upon the great interest of the State for the advan- 

 tages of its position ?" We cannot reply. We 

 only know that the Board is composed of men of 

 practical ability, men willing to labor and give their 

 time, talents, and substance, for the opportunity of 

 attemjiting something to elevate the noble occupa- 

 tion of farming to its true standard. 



When they have produced a result, the people 



