EPt 2 
fectly packed. No soil adhered to the roots. 
—Eds.] 
The editor is too modest about the Rural 
Grounds and Farm. I hope Mr. Valentine 
and his able assistants may do much for agri¬ 
culture ; hut the Rural establishments have 
achievements already to record, and great 
ones too. What experimental farm any¬ 
where has shown what can be done in corn- 
growing in the sandy Atlantic coast lands 
to compare with the Rural Firm * It was a 
44 big thing,” and so big that jealous rivals 
dared not do it justice, or even allude to it. 
Nevertheless, the facts are there. 
Rural of July 29 —It is good to speak well 
for the beautiful Devonshire cattle. Beautiful 
and good, and yet they never “boom." The 
general use of hordes obscures their merits as 
draft beasts; the Jersey supplants them at 
the dairy ; and the Shorthorn takes their 
place in the shambles. And yet, for a gen¬ 
eral-purpose breed where is their equal ? My 
grandfather was a breeder of them in Maine 
more than forty years ago; and in that State 
they were long very popular, and especially 
in de and as draft cattle in the lumbering 
business. They were better than the average 
common cows for milk, and far superior for 
butter. Indeed, some careful breeding in 
that direction is all that is needed to place 
the Devon alongside of the Jersey as a choice 
butter cow', and bow much to he preferred for 
every other purpose! There is a job for some 
enterprising young farmer with brains and 
patience to wait for sure, if slow-coming, f ine. 
Selection will do it. I would be shy of out- 
crosses here, though they might be cautiously 
tried with the Guernseys. 
Mr. Brown’s article on sow ing and market¬ 
ing turnips is interesting. It recalls a chance 
strike of my owu thirty years ago when 
farming on the Ohio River. I sowed four 
acres of turnips after early potatoes, and got 
nearly 2,000 bushels. I was actually seared 
at the crop, but pitted them in the field, ex¬ 
actly aB Mr. Brown directs, and had the luck, 
in January, to sell the whole to a Chicago 
buyer for $700, which seemed almost as good 
as a gift of so much money. But I have 
since found that a big crop is 
easier sold than a little one. 
The Bidwell Strawberry 
does not promise well with 
me. It is hardy and wintered 
well, but like so many of the 
highly bepuffed new sorts, it 
is not going to color well 
over the ends in my soil. This 
is a fatal defect in any mar¬ 
ket berry'. The Glendale is 
not productive enough, end 
is as coarse in berry as in 
plant. The other notes in 
Mr. Hendrick’s article are 
valuable. It bas been ,4 nip- 
and tuck" with me, too, 
fighting currant worms this 
year, four separate applica¬ 
tions of hellebore being re¬ 
quired; but I lay this to the 
great adulterations practiced 
in that article. When I can 
have pure hellebore one thor¬ 
ough application made at 
blossoming time remains on 
the hairy leaves, and is ready 
for the worms all Surmner 
1 would far rather pry tl 
a pound for got d hellebore 
than to have a poor article 
free. 
Prof. Atwater’s report I 
am glad to see liberally 
copied in the Rural. The professor is 
a young Vermonter whom we old ones 
take the liberty of feeling much pride in, and 
look forward to a long career of usefulness 
for him. The field experiments he has con¬ 
ducted, though open to some criticism, have 
been useful in showing the moderate limits of 
profit in the application of nitrogenous ier- 
tilizers, especially for Indiuu corn, i long 
ago discovered that the heavy, dark greeu 
color of corn foliage seen where manure rich 
in nitrates is applied, is by no means a sure 
indication of a proportionally heavy crop of 
ears. When med for green feeding of cows 
the greener the corn is the better the cows 
like it; but the earing is certainly not up to 
expectation on such corn, it is w'ortii a great 
deal to know how little of so costly a fer¬ 
tilizer we can get along w'ith and realiz > a 
profit on. 
The Michigan College report on ensilage is 
also a valuable contribution to agricultural 
science. That ensilage would profitably re¬ 
place roots in our hot and dry climate was 
an opinion expressed by me in the Rural at 
the first, and from that point of view 1 have 
urged the trial of it in all dairy sections. The 
exaggerations of Bailey and others have not 
been able to obscure the real use of this 
method of wintering green fodder. That it is 
worth four times its cost, as Prof. Johnson 
declares, is a perfectly fair statement, and 
one that careful farmers may 41 tie to.” 
Orleans Co., Vt. 
£arw (Jjaniomi). 
TILE DRAINAGE.—No. I. 
W. I. CHAMRERLAIN. 
I owe an apology for delay, both to the 
Rural and to the writer of the following 
note referred to me for answer by the Rural. 
