NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



139 



The advantages, beyond the admission of atmosphere, 

 are, that in dry Avoathcr the roots can pass down 

 below the sun's more immediate action, and obtain 

 moisture ; and in wet weather the excess of moisture 

 can pass down through the subsoil cut. If the land 

 is thus kept free from excess of moisture, it can 

 never become cold or sour. After one thorough sub- 

 soil ploughing, the land can be worked for much less 

 expense, and is ready for use at an earlier date in the 

 spring. 



My seeds being all planted by a drill-harrow, and 

 tlie rows of plants consequently equidistant from 

 each other, they can be cultivated and weeded by a 

 horse cultivator, instead of using the slow and ex- 

 pensive hand hoe. 



Should your correspondent think proper to visit 

 me, I shall be happy to answer any other question 

 he may wish to propose. 



Yours respectfuUv, 



JAMES J. MAPES. 



FOREST TREES. 



This subject is now claiming great attention, and 

 the present generation, ere long, will be as busy in 

 renewing the forest, as were the first settlers in de- 

 stroying it. Since many parts of the country have 

 become so barren from the destruction of forest 

 trees, it becomes an object to renew them for their 

 shelter and shade, and the beautiful adornment of 

 the landscape ; and besides this pleasurable induce- 

 ment, trees are becoming an important object of 

 profit from their value for timber and fuel. "We 

 copy the following judicious remarks from the ninth 

 volume of the Albany Cultivator : — 



It must be a subject of astonishment to observe 

 the wonderful intermixture, and seemingly insepa- 

 rable connection, between moral and physical good 

 and evil ; to see that the same thing which we at one 

 time dread with abhorrence, at another time, and 

 perhaps under a little different circumstance, be- 

 comes a subject of pleasing admiration. We often 

 hear heart-rending tales of the gloomy and dismal 

 forest ; and yet, to a person of good taste, there are 

 no charms, within the compass of nature's works, 

 surpassing those of the forest. 



The emigrant to an unsettled country, looks upon 

 the trees as so many savage enemies, which he must 

 conquer and exterminate before he can hope for the 

 enjoyment of peace and tranqiullity. When other 

 emigrants settle around him, and they begin to direct 

 their united cfibrts tovrards arriving at a state of 

 civilization, they see nothing in their mind's eye but 

 cultivated fields, with meadows and pastures, with 

 all the stumps eradicated, and not a single cluster of 

 trees to interrupt the view. If a single patch is left 

 for wood, it is often sneered at, as it is cheaper to 

 buy wood than to devote the ground to its incum- 

 brance. 



But the population increases, perhaps becomes a 

 city. The demand for firewood increases, and tim- 

 ber is wanted in all the various branches of ship and 

 house building, and every patch of forest vanishes 

 before the footsteps of cultivation, like patches of 

 snow before the vernal sunshine, until, as is the case 

 in some countries in Europe, and even in some parts 

 of this country, every piece of timber has to be 

 brought from a great distance, if not imported from a 

 foreign country, and coal dug from the earth for fuel. 



In this state of things, sober reflection, which, 

 though a slow, is often a correct teacher, shows us, 

 by costly lessons, what it would have taught before, 

 had it been consulted, — that if, instead of wastefuUy 

 destroying and exterminating the forest trees, they 



had been used with prudent economy when neces- 

 sary, and skilfully managed and preserved when not, 

 they might have contributed largely to pleasure and 

 to profit. The same follies have been extensively 

 committed by other nations ; but they have long since 

 discovered their error, and are in many instances 

 setting us examples, in many cases worthy of imita- 

 tion, in retrieving it. If we profit by their examples, 

 it is still in season to avoid the error in niany parts 

 of our extensive dominions ; and where it has already 

 been committed, we can, by a judicious course, do 

 much towards making amends in our own days, and 

 avoid entailing on posterity a vast amount of un- 

 necessary trouble and expense. The clearing of a 

 country of forest trees produces, no doubt, atmos- 

 pheric and meteorological changes more or less con- 

 nected with health ; but we choose to leave that 

 part of the subject to those who are professionally 

 the guardians of health, and to speak of it only as 

 it relates to the common comforts and conveniences 

 of life. 



The uses of forest trees, to which we refer, are, 

 shade, for fuel, for timber, and for protection against 

 win J. 



There is nothing in the compass of inanimate 

 nature so interesting as trees. They speak a lan- 

 guage to the heart of utter insensibility, which it can- 

 not fail to understand. They awaken to recollection 

 the memory of scenes long past, not only in the 

 innocent sports of childhood, but often those of 

 deeper interest. It must be noticed, by every ob- 

 server, that even the brute creation feel a venera- 

 tion for trees. A tree is a house, furniture : it 

 may be made clothing, and even bread. " It forms 

 part of every machine by which the genius of man 

 has taught him to lighten the labor of his hand. 

 There is that in a tree, considered as an individual 

 work of the Creator, which may well excite our 

 attention, and most amply reward our study." 



For fuel, and more especially for timber, economy 

 alone, without the aid of good taste, would, if con- 

 sulted, be sufiicient to plead for the preservation of 

 forest trees. 



But when the folly has been committed, and its 

 consequences are beginning to be sensibly felt, what 

 remedy can be applied, if not to aff'ord immediate 

 relief, at least to prevent posterity from suftering 

 by its eff'ect ? The still small voice of common sense, 

 confirmed by the example of several nations of Eu- 

 rope, points out the remedy. 



The first step is, to establish nurseries, where all 

 the most valuable trees could be obtained at moder- 

 ate prices ; a few would avail themselves of their 

 advantages, and the force of example would soon 

 excite the multitude to follow them, and in a few 

 years those who lived to see our dwellings, which 

 now stand as unornamental as milestones, tastefully 

 siuTounded by beautiful trees, and their value doubled 

 in the eye of most purchasers, they would see the 

 public roads lined with extensive rows of valuable 

 trees, and last, of farm houses, would be sheltered 

 in their situations from bleak and destructive winds 

 by belts of the pine and fir-trees, and their cattle and 

 sheep would find protection in winter, and places of 

 repose from summer heat. 



MILK AS AN ARTICLE OF DIET. 



It is common to regard milk as little else than 

 mere drink. But this is an error. Milk is really an 

 article of solid food, being coagulated soon after 

 reaching the stomach. New milk contains 13 per 

 cent, of digestible solids, and skimmed milk 10 per 

 cent. ; that is, the former fully one half, and the 

 latter above a third, of the nutriment contained in 

 the lean part of beef and mutton. — Am. Agricul- 

 turist. 



