60 



THE FARMER'S MONTHLY VISITOR. 



April, 1842. 



wood will come in, our opinion would be that the 

 bptter course is to Jet the wood or hushes gain to 

 a sufficient size to cover the ground when cut 

 down for burning. Wood is becoming so valua- 

 ble in many places that a growth often or twelve 

 years to white birch, or of fifteen to twenty years 

 to more substantial forest trees, will pay well tor 

 the use of the full value of the land all tiiut time. 

 A growth of eight or ten years, burnt upon tlie 

 ground, would put it in a condition to receive the 

 useful grasses for feed. 



We are far from thinking sucli land of as little 

 value as we once thought ; for we have formerly 

 looked upon pastures bound out where rocks 

 shut out the plough as absolutely useless. Such 

 pasture land should be carefully treated while it 

 will continue to bear grasses; but the most effec- 

 tual steps should be taken for its restoration 

 when it has run out. We have thousands of the 

 rocky mountain pastures in New Hum[isliire ; 

 and we must not suffer them to run down. 



In easy, arable soil pasture land may be culti- 

 vated like mowing grounds. Pasturing should 

 succeed mowing one or more yeare. A farm 

 partitioned into ten or twenty acre lots with wat 

 er in each would be most profitably cultivated in 

 a rotation of one or two years planting corn or 

 potatoes with manure— .sowing with wheat, rye 

 or oats one year — hay one or two vears — pas- 

 ture a like term ; and a return again to the plough. 

 Land thus treated will always produce good crojis, 

 and may be kept in a high state of improvement. 

 Ed. F. M. I'isilor. 



Scientiiic. 



Two great agents are continually at work uimn 

 our globe— fire and water— the former iuckuli«g 

 all substances which fire can melt, and the latter 

 all that water can dissolve. These two involve 

 all the agencies at work upon the Earth, ami to 

 these may all others be attributed. Let us look 

 first at the igneous agencies. There is no one 

 present who has not heard of volcanoes. We 

 have indeed a general knowledge of only a few 

 — such as are found in countries which are much 

 visited, as Vesuvius, ^tna, &c. ; and these are to 

 be regarded only as specimens of the whole. Of 

 these magnificent valves, these breathing-holes 

 for the in-dwelling fires of the Earth, exist in an 

 active state at least the number of three hundred; 

 though it must be borne in mind, that we include 

 in the. list of active or eruptive volcanoes all tho.se 

 of whose eruptions history or tradition gives us 

 any account, for if by history we know they once 

 have been active, we have every reason to believe 

 they will be so again, though teng ages may in- 

 tervene. I observe that Mr. Lyell, a distinguish- 

 ed English Geologist, now in this country, redu- 

 ces their number to one hundred ; but he includes 

 in this number only those which are now real- 

 ly in action. At their geographical [wsition I can 

 only give a hasty glance ; and first, all along the 

 Western side of this continent, from Behring's 

 Straits to Cape Horn, we have a vast line of vol- 

 canoes, extending through Mexico, Central Amer- 

 ica, Peru, Chili, and Patagonia. We often read 

 of their terrible eruptions, of the cities swallow- 

 ed up, and the vast destruction of life and pos- 

 sessions caused by their agency ; and we pass 

 them without the slightest thought of their real 

 relation to our own comtbrt and h ell-being. We 

 little dream how much we owe to their agency, 

 nor does it once occur to u.s, that weie these 

 events sealed, as they will be bye and bye, by the 

 solid masses falling into their mouths, the seat of 

 this volcanic fire must then he transferred to our 

 Bide of the Continent, nor can we hope to parry 

 off this result. 



If we look at the Pacific Ocean, we find it all 

 dotted over with volcanic islands. In the Island 

 of Owyhee is one of the most remarkable in the 

 world. There is no mountain there ; but an im- 

 mense gulf yawns from the surface. The trav- 

 eller approaches, descejids a little, then comes to 

 a plane — descends again, and arrives at another 

 plane; where the gaping gulf — seven miles in 

 circumference — appears beneath. Upon its sides 

 the fiery billows dash and break like the waves of 

 ocean upon its shores, nor is the surface ever 

 tranquil. All the islands discovered by naviga- 

 tors in the Pacific are either composed of coral 

 reefs or are of a volcanic origin. So are nearly 

 all those south of Asia, in the Indian seas, the 

 Phillippine, Spice, Loo Choo Islands — Sumatra, 

 Java, P.orneo and New Holland. Thus, too, mav 



the same agencies be traced in the Atlantic — 

 through the Cape de Verde Islands, up through 

 the middle of Greece, in Palestine and Central 

 .\sia; and in the other direction, to Kamschatka 

 and back to Behring's Straits. 



