114 



XEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



March 



day, until the last of October, a period of 

 eight weeks. What remained were then gath- 

 ered, and remained good four weeks longer, 

 when the supply was exhausted. From two 

 trees, such as are described above, some 

 $2.5.00 worth were sold, a family of seven or 

 eight persons was constantly supplied with all 

 they wanted for eating and cooking, and small 

 baskets filled with them were occasionally sent 

 to neighbors. 



Altogether, it is a remarkable apple ; it 

 ought to be on every farm, but, not perhaps, 

 more than a few trees at most, imless near a 

 market that can be easily reached daih*. For 

 the villager, or mechanic, who has room only 

 for a single tree, it is the apple of all others. 



We have alluded to the great scarcity of 

 timber needed in the mechanic arts. Visiting 

 the new house of a neighbor, he informed us 

 that the white pine lumber used for finishing 

 cost $7.5 per thousand feet. The best quality 

 of white pine lumber was selling at $90 per 

 thousand feet. Both qualities came from the 

 State of Michigan. 



Some railroad men, anticipating the difficul- 

 ties of procuring suitable timber for their 

 works, are about combining to call upon the 

 State to enforce the planting and preservation 

 of trees for mechanical uses. Even now, 

 they find it difficult to get suitable lumber for 

 constructing freight and passenger cars. 



It is quite probable that there are as many 

 forest trees standing in Massachusetts now, as 

 there were thirty years ago. But there are 

 very few timber trees. There is scarcely a 

 house built in any town in the State, but a 

 considerable portion of the lumber comes from 

 abroad ! We reside in the country, and in a 

 region well wooded with young trees, but most 

 of them are cut when in the prime of their 

 growth to meet the demand for them, so that 

 no forests aHbrding large and good lumber 

 are in pronii.xe among us. 



"Our increasing population creates a new 

 demand for timber, notwithstanding the vast 

 increase in the use of iron, brick and stone. 

 Railroads arc enormous consumers. The sixty 

 thousand miles now in use or soon to be com- 

 pleted demand an almost incalculable amount 

 of wooil. ^Vith 2;jOO ties to a mile, these 

 roads require 1.50,000,000 ; and these ties or 

 sleepers decay and require renewal in about 

 five years. This vast number causes the de- 



struction of a nearly equal number of incipi- 

 ent timber trees — for they are usually cut 

 when of a size suitable for only one or two 

 sleepers. 



The lumber used in fencing these roads, in 

 building bridges, depots and cars, is quite an 

 item to be added to former consumption. 

 Then of the fuel ! It is estimated that the 

 distance run each day by trains on all the 

 roads is 308,000 miles. Each engine with an 

 ordinary train consumes about one and three- 

 fourths cords of wood for every twenty miles. 

 This gives a daily consumption of wood for 

 this purpose alone of 21,560 cords, or six and 

 a half million cords annually. * * It will 

 require half a million trees annually to supply 

 the decay on the telegraph lines now in use." 



DECLINE OF DAIKY PRODUCTS. 



In addition to the American Dairymen's As- 

 sociation, Avhich recently held its Sixth Annual 

 Meeting at Utica, N. Y., Massachusetts, Ver- 

 mont, Ohio and other States and localities 

 have dairymen's associations with organiza- 

 tions more complete, meetings more interest- 

 ing, and action more efficient than has been 

 attained in any other branch of agricultural 

 industry. Throughout the "dairy belt" of 

 our broad country, the improved system of 

 dairying is extending in all dij-ections. Nor 

 is it confined to our country. Even John 

 Bull, with all his conservatism and self esteem, 

 is inquiring into the American system, and the 

 Yankee cheese factory is actually working up 

 the milk of the cows of the Good Old English 

 Gentleman. In fact, dairying i^ rapidly be- 

 coming a specialty — a fever. Farmers and 

 farmers' wives and daughters, have "dairying 

 on the brain." Cheese factories, butter fac- 

 tories, condensing factories are to relieve the 

 indoor and outdoor drudgery of the old sys- 

 tem, and to make farm life more attractive, 

 profitable and scientific. 



But while thus congratulating ourselves on 

 the success of progressive agriculture in the 

 dairy line, and anticipating the time when a 

 like improvement and melioration shall be 

 ellected in other dei)artments of farming, a 

 note of alarm is sounded, shrill and clear, in 

 the Ohio Farmer. We allude to an article 

 written by Mr. Anson Bartlctt, President of 

 the Ohio Dairymen's Association. 



He assumes "that there is a cause, or per- 



