1853. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



279 



For the ffeto England Farmer. 



THEORIES AND FACTS— DO THEY 

 AGREE ? 



I once heard it remarked by a neighbor of mine, 

 that "ho never yet saw anything that he could not 

 find some fault in." I would not cultivate the 

 spirit of fiiult-finding ; I would not strive hard to 

 see the spots on the bright face of the sun, nor 

 blemishes in the character or outward life of my 

 dear friend. But sometimes, without seeking 

 them, and contrary to my sincere desire, I see, or 

 think I see, imperfections in my wifeHepzibah, in 

 my daughter Felicia, and, I grieve to say it, in the 

 New England Farmer. Now in all these cases I 

 would very much like to be able to believe that 

 there Avas no blemish, not even "the shadow of a 

 shade" to obscure their brightness. But alas! I 

 must either believe they sometimes err, or else that 

 I myself do not see clearly. Under these circum- 

 stances, who can doubt which horn of the dilem- 

 ma I take hold of ^ Possibly I may be in the 

 wrong — if so, I ask for light. As I am a man of 

 few words, I will come at once to the point. 



In th'c first place, you, Mr. Editor, assert in the 

 last Farmer that the pine "has the most agreea- 

 ble and wholesome quality of drying the atmo- 

 sphere where it stands." (a.) Is it sol I have al- 

 ways supposed that all shade trees had the oppo- 

 site tcndcncyjin proportion to the dcnseness of their 

 foliage. I have always been a great lover of wood- 

 walks, and have spent many an hour in pine woods, 

 and oak woods, and mixed woods, but it never 

 struck me that there was, on similar soils and sim- 

 ilar exposure to the sun and air, any excess of dry- 

 ness in the pine woods over other woods. But it 

 may be that my physical organization is not suffi- 

 ciently delicate to note the nice difference that 

 may exist. If your opinion is grounded on scien- 

 tific facts, would it bo asking too much to request 

 that you will give those facts ? I presume they 

 would be interesting to others, as well as to my- 

 self. 



Nextly, — A correspondent, on the same page, 

 who writes about plaster, advances one or two no- 

 tions which, I think, a more careful observation 

 would show to be erroneous. He says : "Why 

 some fields become green sooner than others in the 

 spring, is because more grass was left on them in 

 the fall ; the grass does not grow, but the ivithcred 

 blades turn green.'''' Now I would in all diffidence 

 ask, if the writer of that sentence has ever actu- 

 ally seen the dry, withered blades of grass become 

 green. I can hardly believe it. I must, for the 

 present, think he permits his theories to deceive 

 his senses, {b.) 



Again, a little further on, the same writer 

 gives me occasion to infer that he supposes stones 

 to exert a beneficial influence on the soil, or at 

 least that they promote the growth of the neigh- 

 boring vegetation, (c.) I know there is a pre- 

 vailing opinion that stones make themselves use- 

 ful by attracting moisture on soils that would oth- 

 erwise be dry, and assist to warm those that are 

 cold and wet. If they do perform both these of- 

 fices, they are accommodating, truly. But is there 

 not more theory than fact here. I grant there is 

 some fact ; but it leads me to a different conclusion. 

 I grant for instance, that when the stones lie upon 

 the surface of your land, the grass around the stones 

 will be stouter than elsewhere. Why is it ■? Sim- 

 ply because that grass has the advantage of the 



soil beneath the stones ; and thus, if the stones 

 cover half the surface, the grass on the other half 

 has the use of the whole field. But do you get 

 more grass because the stones are there 1 I think 

 not. And where the stones sink deeply into the 

 soil, I have not been able to perceive that the 

 grass which surrounds them is more luxuriant than 

 that which is at a distance from them. There is a 

 fine opportunity to examine this matter in some of 

 the pastures lying north of old Pongatasset, in this 

 town. Jonathan Doolittle. 



Concord, April, 1853. 



Remarks. — Our correspondent's signature is a 

 misnomer. We have the pleasure of his acquaint- 

 ance, and know, that instead of "doing little," 

 he is a man of progress, and does his part to keep 

 the world in motion, llis inquiries are interest- 

 ing, and shall receive such light as our "dim can- 

 dle'' can shed upon them. 



(a.) Our remark that "the pine has the most 

 agreeable and wholesome quality of drying the at- 

 mosphere where it stands," was not based on sci- 

 entific facts, but upon the observation of many 

 years, strengthened by what we considered cor- 

 roborating circumstances. 



The character of the tree depends much on the 

 shape and operation of its leaves. Those of the 

 pine are long, numerous, and needle-like, dividing 

 the currents of air into minute portions as it pass- 

 es among them, and producing those delightful 

 sounds, peculiar to the bass notes of the ^Eolian 

 harp. 



At Nahant, where the winds swept unobstruct- 

 ed over the farm of Mr. Tudor, frustrating all at- 

 temps at raising the finer fruits and vegetables, he 

 constructed a fence sixteen feet high with spaces 

 of two or three inches between the palings. The 

 effect upon the damp east winds and cold, was 

 such, that on the south side, the frost only pene- 

 trated the earth about as many inches as it did 

 feet on the north and east side, and he was ena- 

 bled to raise fruits, vegetables and flowers in per- 

 fection where they would not mature before ! There 

 was a warmth and dryness on the south side, while 

 the other side of the open fence was damp and 

 chilly. Do not the pine leaves and the fence have 

 a similar influence on the atmosphere ? Is there 

 not a reason for setting pines on the north-eastern 

 exposure of garden8,beside that of merely obstruct- 

 ing the wind 1 Is it not softened and tempered 

 in its passage through them, losing something of 

 its chilling dampness, as well as force ? We be- 

 lieve so, and therefore, "that the pine has the 

 most agreeable and wholesome quality of drying 

 the atmospere where it stands" by the mechani- 

 cal, and perhaps, physiolgical, operation of its 

 leaves. Miciiaux says, in his interesting work, 

 The North American Sylva, "the debris of granite 

 rocks may be considered as the universal soil suit- 

 ed to the pine and fir tribe, and a dry subsoil an 

 essential condition for their entire prosperity, but 



