18 



THE S OUT HE 



RN PLANTER. 



same circle in Virginia would, I am satisfied, 

 require an expenditure of fifteen hundred 

 dollars. Your lands are apparently cheap at 

 fifteen dollars an acre, but your habits and 

 customs make them really dear." 



The correctness of this logic is confirmed 

 by the universal fact, that the price of lands 

 in Virginia is governed more by the habits of 

 the people, than the quantity of product or the 

 facility to market. Witness the difference be- 

 tween the price in Rockingham and Albe- 

 marle. . Another instance of a similar cha- 

 racter came under our observation. 



A manufacturer from the North came to 

 Richmond to seek a new location. He ad- 

 mired the water power and was satisfied with 

 the superior cheapness of coal and iron, (he 

 was an edge tool maker,) but he declared he 

 could manufacture cheaper at home than here, 

 owing to the difference in living. Why, said 

 we, the price of dry goods, groceries and mar- 

 keting, is not greater than in your present lo- 

 cation — we happened to know something about 

 his place of residence. His reply was, that 

 the expense of living depended not so much 

 upon the price of goods as upon the quantity 

 and quality that the habits of the community 

 render necessary for consumption. The ques- 

 tion is not, said he, what is the price of silk 

 per yard, but who are expected to wear silks 1 

 Like his predecessor, he concluded that Vir- 

 ginia was no place for a hard working econo- 

 mical Yankee family. 



That this unfortunate state of things does 

 exist in Virginia, is a source of regret to none 

 more than the Editor of this paper, and he 

 humbly conceives that an exposition of these 

 views, so far from doing injury, can only have 

 the effect of removing the evil by opening our 

 eyes to the difficulties under which we labor. 



MODE OF CUTTING WOOD. 



It is now generally admitted that the 

 best mode of treating a lot devoted to 

 wood is to cut all clear as you go ; for 

 you thus avoid injuring the young growth, 

 and you leave young stumps to send out 

 their sprouts instead of old ones, that often 

 fail to produce any. 



A different practice has long prevailed 

 in New England. Farmers have entered 

 their wood lots and felled the old trees that 

 had begun to decay. And in their fall 

 one of these would crash a hundred small 

 shoots, and destroy all prospect of a se- 

 cond growth. By singling out individual 

 trees and thinning your forest you im- 

 prove not the growth of the remaining 

 standards, and you encourage not the 

 growth of young ones. A few old trees 

 will keep the ground shaded enough to 

 discourage a young set, and yet the grass 

 will spring up and prove a nuisance to all 

 other vegetation. Trees in a tolerably 

 thick forest are known to grow faster than 

 such as are sparse and have a greensward 

 to contend with. 



For timber you can leave a sufficient 

 number of trees apart from your wood lot. 

 But you want no large trees for fuel. The 

 labor of splitting large logs for our modern 

 small fire places and stoves is too expen- 

 sive, and smaller wood is more saleable 

 than the largest logs. 



In France, where necessity has taught 

 people to make the most of a wood lot, 

 the land is cut over quite frequently, and 

 none but small wood is seen for fuel. It 

 is found profitable to cut oftener than we 

 can afford to in this country on account 

 of the low price of labor. But some of 

 our farmers here have cut their lots off 

 with only twelve years' growth. Twenty 

 or twenty-five years will give a pretty 

 handsome growth on many soils, and it 

 is doubted whether any lot ought to stand 

 longer for wood. 



It should be borne in mind that after 

 repeated cuttings the sprouts will shoot 

 up sooner than after a first or second clear- 

 ing, and that the closer you cut the stump 

 the more vigorous will be the growth. — 

 All the shoots have a fair start when the 

 lot is cut in this way, and all contend for 

 the mastery. There seems an actual ri- 

 valry among young trees when they have 

 such an opportunity to show themselves. 



In regard to the best time of the year 

 for cutting in order to insure a new growth 

 in the shortest period, there may be some 

 difference of opinion. The winter months 

 are most commonly devoted to this service. 