The extinct volcanoes, as they are called, are 

 equal in n'jtnber, and even more numerous than 

 those in an eruptive state. All along the banks 

 of the Rhine, and to the centre of France, may 

 be seen the craters of hundreds of extinct volca- 

 noes, with lips as perfect as in those now in ac- 

 tion. Loose scoria; are found around them, and 

 in many cases they have stopped rivers, filled up 

 lakes, and caused other wonderful changes in the 

 Earth's structure. Still, we have no history of 

 their action ; no tradition or story of their erup- 

 tions has survived. Even Julius Csesar, who 

 travelled among them, and planted his camp at 

 the foot of one of the largest, makes no mention 

 or even allusion to them ; and yet so acute and 

 observant a traveller would scarcely have omit- 

 ted it, had any such eruption taken place within 

 the knowledge of his time. But all along the 

 Rhine, through Hungary, Transylvania, and Cat- 

 alonia, as well as in Palestine, Syria and Central 

 Asia, there is evidence that volcanoes have exist- 

 ed, as powerful in their action as Vesuvius or 

 ./Etna. We are told by Darwin, who travelled in 

 that region, that in the centre of South America, 

 near the Equator, may be seen two or three bun 

 dred of these extinct volcanoes. 



It is well established, concerning volcanoes, 

 that many of them have a submarine origin ; that 

 they began their action at the bottom of the sea, 

 and went on piling up their matter, until they fi- 

 nally rose above the surface, and constitute is- 

 lands. This is the history of a multitude of vol- 

 canoes, nor is there any reason in nature why they 

 should not break forth at the bottom of the 

 OcejMi. The immense power of this volcanic 

 action may be inferred from the consideration, 

 that (or every hundred feet of water, there i 

 pressure of fifty pounds upon a square inch, and 

 that the sea is from four to five miles iu depth; 

 and yet against this immense force the internal 

 matter is thrust forth with tremendous velocity. 

 In this way, in 1831, an island rose off Sicily ; 

 but the volcanic action soon subsided, and the is- 

 land is now sunk beneath the surface of the sea. 

 Prof. SilHinan. 



KortheF. M. Visitor. 



Statements of the character following are cal- 

 culated to make the New England farmer con- 

 tented with lii.< farming operations at home. In 

 New England he has the advantage of friends, 

 society and climate to which he has been accus- 

 tomed, the comtbrts of good roado and a steady 

 and certain market for his surplus jiroduce — his 

 salt, salt-fish, tea, molasses, sugar, coffee, nails, 

 iron, leather and other ai tides of consumption 

 within a reasonable distance, and at jirices prob- 

 ably less than one third tiiat is demanded for 

 them in some portions of the western country. 

 The advantage of meetings, schools and society, 

 can be appreciated only by lliose who have been 

 accustomed to them in New England and find 

 themselves in a measure deprived of them in the 

 west. In those states too taxes are necessarily 

 higher than xvith us. 

 Extract of a letter from one ot tlie tax-payers of Illinois. 



*' That you may form some idea of the profit of my 

 farming operations, I will give you the result of my Pork 

 Speculation. 1 purchased ten pigs a year old, paying for 

 the whole fifteen dollars. By feeding them with 200 

 bushels of corn, I made them weigh 200 pounds a piece, 

 or 2,000 pounds altogether. I carried seven of them to 

 market, requiring two days with my team, and was obliged 

 to sell them at 1 J cents per pound, slore-pay — so that 

 these 7 produced 21 dollars in goods, equal perhaps to 

 about 10 dollars in money. I thiuk the three I have re- 

 maining unsold would probably produce five dollars, and 

 thus reimburse me for the first purchase of the pigs. The 

 time devoted to them, the expense of going to market, 

 and the 200 bushels of corn, are the gain or Joss of the 

 doeration." — N. Y. Tribune, March b, lS-i-2. 



from Colman's Fourtli Report. 

 Oriininental Trees. 

