376 
TEST FOR SOUND EGGS.-WEIGHT OF EGGS. 
apology in this matter, and set the American peo¬ 
ple right before you. 
When clearing up the original forests, the trees 
stand tall and thick, and usually without branch¬ 
es to the height of 30, 40, or 50 feet. _ Seldom, if 
ever, are any found which, standing singly or in 
small groups, would be either graceful or ornamen¬ 
tal objects in the landscape, or useful as shade, or 
for timber. When left thus alone, as has oft- 
times been done by those whose taste would gladly 
retain them, denuded as they become of the shade 
of their fallen comrades, dried up in their roots by 
the scorching sun, and deprived of their usual and 
abundant moisture, they soon dwindle and die, and 
within a year or two stand a naked, unsightly monu¬ 
ment of their former grandeur, or cut off from the 
natural support of other trees in the surrounding 
forest, they become the target of tempests, and with 
their tali tops acting as a tremendous lever-power 
upon their roots, are prostrated to the earth, up¬ 
heaving with them large masses of soil which it is 
laborious to replace. Young and thrifty trees, too, 
share the same fate, owing to the sudden change 
their life is subjected to in removing the great body 
of the forest. It is true that occasional exceptions 
are found in an overgrown and enormous elm or 
oak, whose prodigious bulk and strength have long 
overshadowed its inferiors, and which, when left 
alone, will live on and flourish for ages in its ori¬ 
ginal grandeur, and still increase in its beauty and 
size; but in heavy forested land this is seldom the 
case. These are the reasons why so few of the 
magnificent trees which so plentifully abound in 
the thick forests are found in tha open fields of our 
farms, and particularly in the new settled portions 
of the country. 
These remarks, however, will not apply to the 
large tracts of open “ bottoms” that lie on rivers, 
the timbered islands of our prairies, or the beauti¬ 
ful oak and walnut openings of the West and South. 
There nature has been lavish of her bounties, and 
in the grandeur and majesty of her trees no coun¬ 
try can excel it; and often has my admiration been 
excited in gazing at the colossal stature and grace¬ 
ful outline of those forest-monarchs, and my feel¬ 
ings gratified at the good taste of the proprietors 
who had left them thus “ alone in their glory.” In 
general the Americans are a tree-loving people, and 
no one can travel through the old settled portions 
of the United States, without remarking the preva¬ 
lence of shade-trees and the singular beauty of the 
forests ; much greater in their variety and vastly 
richer in their luxuriance than those of Europe, if 
the testimony of its own people can be received. 
What country on earth can exhibit more varied 
and luxuriant shade and ornamented trees than are 
found in the towns and villages of our Northern 
States, or occasionally on the extensive farms and 
plantations of the West and the South ? England is 
a country which has been inhabited by a highly 
civilized race for two thousand years; America 
a little over a tenth part of that time. Her soils 
are owned and occupied by a highly refined and 
luxurious people, who lavish millions in the gratifi¬ 
cation of taste in natural as well as artificial objects 
and in the transmission of their hereditary estates, 
they have cultivated and preserved with pious care, 
those relics of past ages which they were early 
taught to venerate and esteem—while we, the tillers 
as well as owners of our soil,have utility first and 
ornament last in view. 
I should perhaps have taken no exception to your 
remarks on this subject; but as I have often ob¬ 
served those of a like tenor both from foreigners 
and from native Americans, 1 have ventured to put 
the matter right before you. I ought perhaps to 
say, before closing, that until I was experienced in 
the subject,I thought with you; but the practice of 
some years has changed my opinion and convinced 
me that a densely forested country must be first 
thoroughly cleared, and that a second growth must 
succeed before it can be finely ornamented with 
shade trees. Occasionally, to be sure, a huge forest 
tree may be left which will retain its hold in the 
soil, and flourish perhaps for centuries; but such 
instances are rare. When I first commenced 
clearing, I left numerous trees of all sizes, both 
scattered and in groups; but many of them soon 
died by the heat of the sun, and from the want of 
their accustomed moisture; and of those that lived, 
after every heavy wind storm, numbers o.f them 
would blow up at the roots with a mass of unsight¬ 
ly earth attached to them, or wrung and twisted off 
midway in the trunk, remained a riven and splin¬ 
tered stump in the field. My plan is therefore to 
clear the ground thoroughly when the timber 
grows tall and close, and either cultivate shade- 
trees by transplanting, or suffer the vigorous young 
shoots to grow from the stumps of the smaller 
trees, as they often do, and select from them suffi¬ 
cient for all future purposes of shade and orna¬ 
ment. Selected in this way, with the large root 
and abundant sap of the former tree, they grow 
with great rapidity, and in a very few years give 
all the shade and convenience, as well as the 
beauty and utility that is required. 
Nothing,-however, can be more picturesque and 
beautiful than the scattered park-like native 
“ openings” of our western lands or the delightful 
timbered islands of the prairies. More splendid 
and magnificent models of vegetable creation can¬ 
not be found in the world—and then, in proper lo¬ 
calities and numbers, they cannot be too sacredly 
preserved from the axe and the fire. In the pre¬ 
servation of these, I rejoice to say, that many of 
our countrymen have exhibited great good taste, and 
at the same time have had an eye to permanent 
utility. L. F. Allen. 
Black Rock, Nov., 1847. 
Test for Sound Eggs. —The larger end of a 
newly-laid egg feels cold when placed against the 
tongue. A tiewly-laid egg, also, appears semi-! 
transparent when placed between the eye and a 
strong light, and has a small and perceptible divi¬ 
sion of die sk\n from the shell, which division is 
filled with air or gas. If an egg shakes, it is sure 
that it is stale. 
Weight of Eggs.— The average weight of a 
newly-laid egg is about 3& oz.; the white gene¬ 
rally weighs 1| oz.; the yelk 1| oz.; and the shell 
and skin \ oz. 
