1854. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



43 



soil, that has not water standing on its surface, or 

 too near it in summer, is excellent ; so is drained 

 swamp, when brought under cultivation. But 

 here it ought to be remarked, that very different 

 considerations should direct the choice of a cite for 

 a Willow plantation in this country, from those 

 which obtain in England or on the continent, where 

 labor is very cheap and rent for land very dear, so 

 that the price paid annually for rent and taxes for 

 a good piece of ground, would purchase the fee 

 simple of a piece of ground as eligible in this coun- 

 try. It is true that Willow can pay for draining 

 and cultivating land that is fit for nothing else — 

 but the inference is not legitimate — that because 

 it is adapted for nothing else, it must be well 

 adapted for Willow. But the contrary is. general- 

 ly the case, a low, level bottom, from which a crop 

 has just been removed, if in the Spring properly 

 prepared and planted, would on and after the sec- 

 ond year, give a nett percentage, on investment, 

 that nothing else can approximate, and with a 

 certainty that pertains to no other crop. 



Cuttings must be prepared in fall or winter, but 

 to avoid being thrown out by frost, not planted 

 till spring; if necessary, they may be kept in a 

 cool place until last of Mayor June even, without 

 much injury — but April or May is preferable time 

 for planting, or as soon as warm growing weather 

 \a established. 



Wherever it is practicable, the ground should 

 be deeply worked ; subsoiled at least, but better 

 if trench plowed and then subsoiled. Fields that 

 have been previously cultivated will have the ad- 

 vantage of easy tillage, but where the ground is 

 soft and wet, deep and rich, simply turning over 

 the sward with large deep furrows, and following 

 with subsoil plow, will give perhaps as good a 

 growth of Willow as any other preparation. The 

 surfece should be made level before setting the 

 willow, on account of convenience in cultivation. 



The entire cultivation required the first season, 

 18 such as would be given to a crop of corn, and 

 may be chiefly done with a cultivator, on land that 

 is 60 firm as to admit the travelling of a horse; but 

 simply keeping the weeds down in ground that is 

 too soft is often all that is required, yet great pro- 

 ductiveness is generally inseparable from clean 

 culture. 



For the second and third years, frequent commu- 

 nications with some successful cultivator, whose 

 knowledge and experience enable him to give pre- 

 dse directions in every stage of operation, will be 

 very important if not indispensable ; after that the 



Elantations will be fully establishedand a sufficient 

 nowledge acquired to manage the business pleas- 

 antly and successfully. 



The Society voted to meet on Monday evening 

 of each week throughout the winter. Success at- 

 tend their efforts. 



Farmers' Club in Fkamingham. — At the recent 

 annual meetirsg < f this Society, Wm. Buckminster 

 was chosen Proidcnt, Aiuel S. Lewis and Abner 

 ILwEN, Jr., Vice Presidents, J. H. TEMPLb:, Secre- 

 tary, David Fisk, Treasurer. 



The Trustees, one for each school district, 

 elected on the same day, are J. W. Clark, Ilollis 

 Hastings, George Trowbridge, Willard Haven, 

 Metcalf Pratt, W. G. Lewis, Charles Capen, Pe- 

 ter B. Davis, Liberty Cbadwick, James Brown, 

 Bben Stone. 



GREEN WOOD. 



It is to be hoped that there are not many New 

 England farmers who are in the practice of using 

 ^reen wood for their cooking stoves, or for warm- 

 ing their rooms. The wood-house is generally as 

 important an appendage to a New England home, 

 as the barn, and is usually filled with seasoned 

 wood sufficient for a year's supply. But there are 

 some, we observe, who still use wood in its green 

 state for fuel, hauling a load now and then, when 

 the demand becomes imperative, and chopping 

 just enough to appease the clamor in the kitchen. 

 There are several objections to such a course • 

 first, the moral effect is decidedly bad, as it is a 

 requisition upon the women much like that imposed 

 on the Israelites of old ; they were required to 

 make bricks without straw, and you require the 

 women to cook, and warm the children without 

 fuel, or at least with wood that contains in every 

 100 pounds, 35i pounds of cold water. Now it re- 

 quires time, and patience, and a great stock of 

 good humor, to puff and encourage into steam and 

 vapor 35^ pounds of cold water, in a frosty morn- 

 ing, when the children are to be got to school in 

 season, and the men are to be started for the 

 woods. If this trial occurred only once a week 

 it might be supported with some degree of com- 

 placency ; but it comes every day, and many times 

 in the day, and often when care and over labor 

 have fatigued the body and weakened the will. The 

 mind is thus brought into an easily excited state 

 and gives way to words and actions unnatutal to 

 itself when not thus unjustly tried. Green fire- 

 wood should be rejected as the demon of discord 

 in the family ; while it smokes, and steams, and 

 sputters, and refuses to toast or roast, or bake or 

 boil, it makes the children sulky and tart, the 

 husband gloomy and severe, and the poor wife 

 anxious and disheartened. Many a scene of do- 

 mestic felicity has been smoked and sizzled out of 

 existence, by the use of green firc-icood ! 



In the next place it is bad economy to burn green 

 fire-wood, and to show tliis, conclusively, we give 

 below a statement made by Dr. Lee, in the Gene- 

 see Farmer, several years ago. He says : 



"\7e have been burning, for the last month, 

 green black and white oak wood, cut from wmali 

 trees. Our students find on analysis that 100 lbs 

 of this wood contain 35.^ lbs. of water and less than 

 one pound of ash. We demonstrated in an article 

 published in the last Farmer, that 1000 degrees of 

 heat are taken up in converting water into steam 

 which occupies a space 1G9G times larger than 

 that filled by water. Although the quantity of la- 

 tent heat contained in a cord of green wood is not 

 increased by seasoning, and hence the hitter can 

 evolve no more sensible heat than the former ; still 

 in burning green wood, or wet wood, it is almost 



