282 



FARMERS' REGISTER— ORNAMENTAL TREES. 



rect, and still the wooden railway prove a most 

 valuable invention. A railway that will be enough 

 used to be profitable as permanent stock, ouglit to 

 be constructed in the best manner — and economy 

 would direct the most perfect levelling of the track, 

 that the location and circumstances permit, and the 

 use of iron, rather tlian the wasting and rotting 

 tracks of wood alone. But whenever a railway is 

 needed for temporary purposes, or even perma- 

 nently for common wheel carriages, over a level 

 route, where timber is cheap and plenty — under 

 any or all of those circumstances, the wooden tracks 

 will probably be found so useful, as hereafter to 

 double the extension of the lines of railways. I will 

 offer some examplesof purjioses lor which this plan 

 seems to be admirably suited. 



The country below the falls of the rivers is al- 

 most entirely without hills, or land rising above 

 the general level. There is plenty of broken, or 

 (as it is called) hilly surface ; but the unevenness 

 is caused by parts sinking below the general level, 

 as if deepened by rivers and smaller streams. 

 Hence, in the most broken parts of our low coun- 

 try, the summits of the ridges which separate dif- 

 ferent streams are almost level, and by tbllowing 

 them, a route of 20 miles may sometimes be found, 

 which would need very little grading, to form al- 

 most a level road. It is true that these ridges are 

 the poorest land, and thereibre the least fitted to 

 furnish agricultural produce for transportation ; 

 but more fertile lands, on slopes and bottoms, are 

 generally not distant from the ridge, and extend 

 the whole distance on both its sides. The ridges, 

 from their poverty are still generally in forest ; and 

 their distance from market, has prevented much 

 even of the best timber being removed. For these 

 reasons, the materials for timber railways would 

 be there the most abundant and cheap ; and the 

 railway when completed, would serve to carry to 

 market the forest growth of the ridge, as well as the 

 crops of the adjacent cultivated lands. If a road of 

 tliis kind was so located, it might be used most pro- 

 fitably for a few years, even if it should be not worth 

 keeping up longer than the first timbers would last. 



The Petersburg rail road crosses the course of 

 the rivers, and of coui'se, all the intervening ridges. 

 I am not particularly acquainted with this coun- 

 try, except from the map, and a knowledge of the 

 general features of the country, as referred to above. 

 But judging from these imperfect lights, it would 

 appear, that branch rail roads of timber might be 

 advantageously constructed on all these ridges, so 

 as to be connected with the main route. Staves 

 and other kinds of lumber, are now brought to Pe- 

 tersburg by the rail road ; and if these branches 

 were constructed, every valuable timber tree with- 

 in 20 miles of the present road, as well as every 

 bushel of surplus grain, might be sent with profit 

 to that, or some other market. The same advan- 

 tages, (if not greater,) will follow the adoption of 

 this plan in connection with the Portsmouth and 

 Roanoke rail road, when that work shall be com- 

 pleted. J. B. 



For the Fanners' Register. 

 NOTES OF A RUSTIC. 



In early excursions through western Virginia, 

 I was not more astonished by the grandeur of the 

 mountainous regions than by the immensity of the 

 Ibrests that covered them. 



Yet, I was informed by some of the octogenarian 

 inhal)itants, whose longevity enabled them to look 

 l)ack over nearly a century of time, that when they 

 first visited those regions, extensive tracts of land, 

 often stretching as far as the eye could reach, exhi- 

 bited scarcely a solitary tree. 



Even )iow many of our forests present the ap- 

 pearance rather of youth than of old age; while in 

 other places trees of greater magnitude are found. 

 Magnificent jwplars and sycamores, which seem 

 as if they might have stood the blasts of a thousand 

 Avinters, often meet the eye of the traveller. Who 

 that has traversed the rich vallies of Greenbrier, 

 and the Kanawha; who that has seen the " Fraxi- 

 nus in Sylvis," or the "jibies in Montibus yJUis," 

 can be insensible to the beauties of our forests, or 

 cease to wonder that our native ornamental trees 

 are allowed to languish and die in obscurity, while 

 our domicils are crowded with detestable exotics. 

 In the remarks which I propose to make on this 

 sul)JGct, without i-egard to botanical arrangement, 

 I shall divide our trees into two classes — the orna- 

 inental and the useful. 



The latter class is better known, because appli- 

 cable to so many purposes of life, as in the con- 

 struction of houses and ships, and fences and agri- 

 cultural implements, and mechanical work of al- 

 most every kind — but the former are, tliough often 

 neglected, scarcely less important in adding to the 

 health, and comfort, and beauty, of our domestic 

 habitations. And yet, what adeficiency of taste, if 

 not of common sense, is displayed upon this subject.'' 

 The Lnmbardy Poplar seems to be the favorite tree 

 in adorning our yards and dwellings ; and yet, with 

 tiie exception of the boa vpas of Java, I doubt whe- 

 ther the vegetable world could afford another so il! 

 adapted for tiie purpose ; il supplies us with scarcely 

 any shade— its cortical appearance is rough and 

 ugly, while the immense ramification of its roots 

 running near the surface of the ground and de- 

 scending to the bottoms of our deepest wells, destroy 

 tiie green velvet turf of our yards and the salubrity 

 of our v/aters. There is no depth to which they 

 will not descend — even the walls of our cellars can- 

 not exclude their unwelcome intrusion. 



This free is also peculiarly infected by the cater- 

 pillar, and other members of the entomological 

 family. 



I have often wished that this miserable exotic 

 could be banished to its native shores, to make room 

 for any other tree, except 



The jlspen, (populus tremula,) which is a mem- 

 ber of the same iiimily , inheriting all the bad quali- 

 ties of the former. These trees, united with the 

 poisonous Pride of China, are the ornaments of our 

 domestic habitations. Even the public square of 

 our ca})!tol, on which so much money and so little 

 taste have been expended, is set otY by these ill 

 favored intruders. Our legislators, so filled with 

 political wisdom, so erudite in the great matters of 

 public concern, seem to have but little room left for 

 common sense, and none at all for the pleasures of 

 intellectual taste. It never entered into their heads 

 that the magnificent daughters of our own forests 

 could compare with trees imported from foreign 

 shores — or that a comfortable shade, or beautiful 

 foliage and flowers, were at all important in orna- 

 mental trees. 



In the class of ornamental trees, I shall give the 

 first place to the Horse Chesnut, (Aesculus Hippo- 

 castanum.) The smoothness of its bark, the den- 



