PROCEEmNGS OF THE FARMERS' CLUB. 215 



country can help feeling pain at the wanton destruction of our once noble 

 forests. The once fertile districts of Asia Minor have been rendered almost 

 desert by the destruction of the forests, which have been gradually de- 

 stroyed since the irruption of the Tartan hordes from Central Asia, and 

 our forests are being destroyed by more than Asiatic barbarism, for the 

 Tartars only destroyed the timber as they needed it, and left their slieep 

 and goats to do the browsing, so as to prevent the timber from growing, 

 and it has taken several hundred years to denude the mountains of their 

 covering, but this has been done to a great extent in our country in less 

 than one century. 



"Many a Western man who, like myself, has traveled through Kentucky 

 and Tennessee to aid and minister to wounded or sick sons, has observed 

 that the older settled portions of those States, particularly the blue grass 

 region of Kentucky, is now nearly destitute of tinibei*. The land was 

 cleared at first far closer than it shcmld have been, and has been pastured 

 since, woods as well as other fields, while the timber has been used as 

 wanted, until what they now call woods will not average ten trees to the 

 acre. I was painfully impressed during mj last visit to Vermont (my 

 much loved native State) to see the apparent determination to destroy what 

 remained of their forests. Sheep seemed to be king, and land that would 

 not keep more than two to the acre was being stripped of timber for their 

 accommodation; while, at the same time, if the sheep had been kept off" and 

 the wood suffered to grow, (as it sells readily there now and grows quickly), 

 there might be five times the value sold off in wood as the pasture was 

 worth. Mr. Cotton, of Hartland, speaks of the detei'ioration of the pas- 

 tures of Vermont. This is very plain, but the remedy is not as easy. The 

 woodlands have not, as a general thing, been fenced, and the sheep have 

 lain in the shade when they were not cropping ; and, consequently, the 

 manure has been, to a great extent, taken to the woods and ledges, where 

 Mr. Cotton has seen it in piles cue foot deep, which is sufficient to make 

 any country poor. And more than this, the pastures have generally been 

 heavily stocked, so that such grass as the sheep loved has been eaten so 

 closely that it has never been allowed to seed, and wild, bitter grasses 

 have taken its place. This will account for the poverty of the Vermont 

 pastures, without looking after wool, hides, horns, bones or anything else 

 that has been taken away by the drover or butcher, as the manure taken 

 off would amount to a thousand times the value of all of these substances." 



Sumach Described. 



Mr. Andrew Benner, Summerville, Maine, says : Ehus Coriaria (Currier's 

 Sumach) I have seen growing as far south as the Rio Grande, and as far 

 north as Madawaska ; it is common everywhere in dry rocklyland. I liave 

 seen the Indians in Texas smoke the dried leaves as a substitute for tobacco. 

 Never heard of it being used as a substitute for Oolong tea until I saw the 

 subject discussed in the columns of The Tribune. The Penobscot Indians 

 make tea of the fine green boughs of the Hemlock, steeped in water, which 

 makes a pleasant and agreeable drink. 



Rhus Toxicondendron, or poison sumach, called in Maine, New Hampshire 

 and some parts of Massachusetts poison dogwood, grows in wot ground, 



