Dodgeville chronicle. [volume] (Dodgeville, Wis.) 1862-current, 1868-08-28
farm and Household.
DO Forest Trees In Fields ImpOyerish
the Soil?

DO Forest Trees In Fields ImpOyerish
the Soil!
DURING late visit to Northern Wiscon-
sin, we noticed an abundance Of btrr-oak
trees, scattered at intervals through most
ofthe fields that were sown to wheat The
sight was beautiful one, the green,
waving branches of the trees forming the
finest possible contrast with the ripening
grain. The landscape was enchanting, as
compared with the treeless prairies OF ILL
nois. As model for painting, or sub
iect for pastoral poem, we could not but
think that one acre of this red clay land
was worth a quarter-section OF our prairie
soil, black with vegetable mould. We
stopped our horse ON every hilltop to adj
mire a prospect more beautiful than any
afforded by the grandest city. We called
to mind all the testimony that 81 false wit
nesses are prone to produce against al
lowing forest trees to stand on ground
which is cultivated for annual crops, par
ticularly when it is to be gone over with a
reaping machine We imagined every
tree which we saw before US as liable at
any moment to be tried for its life, and, If
condemned, to be speedily executed by
beheading. We tried to prepare ourselves
to say something in defence OF the inDo-
cence of these monarchs of the soil, IN
case they should be brought to trial on the
grave charge of impoverishing the soil on
which they stood, and thus making it less
productive for grains, which are essential
for the sustenance of man. We knew
that we were preiudiced in favor of trees
as things of beauty, and as homes for song
birds and so we prepared ourselves to
meet the naked question, "Do trees i'm
poverish the soil ?" We answered this
question of our own asking, with an
emphatic no! and gave our mental rea-
sons for such decision somewhat IN this
wise: Trees appear to rob the soil for the
production of their trunks, leaves and
acorns of the very substance that are
necessary for the growth OF the stalks,
leaves and kernels of wheat but in reall-
ty, they do so to limited extend only, as
the constitution of the tree and wheat
plant are, in many respects, quite disslml-
lar so that they may safely be grown to-
gether, each taking from the soil only such
substances as are wanted for its peculiar
growth.
Again, the roots of the tree and grain
hardly come into competition in relation
to the occupancy of the same portions of
IL,
as many feet into the ground as the roots
of the grain do inches. Now let us see
how this beautiful arrangement works to
fertilize instead of impoverish the soil.
We all know that potash, soda, lime, and,
in fact, all the mineral salts of use in
plants, are soluble in water, and are con-
sequently prone to be carried down into
the soil to distance far below that reach
ed by the roots of grain. But the roots
of the forest oak penetrate far into this
sub stratum of earth, collect these mineral
substances, conduct them to the trunk of
the tree, whence they find their way to the
branches, and are finally lodged in the
leaves These leaves, after being of SER
vice during the summer, fall when winter
comes, depositing on the surface of the
soil, where they will be Of immediate use
to the grain, all the rich mineral matter
that has been brought up from the depth
of the subsoil below. Here is an opera
ton performed by the roots of trees that
would puzzle the ingenuity of man.
But not all the sustenance of plants
comes from the soil. Most of the mate
rails for plant growth are afforded by the
air. The great mass of all vegetable is
carbon, and this carbon comes from car
bonic acid Now, as the roots of the tree
penetrate deeper into the soil than the
roots of the wheat plant, and consequently
take up substances which the wheat roots
would never be able to abstract from the
ground, so, too, the branches of the tree
penetrate further into the air, and reach
supplies of carbonic acid that are far
above the reach of our common grain.
Thus the carbon of the tree is formed, like
its mineral salts, from substances which
are beyond the reach of the bending stalks
or the diminutive roots of wheat.
This carbon, taken at such distance
from the surface of the earth, is brought
down at every leaf fall.
1t is possible that Immediately under the
branches of thick growing trees, there
may be diminution of the growth Of
grain; but even if this is the case, it will
be more than compensated for by an addi-
tional yield in other parts of the field
over which the leaves have been scat
tered That trees do, in the manner we
have described, increase the general fer
tility of the land, is obvious from the fact
that portions Of land in Scotland and other
old countries in Europe, which had be-
come unproductive by frequent cropping,
have regained their fertility after being
planted a few years with quick growing,
deciduous trees.-Prdir6e Farmer.