AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
55 
others , arul knowing the pertinacity with whieh, 
under neglect and even continuous destruction 
they still grow and thrive, we wish simply to hint 
that under a lenient and careful hand they will 
rapidly restore of themselves, the waste and 
slaughter that has been made upon them. We 
can point out scores, possibly hundreds of incipi¬ 
ent groves lately sprung up in spots where the 
original forest was but recently cut away and the 
land devoted, after a thorough clearing, to farm¬ 
ing purposes, hut in a neglected corner post¬ 
poned for a more convenient season—like some 
things of a much graver character—which are 
now covered with a thrifty, close growth of ma¬ 
ples, beeches, oaks, elms, hickories, lindens, 
pines and hemlocks, stretching far above the un¬ 
sightly stumps below them, which only need the 
discriminating aid of the ax and hatchet, to make 
them, in a few years to come, the most ornament¬ 
al, attractive, and valuable places on the whole 
farm, and still they are neglected, or occasionally, 
with a recklessness to us wholly unaccountable, 
are reslashed, piled and burned over with a sav¬ 
age satisfaction wholly incomprehensible to one 
of any taste, or regard, even lor the future value 
of the estate which contains them. We would 
gladly arrest such waste, and give a little of our 
experience to their owners, as well as instruct 
others who would fondly train up their own little 
spots of brushwood into groves of future beauty 
and utility. 
Young woods, protected from the depredations 
of cattle and sheep, grow, on natural soils, with a 
thrift surprising to those who have not watched 
them. For a few years, until they have reached 
eight or ten feet in hight, they should not be dis¬ 
turbed—no matter how thick they may grow. 
They thus get firmly rooted in the soil. The strong¬ 
er and more thrifty among them take a character 
of their own, and acquire a hardihood which will 
send them on, when cared for, with wonderfully 
increased vigor—and such is the time for the 
owner to enter among them for thinning and 
pruning. If they be full of old decaying stumps, 
and tree-tops no matter. They are all the better 
for the young growth. We have tried it for many 
years past, and know how the young roots nestle 
and run under the decayed remains of the old 
wood. Winter is the best season for selecting the 
sturdiest and thriftiest, and plying the ax to the 
remainder. Even now we are at a “ job ” of the 
kind, and nothing gives us a heartier, more grate¬ 
ful pleasure than to look at our day’s work after it 
is done, and see the beautiful young saplings as 
they stand apart out of each others way, soon to 
recommence their strife in shooting up into light 
and shadow, and covering the whole ground with 
a dense mass of shade as before. We have sev¬ 
eral of these little groves which, for near twenty 
years past, we have had in hand, and as often as 
once in four or five years gone through with our 
men, and thinned and pruned them. They were 
“brush” at first; now beautiful young groves and 
forests. We might imagine, on first looking at 
one of them, that nothing is easier than so thin¬ 
ning them out. It is not so. Let us see : 
Deciduous woods, or those which are bare in 
Winter, are of numerous variety, and very mis¬ 
cellaneous in growth, and position. Evergreens 
are les^so, particularly on upland ; yet the decid¬ 
uous varieties more or less intermix with them. 
Among them all, some varieties make better 
growth, or are more valuable as timber trees than 
others. When going into them for thinning pur¬ 
poses, it is important to know which you are to 
select to stand, and which to take out. In a wood 
for general purposes of utility, or for shade and 
ornament only, we would retain all the varieties 
which are useful and of rapid growth. At the first 
thinning, three, four, five or six feet apart is far 
enough, and generally close enough to have them, 
if not over six or eight feet high. Too much 
thinning lets in the sun, dries up the roots in 
Summer, and stunts them The ground should al¬ 
ways he kept shaded, after the leaves are out. It will 
do no harm for a few years to let those which are 
cut away remain on the ground and decay, if you 
have no other use for them ; or, they may be taken 
out altogether. The lower limbs of the remain¬ 
ing ones should be trimmed close to the bodies 
for three, four or five feet from the ground. At 
the second thinning, when twelve, or fifteen feet 
high, they may be thinned to six, eight or ten feet 
apart, depending on whether they are solely for 
woodland purposes or for ornament; at this thin¬ 
ning they should be trimmed up seven or eight 
feet. After this a third thinning may take place 
or not, according to the use intended to be made 
of the groves ; but as their growth is now more 
rapid than ever, as the wood and shades become 
denser the lower limbs will die of themselves, be¬ 
ing deprived of light and sun. Every top is strug¬ 
gling to throw itself upward into the sun above its 
fellow, and each may be left to its own mastery. 
Besides, every one is now of some value, when cut 
away, and the experienced eye of the proprietor 
should guard against the slightest waste, or de¬ 
struction not absolutely necessary. 
