AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
^95 
may be sold to those who prefer to plant singly, 
or, if not fit for such purpose, mav be cut closely 
at the root, and used for fuel, or other purposes, 
while the trees which are to remain still go on 
expanding, and throwing out their thrifty roots 
and branches, giving protection to themselves for 
the future. Foi lawn, and park plantations, which 
are chiefly made in clumps, and avenues, the dif¬ 
ference of this thicket process will at once be found 
advantageous in the increased rapidity of their 
growth, besides giving the proprietor an opportu¬ 
nity to rectify any error he may have made in 
calculating the number and proportion of his trees 
which may be demanded at a future day. We 
believe that our American taste is growing in 
favor of denser wood about our pleasure grounds 
than formerly; that wood should he wood, and 
open grounds free from trees at all—grassy, and 
ventilated. A drive through continuous woods 
soon becomes monotonous, and tame, whiie al¬ 
ternating through shade and sun is ever agree¬ 
able. A thousand charming effects are given by 
varied modes of plantation, as in groups, thickets, 
and occasional single trees of stately dimensions 
when at maturity, which are entirely wanting in 
simple avenues, or in a scattered, formal occupa¬ 
tion of the ground. A glance, or study of a well 
situated old farm, long used in pasture, meadow, 
and woodlands, will, in some of its fields where 
trees and open glades have been left only to 
chance to regulate, or supply them with shade, 
frequently furnish a more agreeable sight to the 
eye of taste than the most elaborate painstaking 
in plantations ; and the man of true discrimina¬ 
tion will often take a ragged, out of the way piece 
of territory, more or less extended, and by simp¬ 
ly cutting out the underbrash, and cleaning away 
superfluous trees, leaving the open glades as they 
were, get up a finer park, or lawn in a year or two 
than the most elaborate cultivation at an enor¬ 
mous cost would produce in half a life time. 
Such selections are not often to be found by 
those who seek country life from the city out in 
its immediate neighborhood, we admit; but we 
name such places to illustrate our idea of the pro¬ 
duction of fine, quickly growing woods, at a cheap 
rate. We have several places now in our mind 
which have grown up into beautifully effective 
woods, and landscape, some by chance, others by 
planting, but all under the mutually protecting 
process of thick growth, and shelter. We know 
of one place in particular, of several hundred 
acres, which was rescued some fifteen years ago 
from the vandal hands of a few squatters who 
nad committed all sorts of depredations upon the 
original forests, and had got into cultivation sev¬ 
eral open fields for their crops, leaving the adjoin¬ 
ing woods jagged, half cut out, and destroyed. 
The new proprietor, by cleaning up the rubbish, 
and taking out the superfluous and worthless trees, 
giving the young wood,whether in clumps,thickets, 
or single standards, an opportunity to grow, and 
laying down the open lands to pasture, has made 
a wide stretch of ornamental grounds which many 
of our most costly artificial parks will not com¬ 
pare with. 
But few such opportunities, we admit, are to 
be found by those who seek pleasure grounds, or 
grounds devoted to both pleasure and profit, which 
all country places of any pretension should be ; 
and those who design to make such by doing their 
own planting, should take hints from nature it¬ 
self and direct their efforts by such example. 
The best season forflawn and park planting will, 
in a few weeks, be upon us, and no time should 
be lost in properly preparing the grounds destined 
foi that purpose. There is more time in the Fall 
than in the Spring seasons ; the choice of trees 
can be better made, either in the nursery or the 
forest, and the work better, and more deliberate¬ 
ly done. The trees too, can be smaller for thick 
planting than when set far apart, they are more 
easily taken up, with cheaper carriage, less ex¬ 
pense in planting, and surer to live ; and beyond 
all these, the nurserymen, if you have them to buy, 
will sell them for less price—that is, we have 
always found it so in our own purchases. But, in 
taking up, and planting thousands of young trees ; 
training, thining, and guiding up to vigorous sizes 
thousands of others, and watching all their de¬ 
velopments from their feeblest infancy in to well 
grown maturity and splendor, we feel that our ex¬ 
perience in this line has been worth something— 
to ourselves, at least. 
“Everybody’s Stump Puller ” 
The above engraving was inserted on page 140 
(May number), but a defect in the stereotyping 
gave an imperfect representation of the position 
of the hook upon the stump, and we introduce it 
again in order to make the needed correction, 
and also to present a description of the mode 
of making it, which we have since received 
from Mr. Joseph F. Merritt, of Spring Valley, 
Green Co., O., who sent us the original drawing. 
