1847. 



GENESEE FARMER. 



181 



Plant More Trees! 



U.VDKR the above head the Farmer's Monthly 

 Visitor has a capital article, from which we learn 

 several interesting facts. Gov. Hill, the editor, 

 sa>"s that "Valuable pine timber lots are now 

 grown, whose origin was in the seed less than 

 fifty years ago." The opinion has pretty gen- 

 erally prevailed that pines grown by artificial 

 culture are nearly worthless for timber. We see 

 no reason why this should be so, any moie than 

 oak, chestnut, or ash. Mr. H. remarks that 

 *' Nature does every thing to make up for man's 

 neglect in the planting and growth of trees; nor 

 is she slow in her operations. She has made 

 every acre of waste land in New Hampshire val- 

 uable. The beautiful chestnut timber so much 

 used in the New England railroads grows spon- 

 taneously in all our poorest rocky lands which 

 have been considered too hard for cultivation : 

 the railway chestnut cross timbei-s are worth, 

 standing, on the average, sixteen cents apiece ; 

 trees of the suitable size making sometimes three 

 and four cuttings. It is said these chestnut trees 

 will grow to the suitable size of posts in the years 

 thai these posts rot in the ground. A remarka- 

 able feature in the chestnut is, that where a main 

 tree is cut, sprouts the same year shoot forth from 

 the roots growing up a clump of trees, some three 

 to six of which soon grow into sizes to be used 

 for timbei'." 



We have had some little experience in at- 

 tempting to raise a small forest of chestnut tim- 

 ber from the seed, but with poor success. We 

 have been told that the seeds should never get 

 dry afler they ripen in the fall, before they are 

 planted, either in pots or a nursery. Such is 

 the demand for fence posts and railroad ties, that 

 the culture of chestnut timber, we are confident, 

 can be made profitable. Every farmer has a 

 wood lot, and as he thins it out, or cuts it off, he 

 should set the ground full of small chestnuts. — 

 Under favorable circumstances they grow rapidly. 

 It is safe to calculate on the growth of a cord 

 of wood on an acre per annum in Western New 

 York. This, at $-2, is much better than no in- 

 come — while the annual burden of leaves that 

 fall to the earth enrich the land. 



Shade trees are equally an ornament and lux- 

 ury during the intense heat of our summer 

 months. Speaking of these the Visitor says : — 

 " We boast in the southerly part of the Concord 

 Main street as beautiful elms as can be shown in 

 any part of the world. There are many charm- 

 ing villas in the country range about Boston ; 

 but we must say of these that their cleaned path 

 avenues shaded and covered over by trees high 

 before reaching the limb, or surrounded by the 

 shr ubbery which entirely shuts out access of foot 

 or of eye, do not compare with the unadorned 

 beauty of the i-ow of elms opposite on the street 

 to the place of our writing. There is a remark- 



able similarity in the spread of the isolated elm, 

 which is a native of our intervale and stands ei- 

 ther on that or the first upland of the river bank- 

 The men who sat out our stately elms seventy- 

 five and a hundred years ago. Hall, Shute, and 

 others, have passed away : at this season, when 

 hundreds of birds come there and build their 

 nests, the elegant gold-robin, the gay blue-bird, 

 the chattering wren, and even the shy crow, 

 black-bird, the snarling cat and scolding thrusk 

 both sing so beautifully and so alike when undis- 

 turbed as to be mistaken each for the other — 

 there is a charm in these venerable trees which 

 bids us remember those who planted them there, 

 and to present them as proof that planting trees 

 is one of those "good deeds" of men which live 

 after them." 



Deep and Thorough Tillage. 



W^E have noticed with pleasure that most farm- 

 ers in this section have become converts to the 

 system of deep plowing and fine tilth. Instead 

 of making their soil mellow only four or five 

 inches deep, as is still practiced by a kw, the 

 general custom is to plow from seven to ten inch- 

 es, and thoroughly pulverize the earth to an equal 

 depth with the harrow and cultivator. Experi- 

 ence has taught them that a deep mellow soil is 

 vastly more productive, other things being equal, 

 than" a hard shallow one. We expect soon to 

 see a few enterprising men driving a second- 

 plow in the furrow of the one that breaks the 

 surface, and thus secure to their crops a double 

 amount of pervious soil, in which a double quan- 

 tity of soluble mineral elements may feed and 

 bring to maturity a double harvest. Very few 

 fields in Western New York lack vegetable mold. 

 So far as the atmosphere supplies nutritive ele- 

 ments, these are mainly dependent on the large 

 develope of roots. A root of corn or other plant 

 which is one-fourth of an inch in circumference 

 and five inches long presents to the soil, the 

 rains, dews, and air of heaven, only one-third the 

 surface for imbibing nutrition that it would if ten 

 inches long and three-eights of an inch in cir- 

 cumference. In a deep mellow soil and a large 

 growth of roots, the husbandman is sure to have 

 a corresponding growth of green stems and leaves 

 above ground, to imbibe gaseous food from every 

 passing breeze. The atmosphere can only ful- 

 fil its whole great office in support of vegetation 

 on deep pervious soils like river bottoms. 



If the earth lacks any essential ingredient used 

 by nature in the organization of the cultivated 

 plant, no amount of tillage can create the absent 

 element out of nothing. This fact should never 

 be lost sight of. 



We have a parsnip in our office 31 feet long; 

 and have pulled beans in a field, whose roots ran 

 30 inches into the ground. To give plants a fair 

 chance in a poor soil, it should be very deep that 

 roots may travel a good way to get their aliment. 



