The Union and eastern journal. [volume] (Biddeford [Me.]) 1854-1858, 1857-07-31

8 certainly more generally acknowledged
Q than the sent mental reason. The most
4 unsophisticated eye, and the most cultiya.
I ted, alike recognize the beauty Of this
kind Of ornament. A Western pioneer
: and an habiiue of the Bois de Bouloguc
: hold the same opinion in regard to the
r general race Of great trees, differing only
in regard to details. Every farmer in
|, Lancaster, Massachusetts,, rcjoices in the
majestic clms which make the glory Of
t his village, as much as that refined for.
cigner who could not icsist their fascina-
ton, and who fixed his home, as he has
found his grave, beneath their spreading
branches. A Brookline school-boy feels
the grace of an avenue Of lime-trees rs
truly rs an artist who luxuriates in the
magnifcencc of the "Mall" Of Utrecht
!. or forgets the wife Of Napoleon in the en-.
chantinent Of the entrance to her chateau
|, at Meudon. This scnso of tho beauty Of
trees is anterior to teaching, and resists
quite vigorously the forces which would
cxtirpate it. a Maine lumberman, no
doubt, looks with more satisfaction upon
his felled log than upon the trunk which
he must spare; the crash Of its fall is
more delightful than the rustling Of its
leaves in the upper air; yet no man is a
better demonstrators Of beauty in the out
line and the growth of trees than this
same lumber.man. John Ruskin could
not discourse more eloqucntly about an
Alpine precipice, than this dweller in the
forost about the tall pine, which whistles
and whispers above his winter home.
This sense of beauty Of trees is often,
indeed, very crude, and modified by very
fantastic notions. We know man, for
instance, who can see no beauty in tree
which is not symctrical, and who is ac-
customed to cut off from his trees any
limb, however large, when an accident
has destroyed the corresponding limb.
In this way he has gradually trimmed a
spreading horsc-chestnut, wounded by the
missiles Of boys, till it now resembles an
Egyptian palm, only long stem with a
fe thery tuft at the top. We knows an
other man who abhors trees with pinnate
leaves, and so rejects from his estate ev-
cry kind Of locust and evergreen. We
have already alluded to that perverted
fancy which sees in the ragged populars
only types of extreme ugliness. Not a few
are amazed that any man OF taste can adj
mre the white birch, that mean straggler
along the roadside. One whose idea Of
beauty is squareness and uprightness, will
be offended by any tree which leans out
of his perpendicular. The Connecticut
pedlcr was true to characteristic ncatness
of his native State when he wondered,
looking upon thelive-oaks Of Georgia, gar
nished with their long pendants OF gray
moss, "why the people didn't scrdps their
trees" Parasites and fungous growths
are often enough to destroyal the beauty
of trees to the eye of a gardener; hor-
nets or catcrpillars nest changes grace to
dcfonmity; and the elm branches become
"horrid" when they drop by invisible
threads tie disgusting canker-worms.-t
On the other hand, to some eyes the beau
ty of trees is improved by artificial ap
pendages. Some white-wash the trunks
ior the sake Of ornament; and the bill
sticker in New England village fnds +
the monarch of the public square COM
plctely noble, only when It bears upon
every front the charming announcement
of sheriff's sale, caucus, and a mons
ter caravan.
This consideration Of ornament is, for
tunately, closely joined to the broader
consideration Of profit, to which, ofcourse
all will listen. Here art and interest are
nearly identical, and taste will prove, in
the language of shrewd Jew planter OF
Bethlehem, "remunerative." 1t can be
demonstrated that the best use for the
larger part of the cleared land Of New
England would be to plant forests upon
it. There is except in the rich gardens
close around the cities, no land so profit
able, no land which pays SO good an in
terest on its cost, as woodland. In some
parts Of Massachusetts, man who owns
hundred acres Of pasture is little better
than bankrupt, while he who owns a
hundred acres Of forest is independently
rich. The first mu t pay taxes on what
does not pay for its culture, while the
second can cut off enough to meet the
annual interest, yet have more at the end
,nan at the beginning. We once heard
an eccentric genius maintain that his
woodland, about fifty acres in all, though
he had bought it, and paid for tia good
round sum, some thirty years before, had
in reality never cost him q cent; "for,'
said he, ~ have cut off wood enough to
pay not only the original outlay, but to
meet all the worth OF the money at com.
pound interest, and to cover all charges,
and now have more wood than l found
there at the beginning" 1twas ration.
al logic enough.
We are confident, that, at the present
prices of timber and fuel, the profits Of
woodland to our New England farmers
arc at least three times as great as the
profits Of the land which they cultivate
with so much labor. The experiment Of
planting locusts on Long Island has
proved that lands before considered val.
ueless, may become the most precious
possession Of their owners. Thousands
Of acres now lying waste might, with a
very small outlay, be made to yield very
great returns. The length Of time that
must pass be ore the profit Of these arti-
ticial forests can be tested, undoubtedly
detsrs many from planting them. Very
few men like to make an investment OF
which the returns begin to come only af-
ter twenty or thirty years. But every
Of his land is as sure profit as that which
actually puts cash into his pocket There
seems to be less promise in an acre OF
young locusts than in an acre Of thriving
turnips; but in twenty years the value OF