“Crisman, Ind, June 19, 1882. 
1. Wou’d the Rural advise tile drainage 
on black sandy soil that is cold And wet, the 
soil being about two feet deep with quick-sand 
and clay below? 
2. What size should the tile be for a fall of 
one foot per 200 yards? 
3. Would the frost injure the tiles if not put 
in very deep? 
4. Would the sand get in so as to stop them 
up?” 
This letter was imm°diatriy referred to me 
by the Rural, with a request that I should 
answer it; and that I should not simply 
answer its specific questions, but should write 
a series of articles, ns many and as full as need 
be to cover the whole subject of drainage. 
Also that the articles should be as little as 
possible technical and merely scientific, and 
just as definite and practical as possible. 
Of course, I “meant to do it” and to begin 
rightaway; but the great pressure of other 
duties deferred it till to day , when I received 
this very courteous nudge from the Editor-in- 
chief. “Would you kindly begin the articles 
now? I hope you can, though I know you 
must be a wonderfully busy man." 
This much of a personal nature is given to 
show that the Rural and not I i» responsible 
for my undertaking to write the articles at all, 
but that I and not the Rural am to blame 
for not beginning them some weeks ago. 
Let me first answer the questions by num¬ 
ber, and then give an outline of the plan or 
order of the proposed articles. 
1st. If the soil is naturally fertile, and is 
unproductive simp’y because, it is cold and 
wet, and it local prices of land and of the 
products of the 3oil warrant it, and you can 
aff ord it, then by all means drain it. 
2d. The size of tile to use depends on many 
circumstances; the area to be drained, the 
number of laterals to be received, the amount 
of fall, etc. etc., and the question will be 
treated in the series of articles to follow In 
brief; on land so level even the laterals should 
be not less thau three inches in diameter, aud 
the mains from four to ten inches according 
to amount of water to be carried. An approx¬ 
imate rule to find bow much land a given 
sized tile should drain is this: Square the 
diameter of the tile and divide by four. 
But for very level land the tile should be 
larger than the rule, and for that with quite 
a slope they might be somewhat smaller. 
3d. Don’t risk frost by laying the tiles too 
shallow. Three feet is for several reasons the 
minimum depth for the kind of land you 
sp 1 ak of at that depth frost will do no harm. 
4th. Would the sand get in so as to stop the 
tiles? Yes and no. Yes, in quicksand unless 
special effort Is made to secure the joints from 
its entrance. No, if the tiles are bedded in 
clay and properly laid. If the black sand 
soil is two feet deep and the sub-soil is clay, 
this gives a foot of clay to cover the tiles, and 
if it is properly packed or “tamped” above 
the tiles so that the w’ater shall pass up from 
beneath to enter the tiles and never work 
channels directly down from above, then the 
sand will not work in. If the sub-soil is 
quicksand in places, the drainage then is quite 
complicated and requires special explanation 
in the articles that are to follow. 
Those articles will sub divide the subject 
somewhat thus: 
1. 44 Why to Drain,” or the philosophy of 
drainage. Warranted not to be “too scien¬ 
tific.” 
2. “When to Drain,” or the best times of 
year, best mode of preparing the land, etc. 
3. “ Where to Drain,” or what lands will it 
pay to drain and under what circumstances. 
4. -‘How to Drai i.” This will require 
several articles and will consider materials 
tools, methods, etc. 
5. “ Difficulties to be Overcome.” This will 
include stoppage of drams from sand, muck, 
silt, roots, rats, crabs or crawfish, frogs, etc. 
etc., and means of preventing it. 
During the publication of the articles I 
shall be glad to have specific cases of difficulty 
stated to me by letter; and so far as my ex¬ 
perience or even observation aud reading 
euabls me I will answer them. The articles 
will be illustrated by cuts and diagrams 
wherever they will make the matter plainer; 
never simply for the sake of “making a 
picture.” 
^rborintUitrxil. 
FORESTRY.—No 17. 
DR. JOHN A. WARDER. 
PART II. 
Conservation. 
Col. Pearson's Lectures on the Natural 
Method in England. French Forestry. The 
German System in Mixed Forests. Nature 
verjunyend. Mother or Seed trees. Some 
Kinds do Best when Nursery grown and 
Transplanted. 
Supplementary planting has been refeired 
to and may need again to be mentioned. 
Whenever and wherever the litte trees have 
died out or have failed to make their appear¬ 
ance, the careful forester will supply the defi¬ 
ciency by planting others or by sowing seed. 
