1861. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



51 



ceed M'eU in New England, but not in Great Bri- 

 tain. The distribution of perennials, on the con- 

 trary, is regulated by isothermal lines — that is, by 

 the mean temperature of the year. Lapland and 

 St. Bernard have the same mean annual temper- 

 ature, but the monks of St. Bernard envy the Lap- 

 landers their fine climate, because their summer 

 is warmer. There are perennials at St. Bernard, 

 which the winters of Lapland would kill, but the 

 products of the gardens in Lapland are superior 

 to those of St. Bernard. 



"I SHALL KNOW HER AGAIN." 



BT B. F. TAILOR. 



O, have you not seen, on some morning in June, 

 When the flowers were in tears, and the forests in tune, 

 When the billows of dawn broke bright on the air, 

 On ihe breast of the brightest some star clinging there ? 

 Some sentinel star, not yet ready to set — 

 Forgetting to wane, and watching there yet? 

 How you gazed on that vision of beauty awhile ; 

 How it wavered till won by the light of God's smile ; 

 How it passed through the portals of pearl like a bride 

 How it paled as it passed, and the morning star died ' 

 The sky was all blushes, the earth was all bliss. 

 And the prayer of your heart, ''be my ending like thi 



So my beautiful May passed away from life's even j 

 So the blush of her being was blended with heaven ; 

 So the bird of my bosom fluttered up to the dawn — 

 A window was open — my darling was gone ! 

 A truant from tears, from sorrow and sin— 

 For the angel on watch took the wanderer in ! 

 But when I shall hear the new song that she sings, 

 I shall know her again, notwithstanding her wings, 

 By those eyes full of heaven, by the light on her hair, 

 And the smile she wore here she will surely wear there ! 



POSTS— TIME F03 CUTTIUa TIMBER. 



Mr. Brown : — You gave a method for preserv- 

 ing posts, some time ago, which I unfortunately 

 have lost. May I ask a repetition of it ? Is it 

 expensive ? 



Which will last the longer in the ground, oak, 

 or chestnut? Does it make any difference which 

 end is set in the ground ? What is the best time 

 for cutting ? J. 



South Hadley, Nov., 1860, 



Remarks. — "One pound of blue vitriol (sul- 

 phuric acid and copper) to twenty quarts of wa- 

 ter. Dissolve the vitriol Avith boiling water, and 

 then add the remainder. The end of the stick is 

 then dipped into the solution, and left to stand 

 four or five days ; for shingles three or four days 

 will answer, and for posts si.K inches square, ten 

 days. Care is to be taken that the saturation 

 takes place in a metal vessel or keyed box, for the 

 reason that any barrel will be shrunk by the oper- 

 ation so as to leak. Instead of expanding an old 

 cask, as other liquids do, this shrinks them." 



This preparation is not an expensive one. 



We do not know whether chestnut or oak 

 would be the most durable. Some one who has 

 had experience will be kind enough to reply. 



It is a pretty generally received theory that in- 

 verted posts will last longer than those not in- 



verted — but this theory is controverted with some 

 force. 



September is thought by many to be a good 

 time to cut posts, or any wood to be used as tim- 

 ber. Mr. E. J, Young sent a communication to 

 the Oliio Farmer in 1853, in which he says June 

 or July is the proper time. He adds, that "the 

 time settled by tradition appears to be the month 

 of February. Perhaps the reason is, the winter is 

 the most convenient season for doing such work, 

 there being more leisure time then than in sum- 

 mer ; and because it has generally been done at 

 that time, it is supposed to be the right one. But 

 if any one will be at the trouble of cutting a tree 

 in the winter or spring, and one in June or July, 

 and making them into rails, and then see which 

 will last longest, he will not need any other argu- 

 ment to convince him that tradition is at fault in 

 this case at least." 



We believe in Mr. Young's views on this mat- 

 ter ; they are consistent with the nature of trees. 

 The rule should be to cut a tree as little as possi- 

 ble for any purpose when it is full of sap in ac- 

 tivity. By the latter part of June, the principal 

 portion of the sap has left the trunk of the tree, 

 and gone to its extremities, where it has been 

 elaborated by the leaves into suitable food for 

 bud, twig, and a new layer of wood to increase 

 the diameter of the trunk. The heart of the tree 

 contains'then little or no sap, and the circles that 

 surround it, called sap wood, have but a small 

 quantity compared with what they held in April or 

 May. At this period, like some other operations 

 in nature, the bark yields to the downward pres- 

 sure of the elaborated sap, and makes room for its 

 deposition. In some cases, where the soil is rich, 

 and the growth of the tree luxuriant, the bark 

 will split through the entire length of a young ap- 

 ple tree, and with a width of a fourth of an inch ; 

 and, although the season then has passed, in 

 which trees are usually peeled, there will be no 

 difficulty in removing the bark from large trees, 

 when the timber will be found seasoning rapidly, 

 and becomes exceedingly compact and hard. 



Timber prepared in this manner, we are in- 

 clined to believe, will last much longer than that 

 cut at any other season of the year. 



An excellent article on this subject was pre- 

 pared by the editor of the Country Gentleman in 

 1854. In answer to the question, "What time 

 shall timber be cut ?" it replies, "Never in winter, 

 but always in summer. It should be cut during 

 the most rapid season of growth, and while that 

 season is drawing to a close." 



"Experienced tree-propagators have found that 

 much earlier than this, the juices of the tree are 

 in too thin or liquid a state to form a good adhe- 

 sion between the bud and the peeled surface. 

 From the moment that the bark separates freely 



