FOREST AND STREAM. 

341 

ered limbs will come out in all their usual fresh vigor. 
English Ivy will endure a very low degree of cold if 
shaded or snow covered, and many hardy plants of north- 
ern habit will not endure the sun in winter. Transplanted 
hemlocks will often wither above the snow, showing that 
their lessened roots will sustain the exhaustion of cold but 
not of light, and the hardy ground hemlock or yew will 
not afford its superb branches of vivid green for Christmas 
decorations unless gathered where shadowed. Not to mul- 
tiply the instances that are so numerous, there is full and 
abundant proof of the value to the soil and to vegetable 
life of snow covering, and on the roofs of buildings, and 
about their walls it isa great source of warmth by retain- 
ing heat. 
In the spring, even in May, during day after day of 
cloudless sky, a cold dry wind blows that is very painful 
in its parching character. It usually rises about nine or 
ten o’clock, caused beyond doubt by the air of the south 
being heated and rarified by the gaining power of the sun. 
To supply the vacuum thus formed the cold air flows from 
the north and west, bringing a chill from remote ice that 
does a great deal of damage. The young buds, opening in 
response to the warm sun, and the mild morning and eve- 
ning air, are sadly blighted by it; the fruit crops often 
being lost from the blighting chill, and poor humanity 
takes many a parching cold from these spring winds. No 
feature of our climate is more uncomfortable. All growth 
is checked, the ground if exposed to;the sweep of this gale 
dries and cracks like midsummer. At this time the wood- 
land is again a defense. The cold wind is thrown by it 
over many a field lying in lee of the giant forms; while the 
air that steals through the forest gathers moisture, and is 
half disarmed. Fields thus protected will become green 
and afford pasturage many days earlier than exposed land, 
and will save many a ton of costly hay, to say nothing of 
pats of golden butter with a flavor of sunshine in them. 
Let any scoffer at the value of woodland come from a Wind 
swept field on such a day tu a spot that has a northern 
screen of forest, and he will find a changed climate. 
South of an evergreen wood it is delightfu! to bask in the 
welcome sunlight during many days of early and late sum- 
mer, when elsewhere steps are hastened by chills and drear- 
iness. 
A theory has been advanced that vegetable life, like ani- 
mal life, gives out heat, but in a very minute degree. How 
much truth there isin the idea the exhaustive researches 
of scientific men will beyond doubt discover, but a half ac- 
ceptance of the suggestion will force its way to the mind 
of any one who is in deep and unbroken forests in winter, 
for the mere absence of wind will hardly account for the 
sheltered impression one receives, for even in calm days, 
the woodland seems more comfortable than the open. 
Another valuable defense that comes from forests is 
their effect in arresting the flight of weed seeds, which 
either fall as they enter the calm air or are forced into high- 
er currents that bear them beyond to settle on the farm of 
some one who can spare land for weeds, but none for - 
shrubbery. Ingenious indeed, are the manifold means for 
the spread of noxious growth. Did wisdom spread as the 
thistle, corner schoolhouses could withdraw their dreary 
unsheltered forms from view. Could good will to man be- 
come as inherent to the race as the roots of quack grass to 
the soil, how little need to aim pointed sermons; and were 
high aims communicated far and wide with the gentle air 
that wafts the tiny paracbute of the dandelion, the lion 
and the lamb might lie in peace before our new plantations 
could shade their amicable repose; but ah me! it is not so. 
The good that endures seems weighted in the race; good 
seeds do not fly, corn, beans and potatoes sail not on the 
breath of summer to multiply unsown; by the sweat of thy 
brow shalt thou live, and in the days wherein we struggle 
on, let us cherish the woodland that arrests a moiety of 
vagabond seeds to choke them in uncongenial soil and 
shadow, while our plants flourish in the sun; and let us 
wipe the sweat from the brow and rest under a canopy de- 
signed and built by nature in her favoring mood. 
To assuage the noonday thirst, the grove keeps alive 
the spring, and when “‘all signs fail,” and dryness seems 
perpetual, it will gleam and glisten, so long as ignorant 
arms do not cut away the trees that preserve its mossy 
source. And yet in all these favors that are here attrib- 
uted to the shelter, we leave unmentioned the inflnences of 
general Climate, the injury of floods, and the destruction 
of droughts. These are wider subjects, beyond the scope 
and range of mere shelter planting, although as far as this 
is carried on, each step leads onward to the same end as is 
sought in the more important study of forest culture. 
Before going in medias res, to the system and mode of 
shelter planting, let a few thoughts be given to preserving 
the woodlands that a favored few possess, for they are wor- 
thy of all care and protection. 
; The-cutting of wood and timber’ from a ‘* wood lot,” 
can be carried on perpetually, and a valuable annual re- 
turn be derived from it, but it needs more intelligence to 
do it properly than was possessed by him who killed the 
goose and mourned the loss of golden eggs. In Europe, 
the study of forestry is a profession, and not by any means 
an unlearned one. Here we are not able to conduct for- 
ests as yet under any governmental system, but must rely 
on general information. Thanks to many most excellent 
papers that go into the hands of the best land owners, new 
ideas are rapid in extending their value, and many facile 
pens communicate individual experiment and experience 
to the general fund, so that the diversity of ownership and 
management of American woodlands may make out as 
eat results as our countrymen are doing in almost every 
field of progress. 
