288 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



June 



To illustrate my position, let us consider two 

 points. If the whole surface of a continent were 

 equally covered with trees, or equally cleared of 

 them, I believe it will be admitted, that the wet, 

 boggy places would be the coldest parts of the sur- 

 face, and that the warmest places would be the dry 

 valleys and plains, because the former are constant- 

 ly cooled by excessive evaporation, and by the de- 

 creased calorific capacity of the moist air that rests 

 upon them. Hence a vast morass, especially if it 

 were covered with forest, when surrounded by an 

 equal or greater extent of warm and well tilled up- 

 land country, must be the constant occasion of at- 

 mospheric disturbances. On the other hand, if in 

 the centre of a vast extent of morass, were situated 

 a small tract of warm and tilled upland, say a tract 

 of twenty miles square, in a morass of three or four 

 hundred miles square, this tract of upland would 

 in warm weather he subject to constant squalls and 

 thunder storms, like an island in mid ocean, because 

 the atmosphere above it would be constantly heat- 

 ed to a temperature higher than that of the sur- 

 rounding atmosphere. The electric equilibrium 

 would be proportionally disturbed. Whenever sim- 

 ilar circumstances exist in a greater or less degree, 

 proportional atmospheric disturbances must be pro- 

 duced. To prevent these evils, man must operate 

 in such a manner as to equalize the moisture dis- 

 tributed over the land. By covering the greater 

 elevations with forest, he would diminish the action 

 of the sun's rays upon the surface, preserve its 

 moisture, and proportionally diminish the heat af 

 the atmosphere surrounding it. By removing the 

 forest growth from the morass, and afterwards by 

 draining it and reducing it to tillage, he changes its 

 character, and assimilates it to the upland. It ab- 

 sorbs a greater proportion of the sun's heat, it re- 

 tains it longer, and does not so soon become cold, 

 or cool the atmosphere by excessive moisture. In 

 proportion as both of these conditions are obtained, 

 will the temperature of different surfaces be equal- 

 ized, and that tranquillity of climate be produced 

 which it is desirable to establish. I believe it is 

 generally admitted, however, that when a morass 

 cannot be drained or turned into a pond, it ought 

 to be covered with forest. 



These causes of atmospheric commotion exist 

 throughout this continent, and they have probably 

 been multiplied by the clearing of the woods, be^ 

 cause these have been cut down from the uplands, 

 and left standing in the bogs and morasses, the 

 very opposite course to that which is to be recom' 

 mended. In the clearing of a wilderness, the course 

 which our countrymen have pursued has been un 

 avoidablj. The ])ioneer must just clear those tracts 

 which are the most available for his immediate use 

 Hence he necessarily does many things which are 

 injurious in their general effects upon the soil and 

 the climate. Our own climate has been injured by 

 these unavoidable operations of the pioneers of this 

 American continent. The public are now begin' 

 ning to understand that we must operate in future, 

 Hccording to a system ; that we must plant our for- 

 ests in those places where they will produce the 

 most benefit to the climate as well as to the soil 

 We must open all our wet and unproductive lands 

 to the sun, and subject them to a thorough system 

 of drainage. Thousands of square miles of morass, 

 now cold, wet and unprofitable, tending by its mois- 

 ture to cool the atmosphere, and by its exhalations 

 to injure its salubrity, if cleared of wood, thorough- 



ly drained and reduced to tillage, could not fail to 

 produce a perceptible amelioration of our climate, 

 and at the same time add a proportional amount to 

 our agricultural resources. 



For the New England Farmer. 



THE CONCORD RIVER. 



Mr. Editor : — An article in your last, entitled 

 'Unjust Operation of Law," brought to my mind 

 some remarks contained in an essay upon the geog- 

 raphy of Middlesex county, read before the Con- 

 cord Farmers' Club one evening last winter. I take 

 the liberty to send you an extract, as it has a bear- 

 ing upon the same subject. 



"Indian Brook and Cold Spring Brook both rise in 

 Hopkinton, in the south-west part of the county, 

 and running a northerly course, unite in Ashland, 

 and form the Sudbury river. This passes through 

 Framingham into Wayland. For some distance, 

 it is the dividing line between Sudbury and Way- 

 land. Then for a space it divides Lincoln from Con- 

 cord. After it passes Fairhaven bay, it assumes the 

 name of Concord river, and bearing a little more 

 to the north, it winds its way through the centre of 

 Concord, until the Assabet enters it, when tending 

 more to the east, it soon becomes the dividing line 

 between Concord and Bedford ; from Bedford it 

 passes into and through Billerica ; from thence into 

 Lowell, where it unites its waters with the Merri- 

 mac. This stream passes through the centre of the 

 county, from its south-west to its north-east corner, 

 being wholly embraced from its source to its mouth 

 within the county. It is a sluggish stream through 

 its whole course. Upon its borders lies an immense 

 tract of meadow land, most of which is now of com- 

 paratively little value, but which, under a proper 

 system of drainage, might be made as valuable for 

 cultivation, as any land in the State. It is supposed 

 that there are but about three feet fall in the twenty 

 miles of this river above the Billerica mills. Now 

 if instead of raising a dam in N orth Billerica three 

 feet high, the channel from somewhat above this 

 place to its mouth had been lowered three feet, ten 

 thoueand acres of rich alluvial soil would be in- 

 creased in value, at least ten dollars an acre, and its 

 damp surface, which now yields only coarse meadow 

 grass, and exhales fogs and miasmas that generate 

 rheumatism and consumption among the dwellers 

 on its borders, would be covered with rich fields of 

 good hay, and grain and roots, and no longer be a 

 source of suffering and death. 



"In the early period of our history, the privilege 

 of erecting the dam referred to was granted, to en- 

 courage the building and supporting of a grist miil 

 for the convenience of the people in that neighbor- 

 hood, and on the strength ofthat grant, this immense 

 injustice has been perpetuated. Whoever shall con- 

 vince the Legislature that this privilege ought not 

 to be continued, now that the reason on which this 

 grant and the subsequent grant to the Middlesex 

 canal were founded, no longer exists, and now that 

 circumstances have so changed that thousands are 

 suff'ering injury, for the benefit of one, will merit the 

 thanks of all who dwell on the borders of the Con- 

 cord river." R- 



Concord, Jlpril 25. 



^P The Boston Post contradicts the report that 

 ex-President Pierce had bought a farm in New 

 Hampshire, where he intended to erect a house. 



