March, 
84 THE CULTIVATOR. 
der. The second acre to be manured with fermented or compost¬ 
ed manure, to be applied in any manner the experimenter chooses 
—but a full account of the mode is to be made, and the manner of 
application. Also, an accurate account of the cost of the material 
and its application. 
3d. The three acres are to be planted with com the first year ; 
the second to be sowed with barley or oats ; the third crop to be 
winter grain ; an accurate account of the yield of each crop to be 
kept. 
4th. A full account of the whole management and all the de¬ 
tails respecting the culture and the circumstances affecting the 
crop. 
5th. The several kinds of soil to be particularly described, and 
specimens transmitted to the State Society for analysis before 
commencing the experiment—and also at the conclusion of the 
experiment—discriminating carefully between each acre. 
For the best, $40. 2d best, $30. 3d best, $20. 
N. B. The specimens of soil to be selected for analysis, must be 
taken from the surface in different parts of the acre. Where the 
acre is green sward', the sample must be taken just at the termin¬ 
ation of the roots of the grass. Specimens should also be selected 
from the depth of 7 or eight inches. At all events, immediately 
below the usual depth to which the plow runs. The specimens of 
soil must in no case be mixed ; and should consist of about 1 lb., 
sewed in a cotton bag. 
$20 will be paid at the annual meeting of the society in 1848 to 
the person who will make the most satisfactory agricultural expe¬ 
riment, accuracy and the importance of the experiment to be 
taken into consideration. A full detail of the experiment and its 
results must accompany the application. 
For the best managed entire flock of sheep of not less than 100, to 
be awarded at the annual meeting in 1848. 
Best, $30 2d best, $20 3d best, $10 
The applicant for these premiums will be required to furnish the 
Society with ihe following information, viz : 
1st. The kind and quantity of food and its value. 
2d. The quantity and quality of wool—this to be determined by 
its being submitted to the stapling of some respectable manufac¬ 
turing establishment, whose certificate shall accompany the appli¬ 
cation for the premium. 
3d. The number of the increase. 
4th. Kind of sheep and the number of ewes, wethers and bucks. 
5th. The value of sheep when fattened, and the value of lambs 
for the butcher. 
WOODLANDS. 
Mr. Tucker —There are two objects which actuate 
in the removal of timber from the forest. The first of 
these is to clear lands hitherto unimproved, and render 
them fit for cultivation, while the second is to furnish 
fuel for the necessary purposes of heat, and timber for 
the various uses which the circumstances of life require. 
Where the former object is to be attained, it is desirable 
to perform the operation of cutting over at a season 
when the roots and stumps will be least likely to throw 
up new shoots, and also when decay will be the most 
rapid and effectual, while in the latter case a contrary 
effect is sought for, and a time should be improved 
when reproduction will be likely most effectually to 
ensue. Nature, as if ever mindful of the convenience 
as well as the wants of man, has kindly provided for 
both desideratums, and it is only for us to consult her 
wise arrangements in order to avail ourselves of the 
facilities she offers in order to effect our own purposes. 
And as if more fully to aid in our designs in reg-ard to 
both, she has arranged her plans so as to bring the time 
for our action at a season when other labors do not pre¬ 
sent their most pressing demands. 