He calls it “ Everybody’s,” because its sim¬ 
plicity of construction, and its being unpatented, 
enables any one having a blacksmith at hand to 
get one up. He also says it is not his invention, 
as he got the idea from others, and has seen seve¬ 
ral in practical use. We will add, also, that several 
other persons have recently written, endorsing 
its simplicity and utility. We give Mr. Merritt’s 
description : 
The chain and hook should be made of the best 
Swedish iron, and should contain seven links, or 
an odd number, in order to have the hook and ring 
stand at right angles. Swedish Iron being gene¬ 
rally square, it is best to get that which is 11 inches 
square, and then when it is hammered round it 
will be the right size for the links. The ring 
should be left square, except where it works in 
the first link; its diameter, the longest way, 
should be about 12 inches ; the shape of the 
hook is accurately shown in the engraving, with 
the piint turned a little out, so that it will draw 
into the stump. It must be made very heavy in 
the turn—say five inches broad. The lever 
should combine strength with lightness ; seasoned 
sugar maple makes a good one. Let it be 30 feet 
long, with the ring fitted loosely, so that it will 
adjust itself when it is strained upon, and your 
“ Stump Puller ” is complete. Some may think 
the chain is too heavy, but considering the power 
of a 30-foot lever and a good strong yoke of oxen, 
it is none too heavy. Oxen are the best team to 
work with it, and they should have plenty of chain, 
for the chain sometimes slips, and the lever flies 
against their heels. A crowbar is needed to pry 
the hook out, and also to strike it with just as 
it begins to strain. One man and a boy to drive 
can pull a great many stumps in a day with this 
It is not calculated for green stumps, but those o 
four or five years’ standing it will take out witl 
ease. 
----- ► <*- -- 
Tim Banker on the Clergy and Farming. 
Mr. Editor :— I suppose you and the rest of 
the folks have wondered some about Sally’s mar¬ 
rying a minister. It does look a little queer, at 
first sight, that a smart handy young woman, 
that knows all about the duties of the dairy and 
the kitchen, and takes premiums at the fairs, on 
bread and butter, should want to settle in a vil¬ 
lage. It is perhaps just as queer that the smart¬ 
est preacher in the county should want to marry 
a farmer’s daughter. But wedlock is an unac¬ 
countable affair any way you can fix it, and the 
particular attraction, I suppose, is in most cases 
as great a mystery to the interested parties, as 
to people outside. 
But this match, it strikes me is not so much 
“ out of sorts ” as matches in general. Josiah 
Slocum, I guess, knows on which side his bread 
is buttered. It strikes my neighbors variously 
according to their characters. Uncle Jotham 
Sparrowgrass, dropped in the week after the wed¬ 
ding, and says he: 
“ What a fool you have made of yourself, mar¬ 
rying your darter off to that Shadtown parson.” 
“ A thousand pities, she wasso smart!” chimed 
in Seth Twiggs, as he knocked the ashes out of 
his pipe, and looked across the room to Sally’s 
mother, who was busy with the needle. 
K Why, what makes you think sol” inquired 
Mrs. Bunker, lifting the gold bowed spectacles, 
given her by Josiah on her fiftieth birth day. 
“Why,” said uncle Jotham, “did you ever 
know a bookish man that want lazy, and always 
running into all sorts of nonsense. And the clargy 
are ginerally the most moonshiny of all bookish 
people. There was parson Tyler, of Mill Valley, 
over on the Island, when I was a boy, that put up 
a wind mill on top of his corn crib, to turn the 
grind stone, churn butter, and chop the sassage 
meat, and do all kinds of things.” 
“ Yes, and it worked mighty well too,” said 
Seth, who by this time had got his pipe charged 
again. 
“And where, was the folly of using wind power 
instead of elbow grease 1” I asked. 
“ It is a fact, the thing worked well, and saved 
a heap of labor, but it always looked like laziness 
to see a man set still, while the wind turned his 
grind stone.” 
“And the whole neighborhood come in thereto 
grind their axes rainy days, as I remember,” said 
Seth. 
“ How long since you have been to mectin, 
Uncle Jotham, that you have got such notions of 
ministers 1” inquired Mrs. Bunker, rather sharply. 
Jotham Sparrowgrass, sinner that he is, had not 
been inside of a meetin house, on Sunday, in 
twenty years, and it must be confessed was a 
little more offish toward ministers, than he ever 
was toward book farming, and that is a pretty 
strong statement. 
“ That is the way with you wimmin folks,” re¬ 
sponded Uncle Jotham, “always twittin a feller 
upon facts.” 
“ Sally might have done better,” said Twiggs 
as he tipped back his chair and puffed away. 
“You see she ought to have been a farmer’s wife, 
she was so knowing about every thing indoors 
from garret to cellar.” 
“ And she might have done a great deal worse, 
