4-08 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[November, 
but this Band-just suits cranberries ; and as long 
as folks ■will buy them, they make us as rich as 
if we owned Illinois prairies, and we get the 
ocean, fish, and sea breezes, thrown in for noth- 
ing-. It is just as well that all parts of the 
world are not made alike." 
This bit of Cape Cod philosophy is worth 
thinking of, and while your readers are digest- 
ing it, I will reserve the cranberry sauce for the 
next paper. 
llookertown, Conn., ) Yours to Command, 
Out. 15th, 1S69. i Timothy Bunker, Esq.. 
Timber for the Prairies. 
BY OUR SPECIAL CONTRIBUTOR— CENTRAL IOWA. 
[The immense breadth of fertile land lying 
between the western line of Indiana on the east, 
and the Rocky Mountains on the west, a dis- 
tance little short of a thousand miles, is nearly 
all prairie. Small tracts of forest are found 
along the borders of part of the water-courses, 
and occasionally elsewhere, but these furnish 
only a very small per cent of the building and 
fencing material required on the hundreds of 
thousands of farms, and in the multitude of cit- 
ies and villages everywhere springing up -and 
expanding. The demand for railroad ties alone 
will soon be a large ilem. The first few leading 
lines of railway have gathered nearly all 
of the limber available for this purpose. Every 
mile of railway requires nearly 3,000 ties, each 
one of which is a pretty large piece of wood. 
Two lines of railway alone, from Chicago to 
Omaha, and one line to the Mountains, have used 
about five million ties. These will nearly all need 
renewing before new ones can be grown ; and 
many thousands of miles of other prairie railroads 
are constructed or in progress. Whence is to 
come the supply for all this demand for buildings, 
railways, and fencing? The largest supply now 
comes down the Mississippi, and is distributed 
east, and especially west of that river; but this 
rource can not be depended upon indefinitely. 
Indeed, it is said "the cream of the northern 
forests has already been taken." From our own 
observation in a recent journey to the Rocky 
Mountains, we believe it is practicable to profit- 
ably produce on the prairies themselves all the 
timber that will be needed. And if set about 
at once, it can be done by the time the present 
available supply will be exhausted. "We pur- 
pose to agitate this subject, and to call out the 
best practical information. "While in Central 
Iowa, we engaged the aid of a special corres- 
pondent, whose experiments and opportunities 
for observation enable him to furnish relia- 
ble information, and his first article i3 given 
below. He will probably visit other portions 
of the prairie regions, as he has already done, 
to make investigations, and report not only upon 
Timber, upon Fencing aud Hedging, and upon 
Fruit Growing, but upon crops and prairie farm- 
ing generally. In the meantime, we solicit the 
views, experiences, aud observations, of other 
practical men, actual cultivators on Wosteni 
Prairies.— Eds.] 
Tree Culture, for timber, for fruit, for fencing 
or hedging, and for shade or windbreak, is one 
of the most importaut subjects now engaging 
the attention of our Western farmers. I will 
speak in this article of Trees for Timber. Two 
objects are to be kept in view in selecting trees 
— first, the kind of product desired for mechani- 
cal purposes; aud second, the usefulness of the 
trees while growing— in ameliorating the rigor 
of our winters, the breaking-up of our sweep- 
ing wind currents, and thus creating a greater 
uniformity of temperature and moisture, and 
promoting health and comfort. The second 
consideration is hardly inferior to the first. 
What trees, adapted to our soil aud climate, 
will best secure these two ends ? Practical men 
differ widely, even in the same locality. I give 
the result of my own experience and observation. 
The White or Gray Willow — the ill-used, the 
much-abused willow — deserves a first mention. 
No other tree is so easily propagated ; no other 
grows so rapidly; and no other deciduous or 
leaf-shedding tree forms so perfect a windbreak. 
There is scarcely a rod of ground in Iowa, if in 
any oilier prairie State, where it can not be suc- 
cessfully grown. It bears abuse admirably, both 
in culture and in print! [Our correspondent has 
not and never has had any interest in selling wil- 
lows. We have seen how well he and his neigh- 
bors grow them fortheirown use. — Eds.] The 
timber, like all other very rapidl} r grown wood, 
is light, but it makes very good summer fuel, 
and is useful for a great variety of other pur- 
poses upon the farm. It should not be planted 
near dwellings, as it is liable to be infested with 
a species of aphis, which sometimes get pos- 
session of the house, and is worse than the bed- 
bug to get rid of.— In a future article upon 
Hedges, I will give my experience with the 
willow, and observations of\t as a Hedge plant, 
both of which are conclusive to me that it will 
make a good fence. 
