VOI,. XVIII. NO. 3t. 



AND HORTICULTURAL ilEGISTER 



iry ro repair this ship below tlie middlc-wale, yet 

 have every reason to believe that the poison had 

 !gun its work in her timber from liglit-water mark 



her top-side; for, in 181G or 1817, in a perfect 

 ilm, she sank at sea, a poor, miserable decayed 

 ill — a melancholy comment on tiie folly of cut- 

 ig timber for vessels in the winter months. By 

 quiring since, I have always found tliat of those 

 ssels which last tlie longest, the timber of which 

 ey were constructed was cut llie farthest fioii; 

 Bcember. When I have known the period at 

 lich certain trees have been cut, and also their 

 :ality, I have afterwards year after year examin- 



their stumps, and watched their decay ; and 

 ve invariably found that in those of them which 

 !re cut in the winter, the disease first made its 

 pearance in the heart-wood, and continued its 

 .-ages until that was destroyed, and up to that pe- 

 id the alburnum was comparatively sound ; whilst 

 those which were cut in the summer, the disease 

 it made its appearance in tlie alburnum, which 

 a few years entirely disappeared, whilst the heart- 

 lod remained sound. 



" There are numerous facts in the most common 

 nsactions of life that will sustain me in my posi- 

 I believe that the general practice throutrh- 



265 



t the northern and middle States is, to peel sucli i s 



eating the doctrine of cutting timber in the winter, 

 I had a small apple tree which had been engrafted 

 with a choice fruit, and had been growing perhaps 

 seven or eight years. There was one limb on it 

 which [ did not like, because it was growing in a 

 wrong direction. 1 took it oft' in Deceinber, because 

 I believed the sap to be then in the roots, and there- 

 fore at this season there would be none of it wasted 

 or taken away with the limb, and of course the 

 branches left would receive a greater portion of 

 nourishment in the spring. Sometime afterward, I 

 e.xamined the tree, and found that the part or stump 

 of the limb which remained within the surface of 

 the body, was aftected with the dry rot in its pu- 

 rest type. I removed this with my knife, and found 

 that the disease had made its attack on the body 

 of the tree itself. The tree, after the limb was ta- 

 ken off, became sickly, and its fruit after it began 

 to bear was imperfect. 



"I would here observe, that it is the common 

 practice when people cut tlie timber of a house- 

 frame, to do it in the winter, because, as they think, 

 it will be more durable ; but they will not triin 

 their trees at that season, because tliey have learn- 

 ed from experience that if they do, the trees will 

 contract the dry rot ; therefore they do it in tlie 



es as are to be manufactured into ship-plank ; 

 saving the bark, this probably makes the busi- 



13 more profitable than it would otherwise be 



18 invariably the case that by the time the plank 

 I become tlioroughly seasoned, the alburnum be- 

 nes so much injured by the dry rot as to be un- 

 to be used ; and for my own part I never saw 

 ' timber of this sort, where the heart-wood was 

 jcted at all, unless the tree had evidently cou- 

 :ted the disease before its deatli. The season 

 peeling is from the third week in May to the 

 end in June. Farmers cut their rails in the 

 iraer, when the bark will peel, and they last from 

 T to a hundred years. They account for the 

 ; in this way : if they cut them in the winter 

 bark will stick fast to the rails, and after a lit- 

 while the water gets under it and cause." them 

 ecay sooner. On the contrary, they cut their 

 ts in the winter; probably this is done for the 

 venience of cutting holes in them at that sea- 

 : and although their rails last so long, yet their 

 ;s begin to decay in seven or eight years, ac- 

 ling to the soil in which they are placed. When 

 1 necessity they are obliged to cut a (ew posts 

 le summer, (with the expectation, however, that 

 ' will soon decay) if they last thirty or forty 

 rs (and there are instances of this kind,) they 

 tk of it as a very remarkable circumstance, but 

 3r inquire into the natural cause, nnr alter th.eir 

 :tice. There are other instances of the extra- 

 nary longevity of timber; wooden abutments to 

 ges, pumps, piles, foundations of weirs, cofier- 

 s, &c., a full notice of which would fill a vol- 

 — all going to show that there is a season in 

 :h if timber be cut, it will last for many years 

 )nd the average time for which it now lasts: 

 that there is a season in which if it be cut, it 

 not last over eight or ten years, notwithstand- 

 any artificial process through which it may be 

 e to pass. In my opinion, June is the best 

 in which to cut timber, in order to make it 

 though I do not suppose that it would make any 

 t difference if it were cut in either of the other 

 ntier months. 



pring. But Dr Ives, of New Haven, goes even 



further; he trims his trees in June, and thinks they 

 do better at that season of the year, because the 

 wounds heal quicker. This is right, for as the im- 

 mediate cause of the disease is not contained in the 

 heart-wood at that season, therefore the remaining 

 stump being almost all heart-wood, can never be at- 

 tacked by the disease, and the wound will heal 

 quicker; but if the trimming be done in December, 

 the cause of the disease is contained in the stumps 

 at that season and as they cannot be removed, the 

 consequence is, that the disease soon attacks and 

 destroys them, and then the wound will never heal. 