The crop must be full—a perfect stand should 
be maintained. So, also, where there is super¬ 
abundance, so that the trees crowd one an¬ 
other, they must be thinned, but this should 
lie done very gradually and the work is best 
effected by slashing down the weaker plants 
aud those of worthless species leaving the 
debris upbn the surface. Do not permit the 
digging up of the trees, which would always 
take the best ones, as this will injure the roots 
of those which are left, but preserve the most 
thrifty and cut out the weaker plants. 
A kind of mixed forestry is very umeh 
lauded by some of the teachers in Ger¬ 
many, and is practiced considerably in 
parts of Austria where enlightened for¬ 
estry prevails, in which a constant repro¬ 
duction of the plants is aimed at, so that each w 
acre shall possess plants of all ages, from the 
yearling to the centenarian beech or oak; 
but in constantly decreasing proportions, 
from the youngest to the oldest trees. In Ger¬ 
man this is called Nafcnr-verjungend. In this, 
when once established, there is a constant suc¬ 
cession of trees coming on. just as there should 
be from natural seeding, and a continuous an¬ 
nual draft may be made of the products of the 
woodland without depreciating its value. 
Care is taken for the seed-trees, aud when one 
of the mouarchs is removed, thus admitting 
light and air, a new crop of plauts is devel¬ 
oped to keep up the supply. 
This system has also been introduced into 
France, and no little discussion has recently 
arisen among the sturdy Scotch foresters, 
caused by the lecture of Mr. G F. Pearson 
and the report of Mr, Boppe, a Commissioner 
from France who has been to see the British 
foreRts. The former was educated in the 
Forest School at Nancy, and is fully imbued 
with the advantages of what he calls the Nat¬ 
ural System of Forestry, to which, however, 
some of the practical workers on the noble 
plantations of North Britain are disposed to 
take exceptions—partly, however, because it 
possesses a foreign flavor which is not to 
their relish. 
“ In England, and especially in Scotland, be 
says, “we have woods, sometimes of consid¬ 
erable extent, but they are almost without 
exception plantations in which the trees are 
planted and cut down when they have attained 
the size at which they are m st advanta¬ 
geously disposed of, the ground being re¬ 
planted or otherwise utilized. But the con¬ 
servation of woodlands in a state of forest, 
and their reproduction by the natural process 
of self-seeding, so as to make what could be 
called a natural, self producing forest is hardly 
known. In Germany and France, and more 
recently in Italy, Spain and Russia, the con¬ 
servation and production of timber is of more 
vital importance to the community at large, 
and the science of forestry has consequently 
been more carefully studied than in Great 
Britain, and schools for teaching it have been 
established by the governments of those coun¬ 
tries.” 
This from an Englishman, too ! no wonder 
that an American, fresh from 
the well managed forests o^ 
the continent, incurred the 
displeasure of the islanders 
who wanted him to admire 
the unkempt, unprofitable 
wastes called Epping Forest, 
because lie ventured to sug¬ 
gest some practical plans for 
rendering that extensive com¬ 
mon waste of real benefit to 
the nation that maintains it 
in the unprofitable state of 
the Royal Hunting Grounds 
of past centuries; but now 
the gentleman who has it in 
charge, Mr. McKenzie him¬ 
self admits that this tract of 
nearly 11,000 acres in extent, 
close by the city of London, 
is “as neglected as any In. 
dian or colonial forest can 
be.” With such admission 
we may have hopes that Ep¬ 
ping Forest may be really 
improved as a woodland 
property and at the same 
time retain all its natural 
traits and beauty, 
“ For deciduous forests gen. 
erally, and indeed for all for. 
ests situated in the plains, 
the system known as that of 
‘na’uml reproduction by 
self-seeding and periodical 
thinnings,’ bus been univer¬ 
sally adopted by the French State Forests 
and generally by those of other countries,” 
After developing the planted forest, a id 
judiciously and successively thinning the 
trees until the thousands have been reduced 
to perhaps 130 of Hi inches diameter on an 
acre, and still fewer when they have attained 
larger size, the forester at length “ seeks to 
bring about the reproduction of the woods, . 
. . In the natural forest wheu a tree falls, 
either by age or the action of the wind, a bou¬ 
quet of young seedlings will ba found covering 
the ground in the place where it stood. So 
when the forest is ripe for the operation, but 
before the trees begiu to decay, the forester 
anticipates nature by felling here and there ft 
tree to let in the light, when a similar effect 
is produced. Still later, when the young 
seedlings have gained vigor, cuts down 
some of the old trees to give room and air to 
the young ones, till gradually the old forest is 
entirely removed and a new one constituted 
in its stead." 
Such is the plan reported by Col. Pearson to 
his countrymen, as the forestry of France, at 
least on the plains where deciduous trees are 
produced. In Germany and Austria a very 
similar management is pursued in the mixed 