The Cotton-woocl and White or Soft Maple 
are both valuable trees, though perhaps not so 
in the order I have named them. If necessary 
to give up either, I should hardly know which 
to part with. The Cotton-wood makes a re- 
markably rapid growth, and on account of its 
ability to stand crowding, and ample foliage, it 
is valuable as a windbreak. Like the willow, it 
is easily propagated from "cuttings." It is not 
a desirable door-yard tree, as it is liable to be 
stripped of its foliage by, beetles, which are 
annoying around a house, and the trees become 
bare and unsightly. The comparative value 
of this tree and the White Willow, as timber, is 
about the same. 
The White Maple is in great favor with us, 
though I learned recently that in some parts of 
the State it is being attacked by borers. If this 
is true, it will be a serious objection to it. I 
would like to hear from any locality where this 
is the case. It is hardy and thrifty, free from 
vermin, and just the thing for the road-side or 
the front yard. It is easily propagated from the 
seed, which should be sown as soon as it tolls, 
in mellow soil, and be treated very much like 
corn. And j ust here, farmers of the great West, 
let me entreat you to set out at once, if you have 
not already done so, a row of these trees on the 
road-side, against your premises. Set the fence, 
as the law of Iowa at least allows for such pur- 
poses, six feet into the highway, and plant the 
trees four feet within the fence, so that they 
will stand two feet from the line when the fence 
is no longer needed for their protection. At the 
end of ten years the trees will be invaluable. 
The Box Elder (Negundo) and European 
Larch should both have a place in our grounds. 
The former has not as yet been sufficiqntly test- 
ed for unqualified praise, and the latter, though 
superior for timber, is too slow a grower, and 
too tender to bo recommended for extensive 
cultivation. 
The few of our farmers who plant out groves 
at all make a great mistake in planting only one 
land of tree. AVe should imitate nature here, 
and have jnpre variety. White Elm, Linden, 
Black, and White Walnut, Black Cherry, and a 
few hardy Evergreens, such as Spruce, Pine, 
Fir, and Arbor Vita?, should all have a place, 
not only as a matter of utility, but of beauty .- 
Upon the subject of cultivation nothing need 
be said, as every farmer well understands how 
necessary it is to all vegetable growth. 
By an Act of the 12th General Assembly of 
Iowa, every taxpayer who shall plant and suit- 
ably cultivate one or more acres of forest trees 
for timber, shall be exempt from taxation to the 
amount of $100 for each acre, and the Board of 
Supervisors of any County may increase the 
exemption to $500 per acre. The Board may 
also exempt in like manner for every half mile 
of hedge, and every mile of shade-trees. Fi- 
nally, do we of the West sufficiently realize this 
one great want, Trees? — trees for timber — for 
fuel — for shade — for fruit— for fence — for health, 
beauty, profit? Everything else Nature has 
given us in abundance and perfection. She al- 
ways wisely withholds something, leaving some- 
thing for us to do. Instead of covering up her 
beautiful work with rocks and forests, she has 
left it open to the gaze of Heaven, as if proud 
of the work, and kindly permitted us to put our 
trees just where we want them, instead of 
obliging us to hew them out of our way ! Let 
us show our gratitude by completing the job, 
aud put ou the finishing touch right speedily. 
Powesheik Co., Iowa, ) 
October, 1869. \ 
S. 
A Priming; Chisel. 
The use of a heavy chisel in pruning has often 
been advocated in these columns. We give be- 
low a description of one used by Mr. J. S. Need- 
ham, West Peabody, Mass. The drawing is 
one-fourth the real size, which is, including 
socket, 9'| 3 inches long, and from the point to the 
shoulder, 4'la inches. Width across the point, 
2 3 J 4 inches; narrowest part, near the socket, 2'| » 
inches. The cutting edge, which is alike on 
both sides, is beveled back to a distance of 6 | e 
of an inch from the edge. The chisel is '\ „ of 
an inch thick near the shoulder, and tapers 
gradually to a strong point. A somewhat simi- 
lar tool is made in Pennsylvania, and the man- 
ufacturers would do well to place it more prom- 
inently before the public. In a note accom- 
panying his drawing, Mr. Needham says: 
"I find that by standing upon the ground I 
can see much better what limbs ought to be re- 
moved, to preserve the balance of 
the tree, as well as those that are 
soon to interfere and chafe each 
other. I could make but slow prog- 
ress with a long-handled saw ; and 
by using a common chisel a portion 
of the bark ou the stub would be 
started up. This chisel having a 
concave edge, cuts drawing; the 
outer edges entering first, operate 
as a wedge, leaving the dead cut at 
the center, with very little friction. 
By having a handle four or five feet 
long, most of the branches of any 
orchard of less than twenty years 
of age can be reached. By placing 
the chisel drawing-wise, branches 
I s |« inches and less in diameter can 
be cut off by four or five blows with 
a common mallet. The stub is left smooth, 
slightly con vexed in its center, with the bark un- 
broken. The work has a finished look, and is 
done in less than one-fourth the time in which it, 
could be done with a saw. The cost of this chisel, 
made to order (by a pattern), was one dollar." 