The first important step in cherishing the woodlands is 
the total exclusion of all domesti¢ animals. Many a man 
wonders and growls because all the large trees in his wood 
are ‘kinder dying out like.” And so they are, very much 
dying out like, and the reason is right on the surface. 
The roots of original forests are ordinarily all on top of the 
ground. In the undisturbed woods they are mulched by 
the leaves of centuries, and kept moist by the mosses that 
are an important feature of the natural woodland. Small un 
dergrowth keeps the leaves from blowing away, and forms a 
barrier against sun and drying winds, and it is this condi- 
tion of things that keeps the large timber in vital growth. 
There is a certain ornamental character in an open piece of 
woodland, and beautiful it is, but it can only be success- 
fully maintained in a second growth grove, or a naturally 
open one, like the park-like oak openings of the west, 
where from early habit the roots}’seek in the deep soil the 
moisture they need. z 
Let cattle into woodland, and unless they have abundant 
feed elsewhere, or their range is very great in proportion 
to their numbers, they will soon bring about a change that 
will kill the timber. The undergrowth will be browsed 
away, the leaves and muck will be trodden from the sur- 
face spreading roots, and the wind will sweep.away the 
dead leaves, and dry the ground until there is nothing but 
a network of roots to stumble over, and they gain but a 
scanty chance to procure the nourishment needed by large 
vigorous trees. The wind gets in with more and more 
force, and with half the supporting roots injured, the mon- 
archs fall one by one, admitting more sunlight and wind, 
and so the destruction iucreases. 
Had a few been discreetly cut each year, and hauled out 
on snow that would save from injury undergrowth and 
roots, the balance would grow and improve, and by cut- 
ting no tree until it reached its final prime, a succession 
would remain that would be of infinite value. A few 
acres of woodland thus managed will forever remain a 
shelter, a beautiful resort, and yield an annual crop, but it 
will not do all that and pasture cattle. 
much, reminding one that it is not worth while to break a 
jar by trying to get out too many preserves in one handful. 
Not far from where your correspondent writes a fine 
field of many acres lies bare and unshaded. The land is 
very valuable and has yielded well for many years, but had 
the original pine been permitted to remain, or carefully 
cut from, it would be now worth probably quite as much 
as the net value of all the crops the land has produced, and 
certainly far more than the land even at the present price. 
Many of the trees would be worth now one hundred dollars 
each, and others still more, and there were a number on 
every acre as the stumps show evidence after many ycars. 
To-day there is not shade enough there for half a dozen cat- 
tle, while the snow that drifts from it keeps men enough 
at work breaking roads to partly cultivate it. 
So much for the old woods and their downfall. We 
now know of their value, and in our next will turn our at- 
tention to replanting for shelter, leaving it for some more 
able pen to tell us about new forests. Some experience in 
making wind screens may justify one more letter_on the 
subject. ; L. W. 1. 
ish Culture. 
THE NEW YORK HATCHING HOUSE. 



HIS institution which is doing so much good in a very 
quiet way is just at present in the height of its busi- 
ness season, and as there areso many who have not the 
slightest idea of either its work or management, I will 
give an account of what [heard and saw in a visit to it, 
‘between trains,” on December 29th. 
The building is placed on piles over Caledonia creek, 
just below an old mill dam, from which it gets its supply 
of water, and is under the immediate supervision of Mr. 
Monroe A. Green, who not only knows how to keep a 
hatching house, but also a hotel, if one may judge by the 
excellent dinner we had in the up stairs kitchen, although 
much of the credit for that may belong to ‘‘Ed.,” the stew- 
art of the establishment. Mr. Green keeps three men to 
clean and hatch spawn, feed fish, &c., and two to travel 
with fish after hatching. Mr. Seth Green, the State super- 
intendent, of course has charge of the whole as well as 
of the parties. taking spawn on the lakes. On this day it 
happened that all hands were present, as Messrs. Mason 
and Welcher had just returned from journeys with the 
| Sacramento salmon, the former had planted his in Cohoc- 
ton creek, a tributary of the Susquehanna, and the latter 
had seeded down the upper Hudson va. Fortville creek, 
near Fort Edward. 
The upper part of the house is devoted to workshop, 
sleeping rooms, kitchen and dining room, and the lower 
floor is almost completely covered with hatching apparatus, 
filters, &c. On the west side are the white-fish boxes, in- 
vented by the late Marcellus Holton; this is a most com- 
pact and perfect arrangement; it consists of a series of 
boxes perhaps eighteen inches or two feet square, (I did 
. not get the measurements), and about two feet deep. Inthe 
bottom of each of these is a frame on which rests a dozen 
or more wire cloth trays which are all raised or lowered to- 
gether by mezns of two upright pieces attached to the 
lower frame. On these trays the white-fish eggs are placed 
and the water flows upward through them by means of a 
pipe at the bottom, and over an opening at the top into 
another pipe which supplies the next box placed a few 
inches lower. The fish after hatching pass through the 
boxes andjare caught in a screened box below. 