 Although trees thus situated may, by their abun- 

 dant foliage, their extended branches and their 

 smooth bodies, appear to be in perfect health, (which 

 is sometimes the case,) yet they are doomed trees ; 

 for the canker having entered into their organiza- 

 tion, is preying upon their very vitals, and will 

 sooner or later, prostrate them in the dust." 



In the communication from which the preceding 

 statemeiits have been taken, there are many other 

 facts given, all going to establish the same point, 

 viz., that timber should be cut and trees should be 

 trimmed in the summer, and not in the winter, as is 

 the common practice. I should remark, however, 

 that these statements concern more especially such 

 timber as the oak, chesnut, &c., and not those trees 

 whose heart-wood is filled with resinous matter, 

 such as the different species of pine; in the case 

 of these last mentioned trees, I do not suppose that 

 it will make much diiTcrcnce at what Season they 

 be cut. Perhaps it rnay b^ objected to cutting tim- 

 ber in the summer, that a farmer is generally so 

 busy at that season, that he cannot spare the time 

 necessary from his other occupations. But let it 

 be recollected that it is not necessary that the tim- 

 ber should be fully prepared for its intended use 

 at that season, but only cut down, or perhaps even 

 girdling would do, if it be made sufficiently deep 

 to kill the tree, and the work may then bo left to 

 be finished at a time of greater leisure. Should a 

 farmer be obliged to hire this done, the expense in- 

 curred would be far more tlian repaid him, by the 

 additional durability of the timber. 



At the period at which I was strenuously advo- I ;•;;;;""' ""'*'-"^> "' -« umoer.-fan«e«' Rt- 



CHOICE OF EMPLOYMENT. 



At the present period of general derangement in 

 almost every department of business, it is natural 

 for all inquiring minds to cast their eyes around 

 them in search of some pursuit calculated to yield 

 them a support, or to advance their pecuniary re- 

 sources. And where, let me ask, does the mind 

 meet a certain response except from the produc- 

 tions of the soil ? and where else can one look for 

 stability as to the safety of his investments, and to 

 an ample return for his labors ? What other pur- 

 suit can ofter to liim a sure guarantee of a comfort, 

 able support for his family, and permanent provision 

 for his children.' In commercial pursuits all is 

 chance and uncertainty, and ho who can boast of 

 being on the ascendant to-day can only claim to 

 occupy the reverse position on the morrow. The 

 liistory of whole streets in our mercantile cities is 

 but a record of the rise and the downfall of their 

 occupants. It is a melancholy reflection, that such 

 are the uncertainties attendant on commerce, and 

 on mercantile affairs generally, that every six or 

 seven years witness a complete revolution in the 

 mercantile class of the community. And yet such 

 has been the folly and absence of proper discrimi- 

 nation among parents generally, that apparently it 

 has been their most anxious desire to devote their 

 soils to mercantile pursuits, and to risk their pros- 

 perity on chances as fluctuating and more uncer- 

 tain than the turn of the die. It is to this gross 

 misdirection of the mind that many branches of ag- 

 riculture have to this day been totally neglected, 

 although offering the most bountiful returns to 

 those who would engage in them. Providence 

 planted the vine alone in Persia, Syria, and North 

 America. To France and Italy he tendered no 

 such tribute, .^nd yet we see France, whose cli- 

 mate was so uncongenial to the vine at itS tirEt in- 

 troduction, that it could 'barely survive on its most 

 southern shores, now become enriched beyond ev- 

 ery other nation by the immense accumulation of 

 wealth which, for ages, her vintage has poured into 

 her bosom. We see that country becoming afflu- 

 ent and powerful, not from the natural productions 

 of her own soil, but from those which she has bor- 

 rowed from more fayored climes. Look at her ol- 

 ive groves,- and the whole race of oleaginous plants 

 from which she derives the immense quantity of her 

 choicest oils, sufficient, almost, for the consumption 

 of the whole eartli. Look at her groves of almonds, 

 figs, prunes, and almost every ( ther fruit calculated 

 to give support to her citizens and amplitude to her 

 commerce. And lastly, look at her immense and 

 increasing plantations for the silk culture, rivaling 

 in profit all her other pursuits. Not one of these 

 invaluable productions is the gift of nature, but all 

 exotics, transplanted to her soil. For ourselves 

 we may claim both the vine and the mulberry as 

 pre-eminently our own, and planted on our soil by 

 the God of nature. And thus favored, shall .Amer- 

 icans succumb and yield precedence to nations pos- 

 sessing few natural advantages ? Shall we shrink 

 from the development of these resources idh'xch 

 Providence himself has marked out as peculiarly 

 calculated to enricli our country and extend our 

 sphere of comfort and happiness .' We trust not. 

 We trust that we shall not have, for the future, any 

 recreants among us, who doubt the triumph of Amer- 

 ican skill, enterprise, and industry, where any other 

 nation dare claim success. It is such men who 

 retard the national advancement, and are a cloo- to 

 its prosperity. They are worse than drones, for they 

 impede the labors of the industrious. — Silk Journal. 



