THE FARMER'S HOME. 13 



supply to demand ; tlie locality is particularly unfortunate. 

 Even his whortleberries are in such abundance as not to be 

 very lucrative. If the oleaginous bayberries were in the 

 vicinity of Paris, their cultivation would pay ; were the juniper 

 berries in Amsterdam, Holland gin would fall ; the low juniper 

 hugs the ground with a tenacity worthy of a better husband- 

 man ; the lambkill finds not even a stray sheep to deprive of 

 her young, and the azaleas and rhodoras flourish and flower, 

 their beauties unseen and unsung. 



Now while there is scarcely a shrub from these dc?olate 

 regions that we have not transplanted to our own humble 

 grounds, and nurse as if rarities, (and we might add that when 

 we have asked this privilege of the owners, they have looked 

 upon us as just from Somcrville, or a fit subject to go there,) 

 a more impoverishing growth does not exist on any soil, or 

 which the farmer would more gladly exterminate, however 

 much the abstract admirer of accidental and neglected nature 

 may value them for their peculiar beauties. 



Contrast this state of things with the same territory covered 

 with a growth of timber trees, highly valuable as such, — clothed 

 with one mass of dense foliage, — absorbing nutriment from the 

 atmosphere, which they purify, — giving out moisture when most 

 needed, — beautiful at all times, — brilliant beyond comparison 

 with any other scenic feature of the landscape, when they 

 mature and fall to the ground, themselves the pabulum for suc- 

 cessive growths, constantly enriching the soil, unattended with 

 the expense of other fertilizers. 



Were the wood cut off every thirty years for fuel or other 

 purposes and its quantum of ashes returned to the surface, we 

 doubt not the average net income, considering the labor be- 

 stowed and the increased fertility of the soil, would be greater 

 than by any other mode of husbandry, on the same quality of 

 land. But in addition to all these considerations of beauty 

 and utility, and the increased market value of acre for acre, the 

 protection of these woods to surrounding fields, and their actual 

 modification of local climate, which is a well established fact 

 well worthy the attention of the landholder ; it is their asso- 

 ciation with home, their connection with tlie family, which 

 gives them their chief value. 



The boy, who in his childhood and youth roamed at will in 



