NEW ENGLAND FAliMER. 



PUBLISHED BY THOMAS W. SHKPARD, ROGERS' BUILDINGS, CON'GRESS STREET, (HOUIITH DOOR KROM STATE STREET.) 



Vol. I. 



BOSTON, SATURDAY, APRIL 26, ]V,2:i. 



No. 30 



FACTS ANT) OBSKRVATIONS RELATING TO 



jRlCULTURE & DOMESTIC ECONOMY 



BY THE F.DITOR. ^^ 



ON FOREST TREES. 



Ai Irees both for timber and fuel have be- 



uio scarce in many parts of the country, it is 



iie time to pay a more particular attention to 



.? jireservation of wood lots and the planting 



forest trees than we have heretofore. We 



lall, therefore, offer some desultory remarks 



this topic, premising, that as our object is 



lUij, wc shad! not waste our time, nor that of | 



readers, by exhibiting models of labored 



t empty phraseology What we wish is to 



understood, and if we obtain the approbation 



farmers, r.e shall mind the idle wind of cviti- 



carpers no more than the humming of a 



mble bee that " wheels his droning lliglit'* 



im one head of clover to another. And tirst 



: shall say something in addition to what we 



re formerly said on the subject of planthg 



es, which will apply as well to forest trtes 



to fruit trees. 



tn our opinion the Rock Maple, or Sugar 

 pie, is, on many accounts, and in many silu- 

 Dns, to be preferred to any tree which Is 

 ipted to our soil and climate. For fuel, it is 

 rcely, if at all, inferior to walnut, and the 

 ae of its sap or juice is too well known, aid 

 highly appreciated to require a syllable In 

 favor. We wish the borders of all our higl- 

 I'S, where this tree will grow, (and it wJl 

 w in almost any soil except a mere swamp 

 a dry sandy waste) might be adorned with 

 beautiful and useful tree. But it will be 

 IJbr those who undertake to plant tlws, as 

 1 as all other trees, to make thoroi(?h and 

 rect work of it. There is nothing ii which 

 te makes greater waste, or negligence pun- 

 !S the person who is guilty of it, in a more 

 implary manner than in the planting of trees. 

 hat kind of labor is not well done, it had 

 :er be altogether omitted. If you half plant 

 ee, your soil is cumbered, perhaps for years, 

 1 a half alive stock, a monument of the indo- 

 le and bad husbandry of the owner of the 

 raises. We would as lief see dilapidated 

 i doors, rotten fences but three and an half 

 : high, or holes of broken windows half stop- 

 with the ragged remnants of old petticoats, 

 ankered, worm eaten, blasted fruit or forest 

 s, dying by inches about a farmer's home 

 d. If a tree is badly set out, or itunted I)y 

 anagemenl, when in its infancy, no subse- 

 nt art or attention will ever make it thrive, 

 jrefore I tell you again and again, what you 

 lo, do well ; for otherwise you may as well 

 lothing. You will then please to proceed 

 l)rding to our directions, page 301, unless 

 have some better method of your own. 

 if vou have a better method please to com- 

 lica'te it for the New England Farmer, and 

 ishall be happy to give it to the public, to- 

 ler with the name of the author, in our best 

 > o( r APiTAL printing. 



