JOURNAL AND PROCEEDINGS. 29 



rarely, the black walnut incidentally was found of large size. The 

 usual abundance of the nuts of the beech, as well as those of the 

 hickory and of the two or three varieties of the oak tree, furnished 

 an ample supply of food for the wild pigeons, and also for the flocks 

 of wild turkeys which roamed about our hardwood forests, and not 

 infrequently visited our buckwheat and wheat stubble fields in the 

 autumn ; certainly up to the year 1851, and more sparsely up to the 

 year 1854 or 1855. 



Quite a number of our neighbors and of our acquaintances, 

 after the work of forest destruction for clearing purposes had been 

 somewhat satiated, became inspired with the taste for transplanting 

 evergreens from the swamps. The white cedar proves hardy, also 

 the native pine. But the truly national representative (Abies Cana- 

 densis) of the Abietian family proved very difficult of successful 

 removal. The spruce (Abies Nigra) was found more sure of growth 

 on removal to well drained situations, but proved to have a habit of 

 sending its main roots near the surface of the soil, and after twenty 

 or thirty years of flourishing growth, and perhaps in consequence of 

 its tall habit; was invariably uprooted by wind storms of occasional 

 severity, but some that were planted in groups around dwellings and 

 home shrubberies, by the mutual protection of their numbers, still 

 survive, and give pleasure to the eye by the contrast in form and 

 tint of their foliage to that of the other members of the Coniferce, 

 particular to the cedars, whose tints in winter time give forth bronze 

 reflections towards the showy landscape, and next, perhaps, to the 

 native pine (J. Occidentalis). 



The cedar seems to have the greatest capability of flourishing 

 on either wet or dry land. 



The hankering for prophecy and foreknowledge is rebuked in 

 the 53rd and 54th verses of St. Luke's Gospel, and perhaps in other 

 places in Scripture, but without straining ourselves by standing ever- 

 lastingly as it were on the tip toe of expectation, and without abating 

 our habitual trustfulness " by possessing our souls in patience and to 

 await what may betide," there can be but little imprudence in look- 

 ing ahead, for is not the future, especially in our youth, a sort of 

 terra (terror) incognita. Yet the sages teach us that Intellect annuls 

 Fate. "So far as a man thinks he is fiee." "Fate is a name for 



