1872.] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
419 
cial pastures (they would not' repay the cost), 
only that such fields as are susceptible of pro¬ 
fitable subjection should not be left wild. 
How nearly natural pastures may be made 
equal to artificial ones by the use of the harrow 
and liberal top-dressings is a proposition not 
considered above. The cost would generally be 
less than that of reseeding, and the result 
equally good. In any case, no pasture—old or 
new—should ever be over-stocked. 
j 
Our Forests. 
What we are to do for wood and timber in 
the next generation is becoming a very serious 
question. It is estimated that eight millions of 
acres are stripped of their forests every year to 
supply the wants of our present population. If 
these eight millions were left to grow up to 
wood again, or if as large a territory were planted 
every year, the fall of the forests would excite 
no alarm. But this is not the case. There is 
absolutely no system in our preservation of for¬ 
ests, and almost every land-owner follows the 
impulse of immediate profit. A very large pro¬ 
portion of our farming population use wood for 
fuel, and the destruction of forests from this 
source is immense. On almost every cultivated 
farm the breadth of forest is steadily waning. 
If there be any exception to this rule it is in the 
older. States, where the agricultural population 
does not increase. Our railroads consume large 
quantities for fuel, and the draft for ties is very 
large. Every mile of railroad calls for two 
thousand ties, and these do not last more than 
seven or eight years. One only needs to visit 
the lumber regions in any of the States to com¬ 
prehend the rapid disappearance of forests from 
those large tracts put down in the census returns 
as uncultivated lands. The steady advance in 
the price of lumber in all the older States is 
probably the best measure we have of the ex¬ 
tent of the evil. Concerning the influence of 
this destruction of the forests upon the rainfall 
and the climate there is much discussion and 
some difference of opinion. There can be no 
doubt that climate is softened by the shelter 
Which woodlands afford. A belt of evergreens 
inclosing a garden in any of our Northern 
States will virtually remove it three hundred 
miles south. The ground is not frozen so deep 
in winter, the snow disappears earlier, and fruits 
and flowers can be grown with certainty that 
can not be raised outside. The advantages of 
shelter are conceded by our best cultivators. 
The rainfall may or may not be increased by 
the forests. It is conceded by all that the rain 
which does come is more evenly distributed, 
and that there is much less liability of damage 
from floods or drouth. It is pretty well settled 
in European countries that the welfare of the 
farming interest demands that at least one fifth 
of the whole surface of a country should be 
kept in forest. More crops, and of better qual¬ 
ity, can be drawn from four fifths of the land 
with this protection than from the whole 
without it. 
In the prairie States something has been done 
from necessity to meet the want of fuel and of 
shelter. Wood grows with great rapidity, and 
plantations only six or eight years old yield 
Steady supplies of fencing and fuel. Illinois has 
much more wood than when the State was first 
settled, and belts of timber are rapidly increas¬ 
ing. This is true of the States further west. 
Kansas, with a wise forecast, has begun to legis¬ 
late for this interest, and offers special privileges 
to all those who will plant trees for ten years to 
come. California has just appointed a State 
Arboriculturist at a salary of $15,000 per an¬ 
num. The Kansas Pacific Railroad employs an 
industrial agent, who devotes special attention 
to the planting of various kinds of trees on that 
part of the road which has been known as the 
Great American Desert, and where it was for¬ 
merly supposed neither farm crops nor trees 
would grow. The experiments of R. S. Elliott 
are so encouraging, that there is little doubt, of 
the capacity of the soil and climate to grow 
timber in all this region. The care of our 
forests demands immediate attention in all the 
States. Eventually we shall have to come to 
the European system, and have commissioners 
appointed by the legislatures who shall have 
power to regulate the cutting of forests, and to 
encourage plantations in districts where there is 
not sufficient shelter. It would be better indeed 
if the end could be accomplished by private en¬ 
terprise, but thus far nothing has been done to 
correct the evil. There are large tracts in 
almost every township in the older States turned 
out to pasture that do not pay the taxes laid 
upon them. The public good, as well as the 
interest of the owners, requires that these tracts 
should be planted with forest trees. 
... . - O 4-■ » 9m . 
Fish-Scrap or Guano. 
We have received from a correspondent the 
following questions touching fish-scrap: 
1. AVhat is the quantity of fish-scrap obtain¬ 
able ? 
2. What is the cost of the article ? 
3. AVhat is the loss of weight in drying? 
4. Cost of manipulation? 
5. Cost of freight ? 
6. What is the market price of the manufac¬ 
tured article ? 
As these questions interest all farmers who 
buy fertilizers, we answer them. 
