302 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



are six to eight inches through ; they are all very 

 straight and thrifty, and I value one acre of this land 

 more than five acres of that which is in pasture. I 

 shall not again permanently clear up my steep hill- 

 Bides. 



At the solicitation of a railroad friend, a short 

 time since, I accompanied him into the country 

 directly south of this, to examine and estimate the 

 value of some " wood-lots." I was forcibly struck 

 with the amount of rugged, barren land, inaccessible 

 for agricultural purposes, which had been thrown 

 into open country, even bj' the present owners. Had 

 a second growth of wood been permitted to run up 

 on the land, instead of subjecting it to the burning 

 and cropping process, it would have been now worth 

 far more to the owners ; for a railroad is tapping 

 that country, with its large and clamorous demands 

 for wood and timber. Riding along with an old 

 inhabitant of one of the towns visited, he pointed out 

 a wood-lot which was cut over twenty years since, 

 and suffcre 1 to grow up again to wood, contrary to 

 the usual custom. It was sold at auction, a short 

 time since, for thirty-four hundred dollars. It would 

 not have brought over eight hundred dollars, had it 

 been in pasture from the time it was cleared. 



Warm hill-sides, having an eastern or southern 

 slope, send up a second growth of wood with great 

 rapidity. Although they may not eventually sup- 

 port so heav}' a growth as strong, level land, they 

 will yet produce all the wood they are capable of 

 sustaining, much sooner. A friend directed my 

 attention, the other day, to a tract of land, with an 

 eastern slope, in a neighboring town, which was 

 cleared of an original growth of wood, twenty-five 

 years ago, and left to itself to produce another 

 growth from the sprout. The land, with its present 

 standing wood, was appraised a year or two since, at 

 fifty dollai-s an acre. Ten dollars an acre is all that 

 similar land, in pasture, in that vicinity, has ever 

 been worth. By the application of a little arithmetic, 

 then, we find that the increase of this second growth 

 of wood has been equal to sixteen per cent, interest, 

 per annum, on the worth of the land, without a dol- 

 lar's expense for the cultivation, — that is, ten dollars, 

 at sixteen per cent, simple interest, for twenty-five 

 years, amounts to forty dollars ; to which add the 

 principal, the worth of the land, and we have fifty 

 dollars, the appraised present value, per acre. 



Take another view. The importance of a due pro- 

 portion of wood in equalizing moisture, and preserv- 

 ing the constancy of our small springs and brooks, as 

 well as restraining, in a great measure, the sudden 

 rise and overflow of our rivers, is well known to ob- 

 serving men. Several fine springs and little brooks, 

 which were familiar friends in boyhood, have either 

 entirely disappeared, or are only seen for a season in 

 the spring. 



" In wet seasons, the decayed leaves and spongy 

 soil of wood lands retain a large proportion of the 

 falling rains, and give back the moisture, in time of 

 drought, by evaporation, or through the medium of 

 springs. They thus both check the sudden flow of 

 water from the surface into the streams and low 

 grounds, and prevent the droughts of summer from 

 parching our pastures and drying up the rivulets 

 which water them. On the other hand, where too 

 large a proportion of the surface is bared of wood, 

 the action of the summer sun and wind scorches the 

 hills which are no longer shaded or sheltered by 

 trees, the springs and rivulets that found their sup- 

 ply in the bibulous soil of the forest disappear, and 

 the farmer is obliged to surrender his meadows to 

 his cattle, which can no longer find food in his pas- 

 tures, and sometimes even to drive them miles for 

 water. Again, the vernal and autumnal rains, and 

 the melting snows of winter no longer intercepted 

 and absorbed by the leaves or the open soil of the 

 woods, but falling every where upon a comparatively 



hard and even surface, flow swiftly over the smooth 

 ground, washing away the vegetable mould as they 

 seek their natural outlet, fill every ravine with a 

 torrent, and convert every river into an ocean." — 

 Address of Hon. Geo. P. Marsh. 



Several successful attempts have been made within 

 my observation, in improving rugged and exhausted 

 lands by planting them out to trees. Within sight, 

 while writing, is a knoll that has been comjjletely 

 renovated by a plantation of the white locust. It was 

 originally a coarse, worthless gravel, barren of herb- 

 age of any kind. I remember that the proprietor was 

 laughed at by his neighbors for attempting to grow 

 trees on his barren gravel. The locusts got root, 

 however, and although their growth was slow and 

 feeble, they gradually formed a soil by the aniuial 

 shedding of their leaves ; and as the soil became thus 

 strengthened, their growth became more vigorous, 

 new shoots sprang up in all directions from the roots ; 

 and after a while, clover and other grasses began to 

 appear on the open ground. I have been curious to 

 observe the gradual improvement of this land. Last 

 summer, I noticed that the grass was very luxuriant, 

 and would have yielded at the rate of a ton or more 

 of hay to the acre, in the open spots. The locust 

 wonderfully endows a poor soil with new energy and 

 fertility. It seems to make its deinands for nourish- 

 ment more largely upon the atmosphere than any 

 other tree, and gains foothold in soils absolutely bar- 

 ren of fertility. Then, again, its leaves are small, 

 with very rough edges, lying perfectly still where 

 they fall, while those of most other trees are blown 

 about by the winds, collecting in hollows or in large 

 heaps. 



In my notice of Mr. Rice's farming, last year, I re- 

 marked that he ploughed up a large tract of unpro- 

 d.uctive hill-side, several years ago, and planted it 

 with chestnuts, in rows four feet apart every way. 

 The first sprouts coming up rather crooked and 

 scrubby, he went over the field, and cut them down 

 close to the ground, which caused new sprouts to 

 shoot up straight and vigorous. The trees are very 

 thrifty, completely shade the ground, and grow more 

 and more rapidly as the soil becomes strengthened by 

 the annual deposit of leaves. So well satisfied is he 

 with the experiment, that he is now placing other 

 worthless lands in a similar course of improvement. 



The late Hon. John Lowell, the first and most 

 zealous advocate for improvements of this kind in 

 New England, planted three acres of waste land on 

 his estate at Iloxbury, Mass., to a variety of forest 

 trees, — the whole value of the land not being ten 

 dollars per annum. " 



In a communication upon the subject, he says, 

 " The land was about half of it ploughed and kept 

 open with potatoes for two years, and then abandoned 

 to the course of nature. The pines were taken np 

 out of the forest with great care, not more than five 

 feet high. Wherever I had the cupidity or impa- 

 Tience to introduce a larger tree. I either lost it or it 

 became sickly. In some places I planted acorns ; and 

 as to my hard wood forest-trees, transplanted from 

 the woods, finding they looked feeble and sickly 

 when they shot out, I instantly sawed them oft" at 

 the ground or near it. This required some resolu- 

 tion, but I have been abundantly paid for it. 



" The result of this experiment is this — that in a 

 period of from thirteen to fifteen years, I have raised 

 a young, beautiful, and thrifty plantation, comprising 

 almost every variety of tree which we have in Mas- 

 sachusetts, which are now from twenty-five to thirty- 

 five feet high, and some of which, the thriftiest 

 white pines, actually measure from nine to twelve 

 inches in diameter. The loppings and thinning out 

 of these trees, now furnish abundance of light fuel 

 for summer use ; and upon as accurate a calculation 

 as I am able to make, I am convinced that the pres- 

 ent growth, cut down at the expiration of fourteen 



