166 THE MAGAZINE OF HORTICULTURE. 



The time fias come when every old State in the Union 

 should regulate the cutting down of forests by positive and 

 direct legislation. All barren hill-tops and steep declivities 

 should be kept constantly covered with wood, and provision 

 should be made for planting them, or for causing a spontaneous 

 growth, to supply all vacancies made by clearing. Planting 

 should keep pace with clearing except in territories already 

 too extensively wooded. There would be no loss of pasturage 

 occasioned by covering half the area of any moderately steep 

 hill with wood, from the summit downwards. The remain- 

 ing portion would produce more pasturage, with the protec- 

 tion, the greater humidity and fertilization, caused by the 

 trees, than the whole surface would produce without them. 

 On the other hand, all deep vales and lowlands, containing a 

 productive soil, should be deprived of their timber, that the 

 land on which it grows might be rendered 'available for 

 tillage. 



As it would not suit the genius of our republican institu- 

 tions were government to dictate to the citizen the manner 

 of using his own property, the minds of the people must be 

 influenced by bounties and awards. Let the State enact a 

 law, exempting from taxation all woodland, situated on a 

 hill, mountain or declivity, or on a dry sandy plain. These 

 situations should be precisely defined in the act, and all the 

 wood cut from them should be made subject to a double rate 

 of taxation. The act should also provide for paying out of 

 the public treasury a certain sum per acre, for the planting of 

 certain soils and situations with trees of specified sorts, the 

 sum to be paid to the owner of the land on the third year 

 after planting, if the trees gave evidence at that time of being 

 in a healthy and thriving condition, and were planted in suf- 

 ficient quantity. 



Not only the farmer but every citizen is interested in this 

 matter. Upon the proper condition and quantity of forest the 

 community must be dependent not only for its continued 

 supply of timber and fuel, but for regular supplies of rain in 

 the summer, of water for the mill privileges on the smaller 

 streams, and indirectly for the prosperity of every interest. 