j'here are many sorts of Maples enumerated 

 iolanisls, but the only kind which we should 

 |k it expedient to cultivate is the Acer Sac- 



cliarinum, rock maple, or sugar maple. ThiS| 

 kind of tree bears transplanting better than al- 

 most any other. It is true, we believe, in gen- 

 eral, that it is better to take trees for planting 

 Irom a nursery than from a forest. An able 

 writer in the Massachusetts Agricultural Repos- 

 itory, vol. V, p. 3G, affirms that " the practice I 

 cf transplanting trees from our forests, of six or 

 ten years growth, robbed as they must be of the 

 greater portion of their fibrous roots, and sud- 

 (ioidy exposed to a soil and air to which they have 

 been unaccustomed, cannot be too much rep- 

 robated.'' The maple tree, however, will suc- 

 ceed better than almost any other under such 

 treatment. All sorts of maple may, likewise, 

 be propagated by cuttings. And if they be cut 

 from the trees before the buds begin to swell, 

 and before the ground be fit to receive them, 

 they may be wrapped in moss, and put in a cool 

 place, where they m.ay be kept a month or five 

 weeks without injury. These trees may also 

 be raised by sowing the seeds, commonly called 

 keys.* 



In clearing land it is customary to reserve or 

 leave standing some of these trees, especially 

 if the land is intended for pasture. This may 

 be a good practice, though it is not without in- 

 conveniences and danger. The heavy tops, 

 exuberant foliage and long trunks of these trees 

 expose them very much to the wind, and they 

 are frequently blown over, turning up with 

 their robts a large portion of the surface of the 

 soil. From this cause it is often dangerous to 

 permit cattle to range among maple trees, which 

 nlitained their growth in a forest, and are after- 

 wards ex-posed in opca land to the gusts of wind 

 which so frequently accompany showers in the 

 summer months. It is better, in clearing land, 

 to leave small maples, or to protect and rear a 

 second growth, than to undertake to preserve 

 the ancient tenants of the forests. Trees which 

 have ever been accustomed to free currents of 

 air vill put forth roots adapted to their expo- 

 sure Twenty or thirty trees to an acre of pas- 

 ture will do but little injury to the grass, will 

 afford a shade and shelter grateful and beneficial 

 to tattle, and, six or eight acres thus stocked 

 wiffi rock maple trees, will afford a Valuable 

 sugar orchard. Mr. Bordley, in speaking of 

 th«se trees says — " A grove of them, two or 

 three acres, would give comfortable shady walk> 

 anl sugar for family use ; the making vvhereot 

 wculd require but a short time, and be an en- 

 tertaining harvest. The trees 30 feet apart, 

 ar< above 48 on an acre ; which at a low reck- 

 oning would yield 200 lbs. of sugar an acre, de- 

 ducting only a tritle, not so much for labor as 

 for a short attention in the leisure month of 

 Fekuary.j From seeds it may be 20 years be- 

 fore the trees yield much sugar, but they soon 

 form a delightful shady grove, and they grow 

 readily from seeds. Instead of 48 trees there 

 may be 48 clumps of three or more sugar ma- 

 ples in each clump. Sugar maples growing iu 

 fields, uncrowded, give 7 lbs. of sugar a tree ; 

 then clumps of four trees may yield 24 lbs. a 



< * Deane'a N. E. Farmer, Wells & Lilly's ed. p. 263. 

 t March and April, in New England, 



clump i and 48 such clumps may be reckoned 

 to give 1150 to 1300 lbs. f^rom an acre.'"* 



We believe Mr. Rordley has made a large al- 

 lowance of sugar in his calculations, and he 

 says nothing of the fuel for boiling the sap ; but 

 still a sugar-lot may be made sufliciently ] • fit- 

 able to become an object worthy cf attention. 

 And it should not be forgotten that the rock ma- 

 ple not only pays its annual tribute, in a deli- 

 cious and wholesome product, but at the end of 

 its term yields a more valuable species of fire- 

 wood than almost any tree of the American 

 forest. 



Oak. — Mr. Miller says " Oaks are best pro- 

 duced from the acorns in the places where the 

 trees tire to remain ; because those which are 

 transplanted will not grow to so large a size, 

 nor remain sound so long."! The author of the 

 Agricultural Report of Scotland says, "Trees 

 may be raised by sowing seeds on the sprtt 

 where they are to grow. There are now ma- 

 ny promising oaks among the plantations at 

 Gartmore, which have sprung f'rom the acorn 

 dibbled into soil altogether unimproved."' A- 

 gain, he observes, "• It is the opinion of physi- 

 ologists, that trees have that portion of their 

 nourishment, which they derive from the soil, 

 conveyed to thtm by their minute fibres, which 

 run in every direction from the root, called the 

 tap-root, proceeding downwards in a perpendi- 

 cular direction, and the use of which is to sup- 

 port the tree against the violence of the winds, 

 in removing any tree from its first situation, 

 some injury must be done to these fibres, and es- 

 pecially to the tap root ; and the oftener the 

 tree is removed the greater will be this injury. 

 In this respect, a tree, which is jiermitted to 

 grow in its original site has an advantage over 

 the transplanted tree. In the same view, a 

 plant taken from the seed bed, and planted but 

 once, (instead of suffering a first transplantation 

 to the nursery, and then a second into a planta- 

 tion,) will surely have the best chance of suc- 

 cess. And where is the impracticability of 

 raising such plants 1 If the nursery man will 

 only sow his acorns in drills, sufBciently wide 

 to admit of hoeing, and thin the plants the first 

 and second years after they have come up, by 

 removing the more unpromising ones, he can 

 by the third year furnish plants of suflicient 

 growth, that have suffered no previous injury 

 by removal from the seed-bed. Still, however, 

 there appears to be something contrary to na- 

 ture in removing a tree from the spot in which 

 it had its origin."^ This, however, must fre- 

 quently be done from necessity, and if due care 

 is taken in transplanting a young tree, but little 

 if any injury is received by the tree which is 

 removed. Some writers, however, maintain 

 that two or three times transplanting a tree is 

 necessary to give it a fair start. Every root and 

 fibre, they say, which is cut oft" in order to pre- 

 pare a tree for transplanting is succeeded by 

 several roots and fibres, \hf. number of vegetable 

 mouths, by which the plant procures food from 



* Bordley's Husbandry, p. 4. 



t Deane's N. E. Farmer, Ai U Oal: 



X Agricultural Report of Scotland. 



