214 
RURAL HOURS. 
has fallen in all the valleys — when the hills are becoming more 
bare every day — when timber and fuel ai-e rising in prices, 
and new uses are found for even indifferent woods — some fore- 
thought and care in this respect would be natural in people lay- 
ing claim to common sense. The rapid consumption of the large 
pine timber among us should be enough to teach a lesson of 
prudence and economy on this subject. It has been calculated 
that 60,000 acres of pine woods are cut every year in our own 
State alone ; and at this rate, it is said that in twenty years, or 
about 1870, these trees will have disappeared from our part of 
the country !* But unaccountable as it may appear, few Amer- 
ican farmers are aware of the full value and importance of wood. 
They seem to forget the relative value of the forests. It has 
been reported in the State of New York, that the produce of 
tilled lands carried to tide- water by the Erie Canal, in one year,, 
amounted to $8,170,000 dollars worth of property; that of ani- 
mals, or farm-stock, for the same year, is given at $3,230,000 ; 
that of the forests, lumber, staves, &c., &c., at $4,770,000.f Thus 
the forest yielded more than the stock, and more than half as 
much as the farm lands ; and when the comparative expense of 
the two is considered, their value will be brought still nearer to- 
gether. Peltries were not included m this account. Om' peo- 
ple seldom remember that the forests, while they pro\ide food, 
and shelter for the wildest savage tribes, make up a large amoimt 
of the wealth of the most civilized nations. The first rude devices 
of the barbarian are shaped in wood, and the cedar of Lebanon 
ranks with the gold of Ophir within the walls of palaces. How 
* Dr. Torrey’s State Botany. 
■f See State Reports for 1835. 