The economy of vegetable physiology is a subject 
which may well invite the study of the cultivator of the 
soil. It is one with which most cultivators of the pre¬ 
sent day are somewhat familiar, so that any remarks on 
that point, if our limits would permit, would, perhaps, 
be wholly out of place. It is a fact well known to all 
that there are seasons of the year when the flow of sap 
or blood of plants flows most freely, and the slightest 
wound upon a shrub or tree will cause it to flow 
abundantly. Then we have only to carry the cause fur¬ 
ther and we see a much greater effect. Cut off a tree 
near the ground at these seasons, and this bleeding will 
be manifest at every pore until a fatal exhaustion takes 
place, and death, and its consequent attendant, decay 
ensues. These seasons, as every bod)’ knows, are spring, 
while the freezing and thawing of the ground continues, 
and in autumn, while similar agencies are going for¬ 
ward. These are unquestionably the best times for 
destroying timber lands, and causing root and stump to 
pass quickly away. All who are acquainted with the 
growth of chestnut timber, must know full well its as¬ 
tonishing powers at reproduction by throwing up suck¬ 
ers. We once, in our ignorance, had the presumptive 
folly to cut several trees of this timber, in the freez¬ 
ing and thawing month of March, but no monument of 
this folly now remains. From about twenty bleeding 
stumps produced by the operation, not a single sprout 
ever sprung up to gladden our eyes with the cheering 
assurance that (t there is hope of a tree though it be cut 
down,” and but a very few years went by before every 
vestige of these decaying stumps was gone. This sad 
experiment, be it known, was performed in woodland 
where no cattle, or sheep, or any such things were per¬ 
mitted to graze, consequently the failure was owing 
wholly and entirely to the chopping at an injudicious 
and fatal time. But the evil did not stop here. The 
quality of the timber was depreciated by the operation; 
it was neither so fine in consistency, nor so durable as 
neighboring trees cut at more appropriate seasons. 
Ye who value your timber and your timber lands, we 
say to you, one and all, keep your axes out of them so 
long as the Ides of March hold influence. During this 
sloppy winter month you had better be employed in 
preparing fuel at your doors, and splitting rails on some 
dry bank, from timber previously cut. {S Woodman,” 
if you value your timber land, “ spare that tree,” at all 
times and in all seasons when trees bleed from the 
slightest incision of the axe, or from any other little 
accident which may produce a wound from which the 
sap will flow. 
We have now given what we consider the very worst 
time for cutting timber, with regard to the preservation 
of the woodlot, and have very honestly exposed an act 
of our own folly in proof of it. With equal frankness, 
we offer our experience with regard to the very best 
time for this operation, and this part of the story is soon 
told. December and January are decidedly the best 
months for this part of the farmer’s service and it 
may, in most seasons be continued until the middle 
of February. Beyond this time, your deponent would 
not go, and he would rather keep four or five weeks 
back of it, shuddering , as near as posiible to the win¬ 
ter solstice. It is a fact that all may witness, if 
they will not take our word for it, that the stumps 
where trees are taken off in winter will bleed more or 
less in spring, and further, that the longer they have 
been cut the less the flow of sap will be, a fact owing 
to the circumstance that the longer the pores or ampu¬ 
tated sap vessels have been exposed to the atmosphere, 
and perhaps partly from the influence of frost, the more 
inactive they become, and in consequence the less fa¬ 
cility they offer for the escape of sap. Now it is this 
bleeding that we would stop, and turn all the resources 
of the roots into a new channel, nourishing a new set of 
shoots. Some cheap substance might, undoubtedly, be 
applied to stop it entirely, but farmers do not know 
how to spend time to doctor stumps, though some of 
our medical faculty might, perhaps, be well spared for 
that service. 
But again to our experiment. We have cut chestnut 
trees in December, that gave shoots of a dozen feet the 
next season, while other reproductive trees gave growth 
according to the character of their species in the same 
ratio. 
Next to the dead of winter, June, the sweet month of 
smiling skies and more smiling flowers, offers perhaps, 
the best time for cutting timber. The forests are then 
again taking a temporary rest, and the functions of life 
are comparatively relaxed and inactive. The influence 
of heat too, for though heat is the reverse of cold, its 
effects are in some respects similar, undoubtedly con¬ 
tributes to make the month favorable. 
But here we would say again, keep near the summer 
solstice, for the nearer the better. We have cut timber 
in June and had sprouts start handsomely that season, 
and in the dry season of 1845, we noticed such a fact 
particularly. There is one important consideration to 
be attended to when timber is cut in this month. It 
should be divested of its bark as soon as possible so as 
to give a full exposure of the newly formed cambium to 
