No. 1. 



Best time for Cutting Timber. 



29 



grain, the corn, or the garden. All these out 

 of door troubles were very vexatious and 

 very expensive, — and then to crown tiie whole 

 he was as improvident as respected the wants 

 of his household as he was of his stock or his 

 farm. His wood-pile was often exhausted, 

 and iiis fences not unfrequently suffered for it. 

 It was a very rare occurrence for him to send 

 grain to the mill, until the last portion of flour 

 had been consumed at home. This at certain 

 Keasons of the year, particularly in harvest 

 time, when the streams were frequently low, 

 occasioned them at times to be for a day or 

 two without any bread. 



This improvidence introduced the old man 

 and his fimily into many disagreeable scrapes; 

 for their friends often called to visit them 

 when there was neither bread nor flour on the 

 premises. One afternoon a large company 

 found them in tiiis condition. The family re- 

 ceived the visitors with great courtesy, and 

 every thing was agreeable and pleasant, un- 

 til the females recollected it would soon be 

 supper time. All was now consternation and 

 perplexity. The old man was summoned and 

 despatched to negotiate at the neighboring 

 houses for provender. He was to beg or bor- 

 row ; cakes, bread — any preparation of flour — 

 his distressed wife and daughter were willing 

 to receive. 



His course led him to one of the neighbors, 

 whose wife was a most notable housewife, an 

 untiring talker, and one of such boundless kind- 

 ness, that she was ready at any hour of the 

 day or night, without fee or reward, to visit 

 the sick or the wounded. As it happened, 

 the old woman had no bread to spare, — and 

 feeling great sympathy with her female neigh- 

 bors, she gave loose to that instrument which 

 never grows dull by using, and administered 

 therewith a real chastisement on the bread 

 hunter for not keeping his family better sup- 

 plied with flour. But whilst in the midst of i 

 this infliction, she espied a nice pot of buck- 

 wheat batter ju'^t ready for baking. Her J 

 tongue came to a rest ; she drew it forth, and 

 her good nature triumphing even over a desire 

 to scold, she told the old man his family were 

 quite welcome to it. He accepted the pres-' 

 ent with many thanks and rejoiced to think 

 he hid now obtained a panacea for all the 

 trouble of his household. Grasping the trea- 

 sure in his arms, he sallied forth, — passed 

 safely through big gates and little gates, over 

 bars and fences, until he at last sat astride of 

 the topmost rail of that which surrounded his 

 dwelling. Here he rested himself, and whilst' 

 his countenance beamed with exultation and 

 triumph, he looked as though he had never 

 known sorrow. Suddenly the whole company 

 of strangers, who had started for a ramble round 

 the farm, turned the corner of the house and 

 came plump upon him. They stared with| 



astonishment to see the old man perched up 

 in this manner, grasping the huge pot in his 

 arms, — and he viewed tliem with a bewilder- 

 ing consternation. His muscles relaxed, his 

 arms could no longer retain tlieir treasure, 

 the earthen vessel was broken by the fall, — 

 and his imagined supper was sy)rcad in one 

 great cake on the gi'een grass, fur the sun to 

 bake and the pigs to eat at their leisure. 



N. R 



I'or the FiiriiitrH' ('alii net. 



Best time for Cuttiii;;; Timber. 



For many yea rs my attention has been turned 

 to ascertain the proper time to cut timber to 

 insure its greatest durability. I am satisfied 

 that the spring, when the sap flows freely, is 

 the best time to fall timber. I am borne out 

 in this opinion by the following statements 

 that I have collected. 



J C informed me that a detach- 

 ment of British troops crossed from Philadel- 

 phia the 1st day of May, in 1777, and on the 

 2d commenced cutting down his worxls for the 

 supply of the army, and at the same time to 

 burn up his fencing, which they completely 

 accomplished. " But," said he, " they taught 

 me the proper time to cut timber to make it 

 last. After they marched off", I found many 

 trees that were not cut into cord wood ; those 

 I split into rails, believing, at the same time, 

 they would soon decay, from their baing cut 

 in the spring — but I have been agreeably dis- 

 appointed, — most of them are as sound now 

 as when made into fence." This he related 

 five-and-twenty or thirty years after the peace 

 of '83. 



Conversing with an old gentleman in the 

 neighborhood of Haddonfield, he told me that 

 in the spring of the year he was making 

 fence. " My fences," said he, " are all of cedar, 

 but falling short of cedar rails, and having 

 none from the swamp, I was induced to cut 

 down a pine tree and convert it into rails to 

 finish out my fence ; they were the only pine 

 rails I ever made use of. Ten or twelve 

 years after this, when resetting my fence, I 

 found the pine rails so sound that I let thera 

 remain; since then I have not seen them, 

 having left my farm." I proposed taking a 

 ride and look if any of them were remaining. 

 We did so, and found a number in the fence 

 perfectly sound. I asked how long they had 

 been there. He replied, between 28 to 30 

 years. 



An old friend related the following : — "I 

 served my apprenticeship to a carpenter. — 

 Duiing my apprenticeship my employer was 

 sent for to build a barn for a farmer in the 

 neighborhood, who was very particular to 

 have every thing done in the best manner. 

 In the old of the moon, in the month of Feb- 

 ruary, he cut down and hauled all the logs 