1. The quantity of fish-scrap turned out from 
the fisli-oil factories is not far from 30,000 tons, 
annually. The business is prosecuted from the 
capes of Virginia to the coast of Maine. A 
great improvement has taken place in the pro¬ 
cess of manufacture within the last twenty 
years. The principal fish captured are the 
Alosa menhaden , known among the fishermen 
as the Bony Fish, AVhite Fish, and Menhaden. 
They swarm all along our coast from April 
until October, and are taken in greatest numbers 
in the bays and estuaries of our large livers. 
They are mostly taken at a distance from the 
shore, in large purse-nets. They are loaded into 
boats, and carried immediately to the factories, 
cooked by steam in large vessels, put into 
hydraulic presses, which squeeze out the oil and 
water, and leave the scrap-cake quite dry, though 
it still contains a large percentage of water. It is 
used by farmers in the immediate vicinity of the 
oil works in this crude state, either taken in 
bulk or bagged and barreled. The great ob¬ 
jection to its use at distant points is the cost of 
transportation, and its offensive smell. Various 
devices are resorted to, to meet these objections. 
The scrap is sometimes treated with sulphuric 
acid, or mixed with dried peat or with plaster. 
But this makes a manure of uncertain value, 
and the farmer does not know just what lie is 
buying. The great desideratum is some econom¬ 
ical process of drying and pulverizing, by which 
we can have a concentrated fertilizer of uniform 
value, that can be used in drills, or sown broad¬ 
cast, evenly, over the land. Several claim to 
have found this process, and are about to put 
the article upon the market. AVe presume it 
will soon be advertised. AVe have no doubt a 
fine dust can be made from fish-scrap, worth 
at least two thirds as much as Peruvian guano, 
by analysis, and which can very likely be sold 
for forty to forty-five dollars per ton. 
2. The cost of the raw material varies with 
the abundance of fish, and the demand for con¬ 
centrated fertilizers. Three years ago fish-scrap 
was selling at $25 per ton, because there was 
a great demand for it by the manufacturers of 
superphosphate of lime. There was so much 
adulteration and cheating in this article, that 
fish-scrap has been declining for the last two 
years, and can now be bought at the factories 
for about $10 per ton. 3. The loss in drying 
should be about 40 per cent, if the fish have 
been subjected to powerful pressure. It will 
lose nearly this, dried upon a platform in the 
summer sun. 4. The cost of manipulation will 
depend upon the process used. The cheapest 
we know of, costs about five dollars a ton for 
the dry article. Of course every inventor thinks 
his own machine the most economical. 5. The 
freight on the raw material is of the lowest class, 
as the factories arc all upon tide-water, and sail- 
vessels can be used. The manufactured article 
is inodorous, or nearly so, and can be put up in 
bags or barrels, and shipped at the same cost 
as other articles. 6. The market price of the 
fish-dust must depend mainly upon the amount 
of ammonia, phosphoric acid, and potash it 
contains. Farmers want a good article, and 
are willing to pay a fair price for it. 
Jerusalem Artichokes. —Mr.AV. L. Ileuser, 
of New York, noticing the statement in a recent 
Ogden Farm Paper concerning the difficulty of 
eradicating the roots of this plant from a soil on 
which it has been grown as a crop, states that 
the following plan is adopted in Germany, where 
the plant is cultivated over considerable tracls; 
it has its place in rotation before winter grain. 
After the crop has been removed, sheep are 
tethered on the land with long ropes (or turned 
loose if there are fences). The} 7 eat off the 
young sprouts as fast as they appear, and the' 
plant dies for want of the support which it can 
only receive from leaves. By the time the 
summer-fallow is to be broken up for the grain 
the artichokes will have disappeared. 
The Thanksgiving - Turkey. 
Some one has said that our national bird is 
not the Eagle, but the Turkey. This present 
month of November brings Thanksgiving-day, 
and the most interesting period of the turkey’s 
life—its death. Thanksgiving has become a 
national holiday, and what is Thanksgiving 
without turkey ? It must be a poor family, in¬ 
deed, that does not find a turkey on its dinner- 
table. The general demand for turkeys on this 
holiday is anticipated by the breeders, who late 
in October begin to fatten for the market. The 
best turkeys that come to the markets of New 
York and other Eastern cities are raised along 
the shores of Connecticut and Rhode Island, 
where the returns from the turkey flo.ck form no 
small part of a farmer’s income. The great bulk 
of the fowls sold in New York comes from the 
AVest, where not so much pains is taken in 
fattening as in the localities referred to, and on 
account of the long travel the birds do not come 
to market in such good order (especially if the 
weather is mild) as do those raised near at hand. 
