242 AMERICAN AGRICULTURE. 



are best suited to the present state of the soil. Slightly thin- 

 ning the young wood may in some cases be desirable, and 

 especially by the removal of such worthless shrubbery as 

 never attains a size or character to render it of any value. 

 Such are the alders, the blue beach, swamp- willow, &c., and 

 where there is a redundance of the better varieties of equal 

 vigor, those may be removed that will be worth the least 

 when matured. In most of our woodlands however, nature 

 is left to assert her own unaided preferences, growing what 

 and how she pleases, and it must be confessed she is seldom 

 at variance with the owner's interest. Serious and perma- 

 nent injury has often followed close thinning. In cutting 

 over Avoodlands, it is generally best to remove all the large 

 trees on the premises at the same time. This admits a fresh 

 growth on equal footing, and allows that variety to get the as- 

 cendancy to which the soil is best suited. In the older set- 

 tled states, where land and its productions are comparatively 

 high, many adopt the plan of clearing off* every thing, even 

 burning the old logs and brush, and then sow one or more 

 crops of wheat or rye, for which the land is in admirable con- 

 dition, from the long accumulation of vegetable matter and the 

 heavy dressing of ashes thus received. They then allow 

 the forest to resume its original claims, which it is not slow 

 to do, from the abundance of seeds and roots in the ground. 

 But unless the crop be valuable the utility of this practice is 

 doubtful, as by the destruction of all the young stuff which 

 may be left, there is a certain delay of some years in the after 

 growth of the wood; and the gradual decay of the old trunks 

 and brush may minister fully as much to its growth as the ash 

 which their combustion leaves ; and the fertility of the soil 

 is diminished just in proportion to the amount of vegetable 

 matter, which may have been abstracted by the grain crops 

 taken off. The proper time for cutting over the wood must 

 depend on its character, the soil, and the uses to which it is to 

 be applied. For saw logs or frame timber, it should have a 

 thrifty growth of 40 or 50 years ; but in the mean time much 

 scattering fuel may be taken from it, and occassionally such 

 mature timber trees as can be removed without injury to the 

 remainder. For fuel alone, a much earlier cutting has been 

 found most profitable. The Salisbury Iron Company in Con- 

 necticut, has several thousand acres of land, which were pur- 

 chased and have been reserved exclusively for supplying their 

 own charcoal. The intelligent manager informed us when 

 recently there, that from an experience of 60 years, they had 