If you have “help” in thinning your young 
woods, be very cautious who you employ. A reg¬ 
ular woodsman hates a tree as he does civilization 
of any kind. He regards wood, of whatever kind, 
as made only to be cut and burned. That is his 
idea of *• improvement.” Have no such man about 
you, in such a labor; but rather one who loves 
trees, and has a taste for them, and knows enough 
to destroy only the bad, and spare the good. You 
can soon tell by an hour or two’s work which to 
choose for your labor. If you live where woods 
are not plenty, keep no wild cherries, slippery-elms, 
sassafras or hickories. The first thing you know, 
the two first will be peeled down the trunks for 
their bark ; the next will be dug up for its roots ; 
and the last, as soon as it gets to the size »f your 
leg, some rascally prowler will saw .r cut it 
down m the night , close to the roots, arm take off 
three or four feet from the “ butt ” for an ax helve, 
and leave you to mourn over your beautiful little 
tree, while you might as well try to detect the 
identical hawk which has carried off your favorite 
chicken, as to detect the vagabond who did the 
mischief. The ax helves stolen from you have 
been trucked off, probably, at the first village 
grocery for a jug of whisky, and a plug or two ol 
tobacco ! We have grieved over so many of our 
darling and long cherished young hickories, elms 
and cherries, sacrificed to such vandal outrage 
that we have a thousand times wished in our 
hearts that not another one of either would grow 
on the farm ! Even our white ashes, and white 
oaks are scarcely safe from depredation; but, as 
these are scarcely “ ax helve ” timber, they are 
safe ; while spoke timber, and hoe handles are ol 
less proportionate value, and usually made up by 
honest mechanics who get a living without pilfer¬ 
ing. _ _ 
Large Root Crops. —At the Royal Dublin So¬ 
ciety’s Winter Exhibition of Farm Produce held 
on the 26th of November last, some extraordi¬ 
nary specimens of Turnips, Mangold’s and Sugar- 
Beets were exhibited, many of them being over 
30 pounds each—and averaging from 60 to 80 
tons per acre. The White Sugar Beet is becom¬ 
ing quite a general crop for Winter fodder. 
A beautiful expression is that of the child, who 
defined ice—“ Water gone to sleep.” 
Sea Sand as a Manure 
The value of this article as a dressing for land, 
has not been sufficiently tested in this country. 
In the West of England a calcareous sand from 
the shore is a good deal used by the farmers liv¬ 
ing near tide water, for mixing with their stable 
manure. It is dragged for in Plymouth harbor, in 
three to six fathoms of water, put into large scows 
or harges, and taken up the creeks and rivers 
where it is wanted for use. In Summer, the 
barges frequently run on the sand bank in White 
Sand Bay, at two hours before low water; when 
the tide leaves them, they load, waiting for the 
flood to bring them off. For arable land the sand 
is thought to be best mixed with old earth or ma¬ 
nure collected in the roads , but for pasture, it is 
best mixed with stable muck. The proportion is 
two loads of muck to one of sand. 
The sea teems with animal life, not only fishes, 
but animalculai too small for observation. It is 
not improbable that the sand and mud taken from 
its waters are strongly charged with animal mat¬ 
ter, and that this is one source of their fertilizing 
influence. Sand banks are not unfrequently 
thickly peopled with clams, qualiogs, muscles, 
scollops, and other shell fish. Broken fragments 
of other shells, are intimately mingled with the 
sand, and form a considerable part of its bulk 
Both lime and animal matter must exist in these 
clam banks, to a considerable extent, and would 
form good material for the compost heap, or for 
top dressing clay, or muck lands. 
A single instance of the use of sea sand, for 
dressing has come under our observation. A 
gentleman in one of our seaports had access to 
sand removed by a steam dredging machine from 
the harbor, for the purpose of deepening the chan¬ 
nel He carted several hundred loads upon a 
part of Ins garden, covering it two or three inch¬ 
es thick, and mixing it thoroughly with the soil. 
The result of the dressing was a great increase 
in its fertility. The yield of carrots, cabbage, 
squashes, and other vegetables, was enormous ; 
and the pear trees, planted in this part ol' the gar¬ 
den, made wood very rapidly and produced the 
finest fruit. 
Rice Culture in California. 
The Stockton Republican announces that a num¬ 
ber of Chinamen familiar with the culture of rice 
at home, have engaged to prepare lands for the 
culture of tills cereal in that vicinity, and no 
doubt is expressed but it may be made a profitable 
branch of husbandry on the overflowed lands 
of that country. 
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Farmers of the Old School. — Adam was a 
farmer, while yet in Paradise, and after his fall 
was commanded to earn his bread by the sweat 
of his brow. Job, the honest, upright and patient, 
was a farmer, and his stern endurance has passed 
into a proverb. Socrates was a farmer, and yet 
wedded to his calling, the glory of his immortal 
philosophy. Cincinnatps, was a farmer, and 
one ol the noblest of the Romans. Borns was 
a farmer, and the muse round him ax the piow 
and filled hissoulwith poetry. Washington was 
a farmer, and retired from the highest earthly sta¬ 
tion to enjoy a quiet rural life, and present to 
the world a spectacle of human greatness. One 
of his sayings we keep as a standing motto at the 
head of this journal, where it has stood for the last 
sixteen years. 
A Strange Animal. —A wealthy printer has 
been discovered in India The British Zoologi¬ 
cal Society are making preparations to catch him 
