so 



RAISING FOREST TREES. 



estimate it higher; and the difference between the 

 guanoed and the ungiianoed, appeared to us not much 

 more than would fairly balance the expense of the 

 guano. Mr. Pokter thinks otherwise — that the 

 guano this year will much more than pay for itself; 

 and in order to decide whether the continued appli- 

 cation of guano exhausts the soil, he is resolved to 

 try it on the same field, (the two and a fourth acres,) 

 year after year. IJe seems inclined to think that the 

 continued use of guano on a well manured soil will 

 pay, or a little more, at present prices. Our opinion 

 is, that it will pay or a little less, and we should not 

 think it strange if it should be considerably less; but 

 we are willing to await the result of further trials ; 

 and we will only say now, that if guano on fields 

 richly dressed with barn manure should be found to 

 increase the crop enough, in a succession of years, to 

 pay for itself and leave a margin for profits, we shall 

 be disappointed. Our present belief is that it will 

 not pay, except on poor lauds so situated that heavy 

 manure cannot be carried to them. If it shall prove 

 otherwise, after more thorough trial, we will own 

 that we were wrong. 



Sixty-one acres of Mr. Porter's farm constitutes 

 an island in the Merrimack. This he cultivates sepa- 

 rately from the rest, and calls it the Island farm. Of 

 the sixty-one acres which it contains, thirty-six are 

 under the plow; half of the rest is a natural meadow; 

 and the other half is woodland. The plowed land 

 k divided into four lots of nine acres each; and the 

 rotation practiced is rye, corn, oats and clover. For 

 the rye he plows in the second crop of the previous 

 clover; for the corn crop ho applies about fifteen 

 loads of barn manure to the acre; for the oats are 

 applied one hundred bushels of leached ashes to an 

 acre, which he procures for 6^ cents a busheL The 

 land is naturally a light, sandy soil With the culti- 

 vation before indicated, it yields from fifty to seventy 

 bushels of corn, according to the season, and other 

 crops in proportion. The corn, rye and oats are 

 Dearly all carried from this Island farm instead of 

 being expended upon it; and by it, Mr. Porter is of 

 the opinion that the land is rather improving under 

 this cultivation from year to year. 



Some of our readers are now ready to say, " If we 

 had as much capital as Mr. Porter we would farm 

 as he doea" Now, it was not our business to know 

 how Mr. Porter came by his capital; but we think 

 it quite as hkely as any way that he obtained it by 

 farming; and we believe that any man who owns a 

 tolerable farm, free or nearly free of debt, can com- 

 mand capital to carry it on advantageously, if he 

 will; and that if he does this for a few years, and 

 manages with energy and perseverance, he will have 

 capital of his own ere long. 



Galls from the Harness or Saddle. — Maj. Long, 

 in his valuable account of his expedition to the 

 Rocky Mountains, says, that his party found white 

 lead moistened with milk to succeed better than any- 

 thing else in preventing the bad effects of the galls on 

 the horses' back, in their march over the plains that 

 border the mountains. Its effect in smoothing or 

 soothing the irritated and inflamed surface was ad- 

 mirable. — American Farmer, 



BAKING FOEEST TEEE& 



Why will our laud-owners fail to do " themselves 

 and the State " good service, in giving their practical 

 attention to this sort of culture? No crop is surec, 

 nor so sure, and many crops that cost much labor 

 will not pay half as well. For example, a sugar ma- 

 ple grows and flourishes with a vigor scarcely dimin- 

 ished, though forced to yield to the sugar-maker 

 many gallons of sap every spring. Probably a little 

 more careful cultivation would restore all the loss it 

 might otherwise sustain. Hence it furnishes a very 

 profitable crop, always commanding cash iu the mar- 

 ket, while it also produces as pleasant a fuel as can 

 be found. We know of nothing, unless it be hicko- 

 ry, which is more desirable for such use. For char- 

 coal it is one of the best of trees, while its timber is 

 useful for many purposes. Besides all this, it pos- 

 sesses uncommon attractions as a shade-tree. 



Birch trees can be sown or transplanted with very 

 little cost or trouble. The chesnut is also a desirable 

 tree. It flourishes where many crops would starve. 

 A dry, sandy loam, enriched only by its own product 

 is its natural soil. Hence it would prove successful 

 on land where little else would grow, and where no- 

 thing else would render a very liberal return. The 

 most important elements required by deciduous trees 

 are alkaline. Nearly one-tenth part of the ash of 

 such, and even of most trees, is of this character. 

 Hence, when pines and other evergreens have been 

 cut off, and the land has been burned, we find a sec- 

 ond growth of deciduous trees. The land is changed 

 iu its character, so that what had before but a scanty 

 supply of these elements, is now better furnished with 

 them, and under those improved circumstances the 

 seeds of the deciduous trees, dispersed everywhere, 

 by winds, snows, water-streams, birds, animals, etc., 

 germinate and grow, to the exclusion of those for 

 which the soil and other conditions are not now so 

 well adapted. Trees of the fir tribe, we are told by 

 Liebig, grow upon the sand-stone and lime-stone of 

 the Carpathian mountains, and the Jura. The finest 

 forests of deciduous trees cover the soils " of gneiss, 

 mica, slate, and granite, in Bavaria; of clinkstone on 

 the Rhone, of basalt in Vogelsburgh, and of clay- 

 slate on the Rhine and Eifel, while they can not be 

 produced on the sandy or calcareous soils on which 

 pines thrive." 



The black-walnut and the butternut (quite worthy 

 of culture for its capital nuts) need a deep gravelly 

 loam, or a rich clay. A calcareous soil is best 

 adapted to these. The hickory, oak, beech-tree, etc, 

 will not succeed so well in sand, but either of these 

 trees will grow in any good primitive soiL Oak 

 grows well on any variety of good soil, if it be not 

 too wet. 



The various nutrtrees should be sown before the 

 nut is thoroughly dried. Follow nature. Those 

 with a hard shell require the action of the frost, and 

 should not be buried too deep. If not quite fresh 

 when planted, all seeds should be soaked in water 

 before they are sown, and with many, if gypsum or 

 other fertilizer is partially dissolved in the water, and 

 suffered to adhere to the seed, so much the better. 

 Seeds, properly matured, are nature's only reliance; 

 and hence, if we are wise in copying her ways, we 

 can not fail to obtain the reward of our labor. Tha 



