No. 3. 



American Trees. 



75 



chapter, and every verse is a fact. Here 

 have I been, for these eleven years, without 

 the slightest security for the future, save 

 only for the year that I had entered upon ; 

 with my hands tied, and unable to do justice 

 either to myself or the farm ; afraid to do 

 much, lest my rent should be raised, and 

 fearful to do too little, lest my means of liv- 

 ing - should be abridged. I declare I have 

 sometimes trembled, for fear my landlord 

 should notice the goodness of my crops and 

 raise upon me — a mere creature of circum- 

 stance, and never knowing how to act. And 

 now, just as I had ventured to do something 

 by way of present improvement, comes my 

 landlord, and informs me he shall take the 

 farm into his own hands in April, by which 

 my family will be deprived of a home. Of 

 this, however, I have no right to complain — 

 and I do no such thing; but the consequences 

 are as injurious to me as though I did." I 

 asked my friend, what would be the result 

 if his landlord should come to him and say, 

 I have had experience of your integrity and 

 industry, and am come to offer you a lease 

 of my farm for 21 years certain, at a fair 

 money rent ; with full permission to act in 

 all cases as you would do, were the farm 

 your own ! " The result 1" he replied, " why 

 you would never see another weed on the 

 place; I would make a good road right 

 through the farm, and keep it so; every 

 arable field should be Prouty-ploughed and 

 subsoiled, and a thousand loads of muck and 

 dung a year should be formed into compost 

 and carried abroad. I would make a new 

 gravelled entrance to the house, and my 

 wife should have a fruit and flower-garden 

 right away. The big meadow I would un 

 der-drain and top-dress, and then I should 

 grow hay instead of weeds and rushes. And 

 to be enabled to do this, I would draw out 

 the few hundred dollars which I have now 

 at interest on another person's farm, and 

 which, in the shape of manure, I know I 

 could make pay 40 or 50 per cent, interest, 

 and no fear for the result; knowing, too, 

 that if I died, my wife and family would 

 enter into my labours, and derive a comfort- 

 able maintenance from the investment. I 

 should then flourish — I have hitherto only 

 subsisted — and the farm should show the 

 effects of the ' result,' as well as myself" 



I confess I was exceedingly pleased with 

 his remarks, and believe sincerely, that the 

 " result," in his case at least, would be as he 

 has pictured it. S. 



Lower Merion, September 12th, 1842. 



Never reprove children severely in com- 

 pany, nor make light of their feelings, nor 

 hold them up to ridicule. 



American Trees. 

 By John Pearson. 



In Georgia, many black oak trees are 8, 

 9, 10, or 11 feet in diameter; 5 feet above 

 the surface, we measured several above 30 

 feet girth, perfectly straight, 40 or 50 feet 

 to the limbs. The trunks of the live oak 

 are generally from 12 to 18 feet in girth, 

 and sometimes 20; some branches extending 

 50 paces from the trunk on a straight line ; 

 and cypresses are there found from 10 to 12 

 feet in diameter, and 40 to 50 feet to the 

 limbs. 



In 1791, a yellow poplar grew on the 

 lands of Charles Hillyard, Kent county, Del., 

 36 feet in circumference, very tall, and to 

 appearance sound. McKensie says, in lati- 

 tude 52° 23' 43" north, are cedars 24 feet 

 in girth, and that canoes made of them will 

 carry 50 persons. An alder 7h feet in cir- 

 cumference, measured 40 feet without a 

 branch. In 1785, about two miles from 

 Morgan town, Virginia, a walnut tree mea- 

 sured 19 feet in circumference, retaining its 

 thickness well to the forks, about 60 feet. 



In Harrison county, Virginia, a poplar tree 

 was 21^ feet in diameter, 5 feet from the 

 ground, and 60 feet to the branches : and a 

 vine measuring near 2 feet in diameter. 



In Lycoming county, Pennsylvania, the 

 sugar maple is found 4 feet in diameter. A 

 cherry tree, 5 feet from the ground, measures 

 14 feet four inches round, and carries its 

 thickness well, near 60 feet to the branches. 

 A white oak, 3 feet from the ground, 15 feet 

 in diameter, and 70 feet without a limb; 

 some of the limbs were 2 feet six inches in 

 diameter. 



In Evesham, Burlington county, New Jer- 

 sey, were three white oaks, the stump of 

 one of them was 11 feet five inches in di- 

 ameter, and 59 feet to the forks: from it 

 were made forty thousand merchantable bar- 

 rel staves ; it was three hundred years old, 

 and to cut it, it was found necessary to weld 

 two saws in length together. The second 

 of these trees, 4 feet four inches from the 

 ground, was upwards of 27 feet in circum- 

 ference, and 60 feet to the first fork. The 

 third, at the same height from the ground, 

 measured 24 feet round. The first of these 

 trees was said to be perfectly sound at the 

 heart. 



In 1791, a hollow buttonwood tree, or syc- 

 amore, on the south-east side of the Ohio, 

 fifteen miles from Pittsburg, 4 feet from the 

 ground, was 39 feet in circumference. 



At Peach-bottom ferry, on the Susquehan- 

 na, was a poplar 11 feet in diameter; it was 

 hollow, and a school was kept in it. 



On Sandy-lick neck, Pennsylvania, was a 



