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and the soil laid bare. The process of vegetation on soft, quaking 

 quicksands is curious in the extreme. In the course of the first 

 year, mosses appear, then, on the next year, the little seedling 

 birches, then a bulrush or two, by and by some grasses, the moss 

 growing thicker and more abundant, but the young birches out- 

 stripping every other form and invading the newly exposed soil 

 like a conquei-ing host. It is evident, from these facts, that what 

 Nature thus easily and readily does, art could imitate, and that 

 unlimited supplies of seedlings could be raised with as little 

 trouble as Ave employ in sowing carrots on better lands. The 

 white birch, small as it grows, is considered a very valuable fuel 

 for the stove, if cut and suitably seasoned ; and what trifling 

 amount of labor would plant coppices of the tree on every sand 

 pit, gravel bank and other incumbrances of the farm. Several 

 kinds of the oak grow naturally upon gravelly spots ; and this 

 tree is not difficult to transplant, especially if raised from the acorn 

 in the seed bed. When we look at an old oak tree, we compute 

 the long years of its probable growth, but Ave are not aware how 

 fast it really groAvs from year to year. I know respectable oak 

 trees, of the third and fourth generation, from young seedling plants 

 imported for the pleasure grounds of a gentleman, Avho lived to 

 see the acorns of their posterity to that descent, actually five gen- 

 erations, from his seedlings imported years before in floAver pots, 

 so small Avere they then ! 



The artificial planting of forest trees is even available on rocky 

 soils, much broken by ledges and by crumbling fragments of 

 stones. Here, one of the very best trees is Avhat is called the 

 Scotch larch, similar to our hacmatac, an account of the success- 

 ful planting of Avhich in Scotland, may be found in Emerson's 

 Report, p. 91, which is Avell worthy of perusal and imitation. I 

 knoAV myself of extensive plantings of it on spots seemingly most 

 unprOpitious for any sort of tree. The red cedar too (Jimiperus 

 Virginiand) is admirably fitted for such places, and Avhen these 

 trees spring up spontaneously, they should be encouraged by lop- 

 ping off the lower branches and inducing them to rise to greater 

 height, for in a few years there Avill be a fine crop, fitted for 

 making posts and rails for the pains. The red cedar bears this 

 lopping and pruning so well, as that it can become used to the 

 shears under hedge culture, and can be cut into any requisite 

 shape. One of the most picturesque little spots I ever saw, Avas 

 composed of a rocky ledge, out of which and rising above the 

 Avild growth of smaller trees, a sour gum (^Nijssa multiflora) shot 

 out into the air, equally beautiful and attractive in Avintcr, when 

 its straggling and flattened branches Avere grotesque and unique, 

 as in summer, Avhen its dark green foliage Avas lovely, or in au- 

 tumn, Avhen crimsoned by incipient decay. Some amateur may 

 chance give more money to purchase its surroundings for a dwell- 

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