 The cultivatioii of ornamental trees ought to 

 be strongly pressed upon the farmers. " Put a 

 tiee down; it will be growing while you are 

 sleeping." Many of tliein enrich the country; 

 all adorn it, and thus e.ssentially increase the value 

 of an esuite, and render the country more health- 

 ful as v.ell as beautiful. Every place on a farm, 

 where they can grow without injury to the crops, 



ought to be planted with trees. Timothy Walk- 

 er, of Charlestovvn, Middlesex county, lately de- 

 ceased, left a legacy of some hundred dollars to 

 be expended in planting ornamental trees on 

 some of the great roads in that town. This was 

 a noble bequest ; and places him among the 

 benefactois of the coininumty. It is an example 

 worthy of imitation. A taste for the beauties of 

 natuial scenery cannot be too much cultivated 

 among us. A taste for natural beauty is closely 

 allied to a taste for moral beauty. The more 

 attractive our homes are rendered, the luoi-e shall 

 we love our homes ; and the love of home is the 

 parent of many kind and noble affections. 



A taste for natural beauty is an original ele- 

 ment of the mind. It may be strengthened, ele- 

 vated, and enlarged by education ; but it apiiears 

 even in the rudest minds, and thus speaks its 

 divine origin. I believe the perception of beauty 

 exists iu all animals; or why should they have 

 been made so beautiful .' 



Natick in this county was the seat of the first 

 christian mission to the Indians, where the be- 

 nevolent Eliot, designated as the Apostle, sought 

 to pour into the minds of these children of na- 

 ture, benighted with the thick darkness of super- 

 stition, the heavenly rays of inspired truth. El- 

 iot was followed by a worthy successor, Oliver 

 Peabody. The Indians appreciated the blessings 

 of the religion of peace and love which he taught 

 them : and in gratitude for his services, these 

 sons of the forest, to whom the trees seemed as 

 their own kindred, came in a deputation bring- 

 ing two elms, and asked leave to plant iu front 

 of the humble dwelling of the missionary these 

 " trees of friendship." This was in 1722, and these 

 trees stood for ninety year8,wlien one was rived by 

 lightning, and the other seemed to perish through 

 sympathy. When the successor of Mr. Peabody, 

 Mr. Badger, was settled in 1753, the Indians of- 

 fered the same token of re.spect and the same 

 pledge of good will to him. These trees are 

 still in full vigor, and remain as beautiful monu- 

 ments of affections, which have gone out on 

 earth, but are destined to be re-kindled and burn 

 with a purer flame. 



Nature is every where prodigal of beauty, as if 

 she would stinuilato the passion for it to the ut- 

 most extent. Among the varied combinations of 

 charniiug objects, which mingle in a rural land- 

 scape, the trees are pre-eminent. Sometimes 

 rising in -single cones so exact and symmetrical 

 in their form, that they seem the [lerlection of 

 art ; sometimes spreading their umbrageous 

 limbs iu curves and lines of the most graceful 

 expansion ; sometimes bending their houghs to 

 the earth loaded with golden and crimsoned fruit, 

 and when the sun pours his bright rays U|>on 

 them, pi-esenting notau inapt image of that sacred 

 bush where the divine presence wrapt itself in 

 robes of fire ; sometimes seen iu long single 

 lines skirting the traveller's path ; sometimes in 

 beautiful chniips and clusters, affording a grate- 

 fiil shade to the panting herds ; at other times 

 in the wide spread forest, shading a valley with 

 their deep and black green ; here again burnish- 

 ing the mountain's side with their thick and mat- 

 te(l foliage ; uow iu autmnn robed in the gorgeous 

 vestments oT more than oriental magnificence ; 

 and often in winter bending under their piled-up 

 fleeces of snow, or glistening with matchless 

 splendor when cased in ice and changed into a 

 crystal forest of glass and diamonds; in all these 

 cases how suited are the trees to charm the eye 

 and delight the mind ! Why should not the eye 

 be charmed .= Why should not the imagination 

 be delighted ? Why should we not take pleasure 

 in the beauty of God's works .' Why should we 

 not do what we can to make our homes contiim- 

 ally more and more beautiful; and lo multiply 

 and fill to overflowing these innocent sources q£ 

 pleasure ? ^ 



The counti-y is full of poetic sentinieut and le- 

 ligious monitions. The privileged inhabitants of 

 the country should seek to rise above ihe niei'e 

 drudgery of life, and make themselves familiar 

 with natui-e in her ever varying and charming 

 aspects. It will not hurt their industry, hut it 

 ivill cheer their toil to stuily the benevolence of 

 the Creator in the perfection of all his works ; 

 lud, I tiust I may add without irrevei-ence, to 

 second his provision for the happiness of his 

 creatures in multiplying every where around them 

 the forms (if beuutv. 



