296 ARBOR DAY 



hills, that the proprietor every summer filled his 

 barns with hay, which was obtained from it without 

 any cultivation. 



I revisited this spot a few years since, after a long 

 period of absence. A new owner, " a man of prog- 

 ress and enterprise," had felled the trees that grew 

 so beautifully on the steep sides of this elevation, and 

 valley and hill have become a dreary and unprofitable 

 waste. The thin soil that sustained the forest, no 

 longer protected by the trees and their under- 

 growth, has been washed down into the valley, leav- 

 ing nothing but a bald, rocky surface, whose hideous- 

 ness is scarcely relieved by a few straggling vines. 

 The valley is also ruined; for the inundations to 

 which it is subject after any copious rain destroy 

 every crop that is planted upon it, and render it 

 impracticable for tillage. It is covered with sand 

 heaps; the little stream that glided round it, fringed 

 with azaleas and wild roses, has disappeared, and 

 the land is reduced to a barren pasture. 



The general practice of the pioneers of civilization 

 on this continent was to cut down the wood chiefly 

 from the uplands and the lower slopes of the hills 

 and mountains. They cleared those tracts which 

 were most valuable for immediate use and cultiva- 

 tion. Necessity led them to pursue the very course 

 required by the laws of nature for improving the soil 

 and climate. The first clearings were made chiefly 

 for purposes of agriculture; and as every farm was 



