668 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Dec. 



and plowed in, then manured in the hill, and al)out 

 one gill of plajster and a&hes to each hill; fourteen 

 hills, as they averaged, produced one bushel of 

 very even size. 



We have had the potato panic for several years 

 past, ajid now have the money panic, the worst kind. 

 But if we can raise potatoes as above stated, for 

 one I shall not be afrsid of starvation. I feel that 

 any thing that can be said or done, as regards the 

 raising of potatoes in these decaying times, may be 

 usefulto the public at large. Forbes Hyde. 



Chester, Hampden Co., Mass., Oct., 1857. 



GEOWTH OF WOOD IN MASSAGHU- 

 SETTS. 



One principal objection to railroads, when they 

 were in process of construction several years ago, 

 was, that they would require more wood than could 

 be grown in the State, would soon exhaust all that 

 was then standing, and enormously increase the 

 price of fuel everywhere. Wherever a line of road 

 had been laid, and the locomotive running for a 

 single year, persons would point to the barren hills 

 along its route, and exclaim, "Already our hills are 

 stripped of their forests, the price of wood has in- 

 creased, the springs will soon be dried up, and the 

 injury they will cause to the country will be infi- 

 nitely more than all the good they can do." Such 

 was the comnaon opinion ; if there were exceptions 

 it was among those who had investigated the laws 

 of vegetable reproduction, who had noticed the 

 wasteful extravagance of the wood and timber of 

 the country, and who felt confident that economy 

 and a judicious preservation of the forests would 

 go far to meet all the wants of our people. 



It is true, that the demand upon our woodlands, 

 created by the use of railroads, has been enormous, 

 and that tens of thousands of acres of most beauti- 

 ful forest? have been prostrated to feed the iron 

 monster whose nostrils are a flaming fire ; and yet 

 it is believed that there is as much wood now grow 

 ing in Massachusetts as there has been at any 

 time within twenty years. This may be accounted 

 for in two or three ways. Where land is good, 

 and a forest is cut clean, if cattle or sheep are not 

 allowed to browse it, another growth suitable for 

 fuel, with occasional trees fit fcr timber, will suc- 

 ceed it in twenty years, and on ordinary, or even 

 poor lands, in thirty years. When our people be- 

 came sensible that the demand for fuel had great- 

 ly increased, and that its consumption was every 

 day more and more, they cast about them to learn 

 how it might not only be economized, but how it 

 might be reproduced in large quantities— -the prob- 

 lem was a new one, but they soon solved it wisely 

 and well. 



They learned, first, that woodlands require pro- 

 tection and care, as well as other crops ; that judi 

 cious thinning, and occasional pruning of dead wood, 

 and chafing limbs, cr the cutting away of trees 



that had fallen into each other, and the admission 

 of sun and air, all proved of essenti>l service, and 

 promoted the growth of the whole. 



The next thought was that of greater economy 

 in the use of wood, and a legion of cocking, air- 

 tight, and other stoves, took the place of the open 

 fire; a single b^ck-Iog, rolled in by the united 

 strength of two men, and brought into place by the 

 aid of stout levers or stakes kept for the purpose, 

 sawed, split, and dried, would now supply a single 

 stove for a week or ten days, warm half of the 

 house, and cook all the food for the family. 



These were all important changes, and each be- 

 came the cause of special improvements. But the 

 last thought put into practice, has been of more 

 benefit than all the others, by increasing the 

 amount of fuel, while indirectly it has greatly in- 

 creased the general product of the farm. It wa3 

 this: — That less land fihould be kept in tillage, 

 but be deeper plowed, more highly manured, and 

 cultivated in every respect, in a manner altogether 

 better than it had ever been before, and thus leave 

 a larger portion of land to grow up to wood. This 

 plan has been adopted in thousands of instances, 

 and has proved essentially beneficial in all cases. 

 The farm that lies underneath the one usually 

 cropped, has been found to contain uncounted trea- 

 sures, while a more liberal manuring and a drained 

 and highly pulverized soil has nearly doubled the 

 crops. In this process thousands of acres have been 

 devoted, first to pasture, and as the cultivated 

 lands gradually yielded an unusual amount of for- 

 age, either by grazing or by soiling, these pasture 

 lands have been allowed to go to bushes and then 

 to woods. 



"Is there so much land in wood, no'.v, 'u thio 

 State, r.s there was twenty years ago ?" has been 

 our inquiry in every part of the Commonwealth 

 which we have visited, and the answer has been in 

 every instance in the affirmative. Some of the rea- 

 sons for this have already been given. The euj)- 

 ply has been kept good by economy, hy the intro- 

 duction of improved modes of heating and cooking, 

 and by the application of more scientlftc principles 

 In the modes of preparing the soil and cultivating 

 the crops. Necessity is, therefore, not oniy "the 

 mother of invention," but prompts to improvement 

 In every department of labor. 



A New Ammal among us. — P. R. Freas, edi- 

 tor of that well-known and long-established jour- 

 nal, the Germantown Telegraph, inforrrs us that 

 Isaac Lohmann, Esq., of New York, is about to in- 

 troduce — if they have not already arrived — some 

 one hundred and fifty Llamas into the country, from 

 South America. The reader may find in another 

 column an advertisement, giving more particulars 

 in relation to them. 



