Lewistown gazette. [volume] (Lewistown, Pa.) 1843-1944, 1857-03-12
a9rtruIt.tral, sc.
PRESERVATION OF FORESTS.

PRESERVATION OF fOhEo ..
Where will coming generations get their
supplies of timber! How they will la
ment the bleak and naked hills, and cry
out against us for despoiling them of their
chief beauty, and leaving behind us. few
or no traces of our forest scenery, except
in the painted landscapes IN our parIors!
IF our forests are so valuable now for tim
Der and fuel, will they not be still more so
in the next generation! Then why strip
them off so remorseessly? Rather let
them be hus5anded. Tet them be thinned
out, but not utterly demolished. care
ful calculation shows that sixty thousand
acres of pine wood are cut every year in
the State of New York, and that at this
rate, in the year 1875, these trees will have
disappeared from this part of the country.
1t is said, also, that "the produce Of titled
lands carried TO tide-water by the Erie
canal. in one year amounted to Ss,l70,0O0
worth of property; that of farm stock for
the same year is given at So ,230, 900; that
Of the forests, in lumber, slaves, &c. at
S4,770,000. Thus the forest yielded more
than the stock, and more than half as
much as the farm lands" Shall we, then,
utterly and forever exhaust this source Of
comfort and wealth! Let US beware, lest
we kill the goose which lays such golden
eggs!
Fores. trees should be preserved, also,
for their beneficial influence upon the eli
male. 1t is universally conceded that the
winters of the northern States are colder
now than they were thirty or forty years
ago; and that the weather generally is more
windy, fiuctualing and disagreeabe. We
have greater extremes of heat and cold,
and severer droughts. Peaches once grew
in abundance throughout central New
York; now, it is almost impossible to raise
them. The wheat and some other crops
are more uncertain. These things are as
cribable, not SO much 10 any deterioration
of the soil, as to the destruction of our
forests. Formerly, our farms had belts of
wood land, which broke The force of the
winter and spring winds; our hill tops
were covered with baualions of trees
which defended the slopes and wales. The
snow was not blown off from the tender
grain crops in winter, nor were the fields
laid bare to the bightng winds of early
spring.
One of the greatest drawbacks to farm
life on the western Prairies is the absence
of forest trees. Wood for lumber and
fuel is scarce, and houses and lands are
exposed 10 the rake of merciless winds in
winter and spring. Almost every mail
brings accounts of extreme suffering at The
West, on the open prairies. TO make
those lands a paradise for the farmer, they
need nothing so much as the kindly shell
Ter of wood lands.
In conclusion. we earnestly plead with
lNe FARMER IOF more cOnsluerdte use OF
his woods. Remove old trees, but touch
the young with sparlng hand. Clear up
your valleys, but do not strip bare the hill
tops. Leave groups and single trees here
and there in your pastures, both for the
comfort of your tiocks and herds and for
the beauty Of The landscape. Plant belts
along the north and west lines of your
grain fields and your houses. For purpo-
ses of shelter evergreens are best; but
mingle with these such rapid growing
trees as the larch; scarlet-howered maple,
Dutch elm, bass wood and yellow locust.
The time is coming when they who exert
themselves to save the remnant of our
noble woodlands, will be considered wise
men and public benefactors.-.7mericQn
.4griculturist, February.