332 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



July 



food of fowls a sufficient quantity of egg-shells or 

 chalk, which they eat greedily, they will lay many 

 more eggs than before. A well-fed fowl is dis- 

 posed to lay a vast number of eggs, but can not 

 do so without the materials for the shells, how- 

 ever nourishing in other respects her food maybe. 

 A fowl, with the best will in the world, not find- 

 ing any lime in the soil, nor mortar from walls, 

 nor calcerous matter in her food, is incapacitated 

 from laying any eggs at all. Let farmers lay such 

 facts as these, which are matters of common ob- 

 servation, to heart, and transfer the analogy, as 

 they justly may do, to the habits of plants, which 

 are as truly alive, and answer as closely to evil or 

 judicious treatment, as their own horses." 



THE NORTH AMERICAN SYLVA. 



We have examined with much gratification the 

 splendid work of Michaux and Nuttall, now re- 

 published in this country, at Philadelphia. No 

 recommendation of the work to our readers would 

 be too strong, in urging them to purchase it. — 

 Hundreds of them can spare the $45,00 required, 

 and experience no inconvenience, while they would 

 find much instruction and gratification in their pe- 

 rusal. They would also subserve the cause of sci- 

 entific investigation. 



We adopt the language of the Horticulturist, in 

 its notice of the new edition of the work, and only 

 regret that our limited means will not allow us the 

 privilege of always having it at hand. 



We are happy to learn that the superb edition of 

 this great national work, published by Mr. Smith, 

 is in such demand that copies cannot be supplied 

 as fast as they are called for. This speaks well 

 for the growth of taste among the American peo- 

 ple and for the interest they are taking in the pro- 

 ductions of their own forests. It is a work that 

 deserves the most complete success, not only for 

 the important information which it contains, but 

 for its elegance. The style of the engravings is 

 good, and the coloring, done in this country, is, in 

 many respects, equal to the original French edi- 

 tion. Those editions have long been out of print, 

 commanding, before this appeared, no less than 

 one hundred dollars a copy ; that price was ofiered 

 to our late American Ambassador in London for 

 Michaux alone. The present edition, better trans- 

 lated than the English one which appeared in Par- 

 is, is now to be procured for twenty-four dollars ; 

 and with Nuttalls's Continuation, also, in three 

 superb volumes, the whole is oflFered ?ov forty-five 

 dollars. 



From the nature of this work it can never be- 

 come a "common book ;" indeed, to possess it will 

 always confer a sort of distinction. It is even 

 now somewhat difficult to procure a copy of this 

 new edition, so much time is necessarily employed 

 incoloring the plates by hand, as so few artists 

 exist in this country who can be trusted to work 

 upon tbem. They give regular support to a num- 

 ber of ladies and gentlemen who do little else than 

 color from morning to night. The result is, pic- 

 tures entirely fit to be framed for ornamenting a 

 drawing-room. By a little study of its valuable 

 plates and comprehensive letter press, all may 

 identify the products of our splendid forests, and 



learn to love what is so beautiful and worthy of 

 study. If it were only to be able to know exact-'' 

 ly all our American Oaks, or if they only were 

 figured by this master of engraving, the work would 

 be cheap, nay invaluable ; but in addition, we 

 have in Michaux and Nuttall all the trees of our 

 continent. The first named author described the 

 trees of the Atlantic slope, and Nuttall continued 

 tlie labor to the Pacific, including Oregon and 

 California. The trees from these new possessions 

 are already finding their way to our nurseries and 

 gardens, and Nuttall's volumes are therefore in- 

 dispensable, for his are the only descriptions ex- 

 tant of these western novelties. 



Mr. Smith, the editor, happily remarks in his 

 introduction, "It was a singular circumstance, 

 and a happy one for advancing science, that Mr. 

 Nuttall arrived in this country the very year that 

 the younger Michaux left it. * # # 

 The two works are now one and homogenous; the 

 former most highly valued by all lovers of trees, 

 and the latter destined to be equally so." 

 * # # * * 



The elder Michaux is deceased, having fallen a 

 sacrifice to his scientific zeal on the coast of Mad- 

 agascar ; Redonte, the engraver, who has left such 

 a world-wide reputation by his engravings of the 

 work, the Liliaceoe Rosftceae, &c., is no more ; both 

 Mr. Maclure and Dr. Morton have lately paid 

 the debt of nature. 



The elder Michaux commenced the "Sylva," 

 by describing the Oaks of America; his son, F. 

 Andre Michaux, who completed it, still survives, 

 and resides in Paris, at the age of eighty-three 

 years. He displayed a vocation for the natural 

 sciences at an early age, and accompanied his 

 father on his voyage to America. In 1802 he 

 was employed by the French government to ex- 

 plore the country west of the Alleghany moun- 

 tains, and published in 1804 his travels in that 

 then distant and almost unexplored region. A sec- 

 ond volume contained a memoir on the naturaliza- 

 tion of roots of American forest trees in France. 

 In 1810 he published the Sylva. No country can 

 boast a more magnificent or useful account of any 

 part of its natural production ; it unites the ad- 

 vantages of a work strictly botanical, and of one re- 

 lating to the useful arts, collecting all the scat- 

 tered details which books or experience could fur- 

 nish him, with respect to the application of the va- 

 rious kinds of wood to the purposes of life, which 

 are extremely useful and important at the present 

 day. The fame of both fxther and son may be re- 

 garded as the common inheritance of France and 

 the United States. 



Farming Inconsistencies. — Farmers dig their 

 gardens two feet deep, but only plow their land 

 five inches. They take especial care of their nag 

 horses in a good warm stable, but expose their 

 farm horses and cattle to all weathers. They de- 

 ny the utility of drainage in strong tenacious clays, 

 but dare not dig an underground cellar in such 

 soils, because the water would get in. They 

 waste their liquid mauure, but buy guano from 

 Peru to repair the loss ; and some practical men, 

 who are in ecstacies with the urine of the sheep- 

 fold, have been known seriously to doubt the ben- 

 efit of manure. But it may be asked, "Where is 

 the capital to come from for all these improve- 

 ments?" The reply will be, "Where does the 



