No. 216.] 717 



most opposed theories and facts, so that we are left entirely without 

 certain knowledge. The idea that we might find good healthy seed 

 in the land of its origin, South America, had been tried in practice, 

 and those original potatoes had been found rather more subject to the 

 malady than others. 



Chairman. The subject for the day is, " does cutting off and car- 

 rying away trees impoverish land?" 



Mr. De Peyster thought that our experience in " the removal of 

 forests, was that the land suffered nothing by it." Such were his 

 first impressions on hearing this question put, and he believed that 

 the answer should be in the negative. 



Mr. Wakeman. From the short time which I have had to consider 

 this point, I am in the affirmative. The continued taking off that 

 timber which by its annual deposit of leaves, and ultimately of its 

 branches and body upon the earth enriches it, must, as it seems to 

 me rationally, at last impoverish the soil 



Dr. Peck. Why will not the carrying off trees as much impover- 

 ish the soil, as carrying off wheat, corn, or other crops? In Germa- 

 ny it was found that taking away the leaves and small brush from 

 forests, injured the growth of the forest trees, and the practice was 

 then prohibited. 



Mr. Samuel Fleet. But there is a fact, the succession of different 

 kinds of forest trees, which merits consideration. We find that 

 when one order of trees or plants has been destroyed on land, fre- 

 quently a different kind appears, suggesting the thought that the 

 peculiar nourishment afforded to soil by one kind, may have, if I may 

 say so, been used up, while that which is suitable to another kind 

 remains in the soil. 



Dr. Underbill, of Croton Point. I do not feel ready to meet this 

 question; it requires consideration. The continual fall of leaves we 

 know enriches the soil, and while the forest remains, the soil must 

 grow richer. All land exposed, naked of verdure, to the rays of the 

 sun, suffers constant abstraction of its fertility, for the capillary 

 attraction in the soil is upward, and must be capable of dissipating 

 the fertile elements in the atmosphere. Scotland, where it was de- 

 prived of trees, became comparatively sterile, a remedy, a revolution, 

 was found in the practice of producing a sod on its soil. This sod 

 generated fertility: the soil became black under it. 