It is asking too. 


By means of these boxes a great quantity of fish can be 
hatched in a very small compass; if they are eighteen 
inches square, each tray will hold 11,000 eggs, as they meas- 
ure about sixty-four to the square inch, and twelve trays 
to each box would give it a capacity of 130,000 eggs ina 
space of two square feet. 
The salmon, and salmon trout troughs are about thirty 
feet long, and to economize room the same system of wire 
trays one above the other is vsed, except that the water 
enters the trough as usualat theend. No gravelis required, 
and the eggs are cleaned by removing a tray, and after all 
dead or imperfect ones are picked out, the remainder are 
sprinkled to remove sediment, and the tray that was on 
top takes it place on the bottom, and so on until all are 
cleaned. In times of rain or thaw, when there is a rise in 
the creek, all hands are kept on the jump to keep them 
clean. 
The Sacramento salmon were not only all hatched but 
feeding; they look very large to one accustomed only to 
brook trout. The proper time to introduce such fish is 
just as the sac is almost absorbed, for then they can swim 
nicely, afd the weak ‘ones do not have to struggle for 
existence in an overcrowded hatching trough, but these 
fish appear strong and well, and will probably all be dispos- 
ed of soon. ; 
Of this salmon there have been the following distribu- 
tions made: — 
Allen creek, tributary of the Genesee, 15,000; Fortville 
creek, tributary of the Hudson, 24,000; Beaver creek, tribu- 
tary of the Salmon, 17,000; Cohocton creek, tributary of 
the Susquehanna, 16,000; East Bloomfield creek, tributary 
of the Oswego, 15,000. 
The remainder I believe have been allotted by Prof. 
Baird, to the Mississippi and Ohio. 
There are about 1,200,000 salmon trout, and 1,000,000 
white-fish eggs on hand, some of the latter were just com-> 
mencing to hatch; 85,000 salmon trout eggs have been 
furnished to Pennsylvania, and some to England. 
This replenishing of exhausted waters is a grand idea, 
and can only becarried out on a large scale by a State, and 
one State after another is waking up to the importance 
of it; they begin by appointing a commission to look into 
it, and as they see the results that have been accomplished 
by New York and other States they report favorably and 
commence operations. 
Very few people have an idea of the importance, and the 
amount of capital invested in the inland fisheries of the 
State of New York, or of the number of men who earn a 
livelihood in them. 
The New York hatching house has already done much, 
but it is only a commencement. A million white-fish eggs! 
it sounds good, it is good, but lake Ontario could take a 
hundred million fry, nurse and rear them, and in return 
would give a bountiful harvest to the fisherman and sup- 
ply acheap and wholesome food to the people far and 
near. 
There ought to be no good reason for high prices for fish 
with all the wealth of water within the Empire State, for 
this same water which is now regarded asso much taken 
from the realm of Agriculture can be made to produce, 
acre for acre, five times as many pounds of animal food as 
the best zrazing lands in the State. And I will venture the 
prediction that within five years this building will be greatly 
enlarged, or there will be others like it. 
FRED MATHER. 
—In a most interesting report made on the snbject of 
Fresh Water Fish, furnished by M. E. Chevalier to the 
members of the French Conseil General, the following sur- 
prising statement is made:—That France in fishculture is 
not only indifferent, but displays great ignorance as to the 
methods to be employed. That the quantity of fish in the 
French rivers is diminishing every day, while prices are 
augmenting. M. E. Chevalier shows that every inhabi- 
tant of London consumes annually fifty pounds of fish 
derived from rivers, while the Parisian only eats two 
pounds in the year. The report states that while in the 
Thames, fish preserves are found by the dozen, that on the 
whole course of the Seine, a river peculiarly adapted to fish- 
culture, there are but three. It seems almost incomprehen- 
sible to us, that France the country of Coste, should pay so 
little attention to this most important subject of fishculture. 
Perhaps France theorizes while we in the United States 
carry Coste’s instructions and'lessons into positive practice. 
—— $0 ————————__ 
FOOD FOR HAND-RAISED TROUT. 
eS 
PRACTICAL fish-breeder in Boscobel, Wisconsin, 
sends a few hints on feeding trout, which seem tous 
to deserve attention. The cost of food can hardly be so ex- 
pensive an item in pisciculture as to deter persons from 
going into the business, especially when, fin the summer 
months maggots can be bred by the barrelfull at most in- 
significant cost. The writer mentions, by the way, that he 
uses zinc-lined boxes for' hatching, an original idea with 
him, and which he considers a ‘‘great improvemeut over 
anything I know of, unless it be Brackett’s trays, which I 
have not tried,” and continues :— 
“Does our water here in the west produce so much more 
natural food than yours in the east? or why is it that Norris, 
Green and Slack, in their several works on Trout Culture, 
make the feed of trout such a prominent matter? I feed 
my trout all they will eat of beef livers, which cost me ten 
cents each, and yet they do not cost me a half cent a pound 
for feed. 
Messrs. Dousman & Mann, who have ponds in the east- 
ern part of this State and feed liver and curds, tell me their's 
